Dr Connell to give church views to abortion hearings

The Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Desmond Connell, is to lead a delegation which will present the Catholic Church's views on abortion to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Constitution on Wednesday afternoon.

He will be accompanied by the Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, Dr Laurence Ryan, medico-legal adviser Dr Ciaran Craven, Ms Ann Power, a lecturer in jurisprudence and philosophy, and Father Paul Tighe, a lecturer in moral theology at Dublin's Mater Dei Institute.

Last month it emerged that the committee had been contacted by the Catholic bishops' spokesman, Father Martin Clarke, to find out whether the church was to be invited to make its views known at hearings of the committee.

Father Clarke was preparing a report on the matter for the bishops' summer meeting in Maynooth, which took place over three days from June 12th to 14th. A written submission by the bishops on the issue last November 29th was not acknowledged by the committee nor did it contact the church on the issue before Father Clarke's call.

On May 31st the special status granted to the committee to hold hearings in public expired. By then it had heard the views of medical organisations, the main maternity hospitals and Youth Defence. No one had been invited from the Church of Ireland, the Presbyterian Church, the Methodist Church or the Catholic Church, though each had made written submissions.

Father Clarke was reported at the time as having said the Catholic Church had not sought nor was it necessarily seeking a public meeting with the committee. He was simply anxious to establish answers for his report to the bishops. The committee chairman, Mr Brian Lenihan, said it was always its intention to consult the churches before a report on the issue was concluded.

Wednesday's joint committee hearing, beginning at 9.30 a.m., will be devoted to a "meeting with the religious denominations". It is understood also that views will be heard from members of the Muslim and Jewish communities.