Where are the Protestant churches when Ireland needs them? Do they have anything to say about the abortion referendum? Or have they forgotten Yeats's proud statement that the community to which they claim to give spiritual leadership is "no petty people" and that its views should form a part of the public debate, asks Mary Holland.
There have been a few - a very few - contributions from individual Protestant churchmen. Dr John Neill, the Church of Ireland Bishop of Cashel and Ossory, has bravely raised his head above the parapet and criticised the "serious hypocrisy" of the proposed constitutional amendment, which he described as "cruel and naive".
Archdeacon Gordon Linney has argued, in this newspaper, that the decision to exclude the mental health of the woman as grounds for termination of pregnancy "violates the fundamental view of the person as a unity of mind, body and spirit". The Adelaide Hospital has made clear its reservations on the issue. But from the main body of the Protestant churches, North and South, we have heard nothing. With less than two weeks to go till polling day, this is the dog that hasn't barked. The stance is in dramatic contrast to the Roman Catholic hierarchy's campaign for a Yes vote.
A million copies of the Catholic bishops' statement supporting the amendment, in both English and Irish, will be distributed in Catholic churches across the State. A website on the issue will be updated on a regular basis. On the Sunday before the vote a pastoral letter from each individual bishop will be read at all Masses in his diocese.
The silence of the Protestant churches is all the more curious because we know that representatives of the the three major churches gave evidence to the all-party Oireachtas committee's hearings on abortion.
There were differences in emphases between representatives of the Church of Ireland, the Presbyterians and the Methodists. There were also divisions, as they all readily admitted, within their own congregations. But, taken overall, their arguments followed remarkably similar lines.
In the first place they were at pains to emphasise that they believed in the sanctity of human life and were wholly opposed to abortion in all but the most extreme circumstances. However, there was a consensus that situations could arise in which the termination of a woman's pregnancy would be "the lesser of two evils". They varied a little on what these extreme circumstances might be, but most of them appeared to accept that these should include rape, incest or severe foetal abnormality.
What they were agreed on is that abortion is too complex a problem to be dealt with through a a constitutional amendment. They made it quite clear that what they wanted was legislation that would give precise legal definitions to the many moral, social and medical details involved. Thus the Rev H.C Miller, Church of Ireland Bishop of Down and Dromore, told the committee that his church's view was that "the constitutional way is not the best method of dealing with this issue".
Robert Cochran, representing the Methodists, argued that the Constitution was designed "to lay out broad parameters of social policy". It was never intended to deal with the detailed circumstances of individual cases, a fact which had been demonstrated by the X and C cases.
Dr Trevor Morrow, at that time Moderator of the Presbyterian Church, argued that it would "be appropriate for a government representing not only majority but minority opinion" to proceed by way of legislation. Spokesmen for all three churches made the point that they were organised on an all-Ireland basis and that this made their task in giving evidence to the committee even more sensitive.
THEIR views have been ignored. This is a blatantly sectarian referendum and it is depressing that we have yet to hear a single political leader on this side of the Border oppose it on these grounds. We are much given to preening ourselves with the notion that successive governments have been sensitive to the views of the Protestant minority in this state, and generous in their treatment of them.
Ergo, the argument goes, unionists have nothing to fear from the prospect of a united Ireland. Nobody seems able to make the connection that this is precisely what many Northern Protestants do not want to be part of: a state in which the moral teaching of the Roman Catholic Church is given precedence over their equally sincerely held beliefs.
The virtual invisibility of the Protestant churches in the present campaign is very different to their stance in 1983. At that time all of them expressed formal public opposition to the referendum on abortion. Not only that, members of the clergy were willing to speak on public platforms alongside disreputable people like myself.
One of my cherished memories of that time is a speech made by the Rev Victor Griffin, who was Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin which ended with an appeal along these lines: remember Emmet, remember Tone! God save the Republic! Vote No!"
There is still time for the Protestant churches to make their voices heard in this debate. Many of us believe that they have a duty, not only to their own community but as citizens of this State, to do so, But they would need to get their skates on. The referendum is less than two weeks away.
mholland@irish-times.ie