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Post by Kevin on Mar 19, 2011 20:25:57 GMT
It was an honour to watch Youth Defence live on 'Life on the Rock' on EWTN. It was a great moment for Ireland. They stated Cardinal Pell will speak at their event at World Youth Day. I have read criticism of Youth Defence on this forum.This is a shame as Youth Defence have kept abortion out of Ireland.
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Post by hibernicus on Mar 21, 2011 10:54:17 GMT
Even if Youth Defence have kept abortion out of Ireland, that does not mean they are above criticism - there's always room for improvement.
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Post by hibernicus on Mar 21, 2011 11:19:04 GMT
My experience, for example, is that youth Defence do not merely take the view that graphic images of aborted babies should be waved around in public at every opportunity, they immediately assume that anyone who criticises the tactic or suggests it might sometimes be counterproductive - no matter how long a record they ahve of pro-life acrtivism. Here's a nuanced idscussion www.ncregister.com/blog/4-tips-for-using-graphic-abortion-images-effectively/
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Post by hibernicus on Mar 24, 2011 17:12:49 GMT
I might add that the slogan "Youth Defence have kept abortion out of Ireland" is problematic for the following reasons: (1) Abortion has not been kept out of Ireland. We suffered a decisive defeat with the X Case, and in order to keep what remains of the abortion ban from being eroded we needed to reverse that defeat, preferably through political pressure leading to some form of legislative initiative, and through large-scale pro-life evangelisation to keep public opinion sound on this topic. All credit for what youth Defence have done on the evangelisation front, but their work and that of other pro-life groups has not been enough. We have now got a situation in which a major party is explicitly pro-abort (I remember a posting on Politics.ie in which a female contributor stated she had written to her Labour candidate - now a TD for a non-Dublin constituency- on the issue and got the reply "I am sorry not to get your vote. Labour is a pro-choice party"; when they are not willing to equivocate to get a vote it's really serious) in which a series of court decisions and legislative initiatives have chipped away at the pro-life pro-family agenda, and where the people who administer the country and its social services are increasingly pro-choicers. No-one has kept abortion out of Ireland, and saying that anyone has only disguises how serious the situation has become.
(2) Secondly, the post appears to suggest that any criticism of YD must be misguided and should be ruled out in advance - as if simply saying a thing makes it so. This is oddly enough not a million miles removed for the mindset of our atheist "friends" on this forum, who simply state their views as Holy Writ and refuse to enter into dialogue. Justin Barrett's view that all would be well if only we found a suitable dictator is a good example of where such thinking leads. We need to think through the stiuation and find ways of addressing it, and this can only happen if we are both prepared to give and take criticism.
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Post by Kevin on Mar 24, 2011 18:45:42 GMT
Hibernicus,
I'm not a representative of Youth Defence but found their performance on 'Life on the Rock' to be very impressive. They had nearly one hour of airtime on a primetime slot on EWTN that a global audience will view. They outlined their history, the work they do ie the street sessions, the college tours and organising the biggest pro-life rallies Ireland has ever seen.
I didn't suggest they were beyond criticism but when Cardinal Pell, Hilary White (Life Site News),Lila Rose and others speak at their conferences they must be doing something right.
To give the Pro-Life Campaign credit they had a very good post card and leaflet campaign against Labour in recent election.
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Post by hibernicus on Mar 25, 2011 11:38:59 GMT
The point about publicity is good - but because they are doing something right doesn't mean that they could not do better. I'm not sure the postcard campaign accomplished that much. I think the Pro-Life Campaign has the opposite problem to YD - YD has a populist approach that is not well thought out, the PLC tends to be a bit too elite-led and not to make sufficient effort to cultivate mass support.
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