Church collections and referendum views
Senator O'Sullivan objected to Mullen’s implication that those who supported repeal had no place collecting at church gates, defending the right of Catholics with different views to take part in collections. Mullen and others interjected, and the exchange stayed focused on that point.
That is an improvement on seagulls.
I have no wish to lock horns with Senator Mullen, especially as we will have adequate opportunity to do that in coming days. I cannot, however, let his comment go unanswered. Senator Mullen posits an opinion that anyone who voted "Yes" in the recent referendum has no business or entitlement to stand outside a Catholic church to take up a collection. During the height of the repeal debate, I was accosted by someone of a similar opinion to the Senator, who said I had no right and it was a disgrace for the likes of me to be outside a church taking up a collection.
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The Senator has every right; he just has a brass neck for doing it.
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Excuse me, the Senator has had his say.
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I suggest that were Senator Mullen's thinking to flourish, it would not be long before he would stop people from going into the church. I remind him that two thirds of people in this country voted "Yes" on the eighth amendment and I assure the Senator that they were not all non-Catholics. We will leave that for the moment.
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That is a different point, the Senator is confusing his issues.