McAleese pays tribute to ‘courageous’ Pope Leo

Former president of Ireland, Dr Mary McAleese, has paid tribute to Pope Leo saying, “He is beginning to find his voice, and we are beginning to see the emergence of a courageous pope.”

Speaking to The Tablet about the Pontiff’s first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, Dr McAleese noted that in the encyclical, the Pope talks about the excluded and particularly references women’s exclusion, calling for “concrete decisions” in their favour regarding laws, access to employment, education, social and political responsibilities, so that so that society truly and fully recognises that women have the same dignity as men.

“Maybe there is a door of discussion opening up here,” she said. 

She also praised him for his treatment of the issue of immigrants and his courage in “pitting himself against some of the people and constituencies that he grew up with” telling them, “If you are pro-life, you cannot be pro capital punishment.”

Her praise was echoed by well-known campaigner for the abolition of the death penalty, Sr Helen Prejean. Dr McAleese, who is currently Chancellor of Trinity College Dublin, took part in a conversation at TCD on “The Future of Justice in an Age of Uncertainty” with UK human rights lawyer Baroness Helena Kennedy and Sr Prejean.

Speaking to The Tablet, Sr Prejean regretted the rise in the number of executions in the US under the Trump administration. She said support for the death penalty was mainly “in a pocket in the Deep South, all ex-slave states. It is not among the people at large”.

Sr Helen Prejean, pic by Sarah Mac Donald

“Pope Leo is giving leadership,” the 87-year-old said. She praised the Pontiff’s April message to those gathered at DePaul University to mark the 15th anniversary of Illinois’s abolition of the death penalty. The death penalty, the Pope said, is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.

On the issue of social media and the concerns over its negative impact and the need for better regulation, Sr Prejean urged people to “look at the good that you can do on social media” by highlighting miscarriages of justice.

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