Everyone is pro-life, but then who killed Savita?

It is as if all non-Catholics, especially in India, are aborting foetuses in the 17th week of pregnancy or whenever they feel like a medical termination of pregnancy.

Yeah, it’s the national pastime, at least that’s the impression you get when listening to the likes of Father Emmanuel, a Catholic priest much in demand on TV news channels over the last few days ever since 31-year-old dentist Savita Halappanavar was murdered in Dublin, Ireland, a largely Catholic country though it terms itself as the Republic of Ireland, and Father Emmanuel insists it is not a Catholic country .

Father Emmanuel scoffed at the idea of saving Savita. O! No sir. He is more familiar with the foetus and knows what to do even if the foetus’ heart is not beating. Keep it in, he says with an authority that comes with the faith. He came out rather cruel, more a heathen than the heathens the church wants to harvest.

He made it plain that no woman has control over her body. And yes, men can decide for the woman, and better still if the man happens to be Catholic.

Pushed further, Father Emmanuel rose to great heights of Catholicism and threw back the question with one of his own: Doesn’t India have the most number of medical termination of pregnancies? He asked this with a flicker of a triumphant smile playing on his face. Father Emmanuel knows how to strike back, which one of India’s raw nerves to rub and get the most painful results.

Some would say he is a sadist, somebody who’s been living in a cave for the most part of his life.

Father Emmanuel is pro-life. But when asked if Savita’s life didn’t matter, he was non-compromising. The good Father insisted it was, but then the first priority was to save the foetus. That’s the Catholic faith, he said and made it plain that you couldn’t expect Ireland’s Catholic doctors to go against their faith. Hello, how can you, he asked. He also refused to condemn the doctors for medical negligence, if there was medical negligence. He refused to give credence to Savita’s husband’s statement that the doctors refused to abort “because Ireland is Catholic”.

He suggested Savita could have gone to England, why didn’t she? He said this with an accusatory note to his voice.

Father Emmanuel, if he wants, can move to Ireland and get permanent residency there this instance. On a more serious note, I suggest he does. It wouldn’t be good riddance but it will surely keep him happy that he’s in a Catholic country. Let me admit that for a while in my early thirties, I had this notion to convert to Christianity, become a Catholic Christian. I wonder what would have happened if I had gone ahead and done that. By now I would have had at least a dozen children. In some ways that’s attractive though it takes a lot of money to bring up a dozen. My brother converted to become a Catholic Christian after he fell in love with a Catholic girl and wanted to marry her. He did end up marrying her  though I will say he has just two children.