Mary McAleese Canon Law
Mary McAleese, a self-described “woman of faith,” is critical of some aspects of the Catholic Church
Mary McAleese, who served as the President of Ireland between 1997 and 2001, has again spoken out against aspects of the Roman Catholic Church, a faith that she was brought up in and still practices.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour on September 24, McAleese, who was plugging her new book “Here’s The Story – A Memoir,” discussed her upbringing in Northern Ireland where she was born into a Catholic family who lived in a primarily Protestant neighborhood at the height of The Troubles.
During the radio program, McAleese was asked what prompted her to study canon law and to speak out “so openly against the Church?”
“First of all, yes, I am a person of faith,” McAleese said, “but I am also a person with a thinking brain.
“I was baptized into the Roman Catholic Church as a very tiny baby, and for the rest of my life, I have been told by canon law that the obligations that I undertook then at baptism, that I am obliged under them to remain obedient to whatever the teaching of the Church is for the rest of my life.
“Well, with the greatest respect to the Church, it has left a few chapters in the meantime.