Dear Observer,
On Wednesday, March 26, The Observer published both an article ("Saint Mary's 2025 commencement speaker choice receives pushback") and a letter regarding the Saint Mary's commencement speaker from a campus group. I am always proud of our students for using their voices and advocating for what matters most to them. We are a learning organization, and I am grateful for opportunities for all of us to learn. In that spirit, I have to point out that both the article and the letter relied on limited research and also circulated misinformation — and that Saint Mary's was not contacted for comment.
I would like to share these facts with our community before further disinformation is spread:
Mary McAleese served two terms as President of Ireland (1997-2011). She grew up a Catholic in the North, and she remains a staunch Catholic today.
- She has, across her entire life, had an unwavering commitment to the rights of the unborn, as well as to the rights of a pregnant mother. She is not pro-abortion.
- She voted for the Eighth Amendment (1983) to the Irish Constitution before she was president and introduced no legislation to change it while she was in office. The Eighth Amendment was a constitutional amendment that recognized the equal right to life of the unborn and the pregnant mother.
- She later came to believe, through actual cases, that the Eighth Amendment had failed to protect the life of the pregnant mother.
- She has acknowledged how she personally voted on the Referendum to repeal the Eighth Amendment (2018), which did not involve voting for expanding abortion access, but rather involved voting yes to the statement: "Provision may be made by law for the regulation of termination of pregnancy." In other words, she voted to give Parliament the authority to consider and legislate on this issue, not on any actual proposed version of that legislation.
- She took no part in the referendum campaign, nor in the subsequent debate on the kind of abortion law that might apply once the constitutional provision was gone.
I would add, moreover, that her commitment to and respect for life extends beyond the abortion discussion. Observing that no child harmed in the clerical sex abuse crisis had benefited from canon law, she used her time after the presidency to earn both her licentiate and her Doctor of Canon Law degrees from Pontifical Gregorian University, focusing her thesis on children's rights and obligations in canon law. That thesis won one of the Catholic world's most prestigious prizes in 2019, the Alfons Auer Ethics Award from Tübingen University in Germany.
Finally, the Church's positions on the rights of LGBTQ+ people and on women's ordination are matters that Dr. McAleese has spoken about since the 1980s, before she was President. I do not believe these are matters the Church forbids its membership to discuss. Indeed, Church teaching continues to evolve: while the Catholic Church clearly forbids same-sex marriages, Pope Francis has voiced his support for civil unions since 2020, and in a document released by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith Dec. 18, 2023 (Fiducia supplicans), he formally approved "spontaneous blessings" by priests and deacons for same-sex civil unions. The Synod on Synodality made room for discussion of a women's diaconate, and Pope Francis created a commission to study it. It is not a closed topic.
On May 17, Dr. McAleese will be welcomed to campus, and she will deliver our commencement address. She has told me that she will focus on the heart of her life story: how, confronted with violent sectarianism on her doorstep, she committed to the great commandment to love one another—and to mean it. That was the source of her presidency's theme of "building bridges." As she put it, her talk will consider "the pursuit of peace among warring neighbours, which was and remains the mission Christ confronted me with when I was born in Belfast." She will also receive an honorary doctor of laws, which we will be proud to confer.
Sincerely,
Katie Conboy, Ph. D
Saint Mary’s College President
March 28
Editor's note: It is the policy of The Observer to edit letters to the editor only for factual and grammatical errors and to welcome letters to the editor from all members of the tri-campus community who wish to contribute to dialogue on campus with good intent. In last week's letter to the editor from Belles for Life criticizing the choice of Mary McAleese as commencement speaker, no factual errors were apparent. The letter criticized McAleese for advocating for the repeal of the eighth amendment of the Irish constitution, which had codified the right to life of unborn children. Belles for Life characterized McAleese's stance on the eighth amendment as advocating for the legalization of abortion. The Observer felt that this characterization was a particular interpretation of McAleese's position, not a factual error, and as such did not deem it appropriate to change it. Others, such as president Katie Conboy, may of course disagree with this interpretation, but we view this as a difference of opinion, not a factual error. Similarly, a news article published last week discussing the debate over McAleese as commencement speaker referred to Belles for Life's criticism of McAleese for her stance on the eighth amendment. This mention was meant to portray Belles for Life's position on the issue and not to take a stance on it. The Observer disagrees with the contention that misinformation was spread in either piece. Although strict deadlines and time constraints sometimes make it difficult, The Observer regrets not reaching out to the College for comment on the story.
Liam Kelly, Editor-in-Chief
