The death of Savita Halappanavar after she was denied an abortion will divide Ireland

[Hekate]

34. Read the book when I was young

When I was young I really wanted to become Catholic (my grandma was, and I adored her) -- loved the candles and rituals and ancient certainty. But my mother, who was as ex-Catholic as you can be (none of this "lapsing" stuff for her) had done her work too well: I thought for myself, and even at 14 I was thinking all the time.

Back to the book. It was one of several novels I read in jr hi and hi school that were set in the late 19th and early-20th centuries, and which touched on where you would go to have your baby, if you went to a hospital. I was baffled by the refrain: "Oh no, don't send your wife/daughter/sister to the Catholic hospital! If she has trouble delivering they won't try to save her -- they'll let her die while they try to save the baby! You be sure to send her to the Protestant hospital!"

As I say, I was young, and this baffled me. My own mother had almost died a couple of times while miscarrying, and I knew it. WTF?

Then I read "The Cardinal," and there it was: If everything goes wrong you let the mother die, because she's already had her chance to try to save her soul, and you need to focus on the new soul being born no matter what.

I'm waaaaaay older now, and long ago stopped hoping The Church would change. And I'm very glad my ancestors saw fit to leave Ireland, although I enjoyed my two folk-music oriented tours there.

I think the women stick around the Roman Catholic Church for the Virgin Mary, who is more human than the men who run the institution.

As for me, contemplating the Triple Goddess gives one a whole different perspective, and a whole different balance.