Editing Mary McAleese (section)

==Catholic Church==

===Canon Lawyer===
McAleese is an alumna of the [[Pontifical Gregorian University]] where she obtained her [[Licentiate (degree)|licentiate]] of canon law in 2014 and a [[Doctor of Canon Law|doctorate of canon law]] in 2018. On 22 September 2018, McAleese publicly defended her thesis on "Children's Rights and Obligations in Canon Law" at the [[Pontifical Gregorian University]].  The defence was conducted in Italian. McAleese was questioned by Professor Robert J Geisinger S.J. and Professor Ulrich Rhode S.J. The [[Archbishop of Dublin]], [[Diarmuid Martin]], the Rector of the [[Pontifical Irish College]] in Rome and the Irish Ambassadors to Italy and the Holy See attended the defence.<ref name="independent.ie"/><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://wearechurchireland.ie/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/IMWAC-Experts-2014.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191127164432/http://wearechurchireland.ie/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/IMWAC-Experts-2014.pdf |archive-date=27 November 2019 |title=IMWAC Experts 2014 |publisher=[[We Are Church|We Are Church Ireland]] |access-date=25 June 2021}}</ref> McAleese also holds a Masters in [[Canon Law]] (2010) from the [[Milltown Institute of Theology and Philosophy]]. McAleese delivered the Valedictorian Address at her graduation.<ref>{{Cite web| url=https://www.jesuit.ie/news/valedictorian/| title=President's fond farewell| date=9 November 2010| access-date=27 November 2019| archive-date=27 November 2019| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191127164553/https://www.jesuit.ie/news/valedictorian/| url-status=live}}</ref>

In 2012, McAleese published ''Quo Vadis? Collegiality in the Code of Canon Law'' (Columba Press).<ref>{{Cite web| url=https://www.catholicnews.com/services/englishnews/2012/-quo-vadis-former-irish-president-looks-at-collegiality-governance-cns-1204275.cfm| title='Quo Vadis': Former Irish president looks at collegiality, governance| date=25 March 2020| access-date=27 November 2019| archive-date=27 November 2019| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191127164353/https://www.catholicnews.com/services/englishnews/2012/-quo-vadis-former-irish-president-looks-at-collegiality-governance-cns-1204275.cfm| url-status=dead}}</ref> The book was launched in Rome at the Irish Franciscan College of St. Isidore's<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.franciscans.ie/mary-mcaleese-launches-book-in-franciscan-college/ | title=Mary McAleese Launches Book | access-date=27 November 2019 | archive-date=27 November 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191127164512/https://www.franciscans.ie/mary-mcaleese-launches-book-in-franciscan-college/ | url-status=live }}</ref> and in Dublin at the Redemptorists Centre at Marianella by the Former [[Chief Justice of Ireland]], [[Ronan Keane]]<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/mary-mcaleese-hits-out-at-culture-of-silence-behind-church-abuse-28821941.html | title=Mary McAleese hits out at culture of silence behind church abuse | date=22 October 2012 | access-date=27 November 2019 | archive-date=27 November 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191127164558/https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/mary-mcaleese-hits-out-at-culture-of-silence-behind-church-abuse-28821941.html | url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2019, McAleese published ''Children's Rights & Obligations in Canon Law: The Christening Contracts'' (Brill Publishers).<ref>{{Cite web| url=https://www.marymcaleese.com/the-christening-contract| title=The Christening Contract| date=22 November 2019| access-date=27 November 2019| archive-date=27 November 2019| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191127164352/https://www.marymcaleese.com/the-christening-contract| url-status=live}}</ref>

===Inclusion of women in the formation of the Catholic Faith===
In March 2018, McAleese asked "If you are going to exclude women in perpetuity from priesthood and if all decision-making, discernment and policy-making in the Church is going to continue to be filtered through the male priesthood, tell me how in justice and charity, but most importantly in equality, are you going to include the voices of women in the formation of the Catholic faith?  What radical, innovative, strategic ideas do you have for their inclusion while being excluded from priesthood? And that's the question they have not answered".<ref name="ReferenceA">{{Cite web | url=https://www.thejournal.ie/mary-mcaleese-catholic-church-3891496-Mar2018/ | title=Mary McAleese says it's 'pure codology' that women can't become priests | date=8 March 2018 | access-date=27 November 2019 | archive-date=27 November 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191127164459/https://www.thejournal.ie/mary-mcaleese-catholic-church-3891496-Mar2018/ | url-status=live }}</ref>

On the ordination of women, McAleese said "I believe that women should be ordained, I believe the theology on which that is based is pure codology. I'm not even going to be bothered arguing it. Sooner or later it'll fall apart, fall asunder under its own dead weight."<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

On International's Women Day, McAleese described the Catholic Church as "an empire of misogyny". She said "This regrettable situation arises because the Catholic Church has long since been a primary global carrier of the toxic virus of misogyny...Its leadership has never sought a cure for that virus although the cure is freely available. Its name is equality."<ref>{{Cite web|url = https://www.irishcentral.com/news/politics/mary-mcaleese-catholic-church-misogyny-sexism|title = Former Irish president Mary McAleese brands Catholic Church "empire of misogyny"|date = 9 March 2018|access-date = 22 November 2019|archive-date = 23 November 2019|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20191123092751/https://www.irishcentral.com/news/politics/mary-mcaleese-catholic-church-misogyny-sexism|url-status = live}}</ref>

In response to her speech, the Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin said "Her challenge to the internal culture of the Church today was brutally stark. Some may find it unpleasant or unwelcome. I must accept the challenge with the humility of one who recognises her alienation."<ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/diarmuid-martin-accepts-mcaleese-criticisms-of-restrictions-on-women-1.3420980?mode=sample&auth-failed=1&pw-origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fsocial-affairs%2Freligion-and-beliefs%2Fdiarmuid-martin-accepts-mcaleese-criticisms-of-restrictions-on-women-1.3420980 | title=Diarmuid Martin accepts McAleese criticisms of restrictions on women | newspaper=[[The Irish Times]] | access-date=22 November 2019 | archive-date=28 August 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200828120654/https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/diarmuid-martin-accepts-mcaleese-criticisms-of-restrictions-on-women-1.3420980?mode=sample&auth-failed=1&pw-origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fsocial-affairs%2Freligion-and-beliefs%2Fdiarmuid-martin-accepts-mcaleese-criticisms-of-restrictions-on-women-1.3420980 | url-status=live }}</ref>

===2018 Women's Day Conference===
McAleese was due to speak on a panel at a Voices of Faith conference in the Vatican on [[International Women's Day]] in 2018 on Women in the Church.  The conference had been held for the previous four years at the Vatican.<ref>{{Cite web|url = https://www.ncronline.org/news/vatican/vatican-rejects-three-women-speakers-voices-faith-conference|title = Vatican rejects three women speakers from Voices of Faith conference|date = 2 February 2018|access-date = 22 November 2019|archive-date = 23 November 2019|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20191123092754/https://www.ncronline.org/news/vatican/vatican-rejects-three-women-speakers-voices-faith-conference|url-status = live}}</ref> Irish born Cardinal [[Kevin Farrell]] and Prefect of the [[Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life]] banned McAleese from speaking in the Vatican. The organisers had not been given any reason for the decision.<ref>{{Cite journal| url=https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2018/0202/937865-mcaleese-vatican-conference/| title=Vatican blocks McAleese from speaking at conference| journal=RTÉ News| date=2 February 2018| access-date=3 February 2018| archive-date=4 February 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180204000028/https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2018/0202/937865-mcaleese-vatican-conference/| url-status=live}}</ref> In response, conference organisers invited McAleese to deliver the keynote speech at the conference and relocated it to a Jesuit conference centre just outside the Vatican.<ref>{{Cite news|url = https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-43330026|title = Catholic Church 'an empire of misogyny'|work = BBC News|date = 8 March 2018|access-date = 20 June 2018|archive-date = 8 March 2018|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180308134941/http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-43330026|url-status = live}}</ref>

McAleese initiated a canonical complaint against [[Kevin Farrell]]. The complaint was made to the Cardinal's superior – [[Pope Francis]]. The [[Nuncio]] to Ireland [[Jude Thaddeus Okolo]] personally collected the complaint from McAleese's home and delivered it to the Vatican.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.rte.ie/radio/radioplayer/html5/#/radio1/21415854 | title=RTÉ Radio Player | website=[[RTÉ.ie]] | access-date=27 November 2019 | archive-date=26 May 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190526100301/https://www.rte.ie/radio/utils/radioplayer/rteradioweb.html#/radio1/21415854 | url-status=live }}</ref> According to McAleese, she was advised that there was a process for handling such complaints. In November 2019 she said that she had received neither an acknowledgement nor a reply to her complaint.<ref name="thejournal.ie">{{Cite web | url=https://www.thejournal.ie/mcaleese-canonical-complaint-pope-4188566-Aug2018/ | title=Mary McAleese: 'World Meeting of Families is essentially a right wing rally' | date=18 August 2018 | access-date=27 November 2019 | archive-date=27 November 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191127164432/https://www.thejournal.ie/mcaleese-canonical-complaint-pope-4188566-Aug2018/ | url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Synod of Bishops on the Family ===
Speaking before the opening of the [[Fourteenth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops|Ordinary Synod of Bishops on the Family]] in October 2015, McAleese ridiculed the concept of 300 elderly celibates coming together to discuss family questions. Addressing a meeting of the Global Network of Rainbow ([[LGBT]]) Catholics on the eve of the Vatican's Synod on the Family, former president McAleese said: "In the days when I was president, we had workshops on various issues and if I wanted to look at an issue, I would consult the experts... But look at the Synod, I have to ask the question: If I wanted expertise on the family, I honestly cannot say that the first thing that would come into my mind would be to call together 300 celibate males who, as far we know, have never raised a child...Let me repeat a question I asked last year when I saw the Vatican's lengthy pre-Synod questionnaire, namely how many of these men have ever changed a child's nappy? For me that is a very important question because it is one thing to say that we all grew up in families, we had mothers, we had fathers but it is a very different thing to raise a gay child, a very different thing to live daily in a relationship and to police the relationships between children and the world." Acknowledging that the Synod will doubtless be considering the Catholic Church's pastoral approach to homosexuals, McAleese described herself as "cynical" about the outcome of the forthcoming three-week consultation.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/mcaleese-church-stance-on-homosexuality-simply-wrong-1.2378042|title=McAleese: Church stance on homosexuality simply wrong|newspaper=The Irish Times|access-date=15 March 2018|language=en-US|archive-date=1 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171001214302/https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/mcaleese-church-stance-on-homosexuality-simply-wrong-1.2378042|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== US Grand Jury Report Pennsylvania ===
On 18 August 2018, McAleese speaking in the aftermath of the US Grand Jury Report on children abused by Catholic Priests in Pennsylvania said the cover up of this abuse "is not only systemic, it was directed from central command and control which is the Vatican ... It strikes me as impossible to believe that all bishops acted equally negligently by coincidence, that's the problem."<ref name="ReferenceB">{{Cite web | url=https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/mary-mcaleese-slams-world-meeting-of-families-as-right-wing-rally-to-fight-against-lgbt-and-womens-rights-37228707.html | title=Mary McAleese slams World Meeting of Families as 'right wing rally' to fight against LGBT and women's rights | date=18 August 2018 | access-date=22 November 2019 | archive-date=22 November 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191122215122/https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/mary-mcaleese-slams-world-meeting-of-families-as-right-wing-rally-to-fight-against-lgbt-and-womens-rights-37228707.html | url-status=live }}</ref>

=== World Meeting of Families 2018 ===
McAleese said in relation to the [[World Meeting of Families]] (held in Dublin in 2018), "It's always been essentially a right-wing rally... and it was designed for that purpose, to rally people to get them motivated to fight against the tide of same-sex marriage, rights for gays, abortion rights, contraceptive rights".<ref name="ReferenceB"/>

=== Alfons Auer Ethics Award ===
On 23 August 2019, McAleese was announced as the winner of the Alfons Auer Ethics Award, from [[Tübingen University]] in Germany for her political dedication in building bridges across divisions in society, especially in the conflict in Northern Ireland, her commitment to reforming the Catholic Church after the sexual abuse scandals, her theological and ethical advocacy for the rights of children, for the complete equality of women in church ministries and for the acceptance of diversity.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://uni-tuebingen.de/fakultaeten/katholisch-theologische-fakultaet/fakultaet/auer-preis/die-preistraeger/2019-mary-mcaleese/ | title=2019: Mary McAleese &#124; Universität Tübingen | access-date=23 November 2019 | archive-date=1 October 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201001075832/https://uni-tuebingen.de/fakultaeten/katholisch-theologische-fakultaet/fakultaet/auer-preis/die-preistraeger/2019-mary-mcaleese/ | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/11995/mary-mcaleese-wins-prestigious-catholic-theology-award- | title=Mary McAleese wins prestigious Catholic theology award | access-date=22 November 2019 | archive-date=30 January 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200130175029/https://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/11995/mary-mcaleese-wins-prestigious-catholic-theology-award- | url-status=live }}</ref>

=== UN Convention on Rights of the Child ===
On 5 November 2019, McAleese delivered the annual [[Edmund Burke]] lecture at [[Trinity College Dublin]].  McAleese's lecture was entitled "The Future of Ireland: Human Rights and Children's Rights". In her address McAleese called for "a clear acknowledgement from the Catholic Church that the canon laws which constrict children's rights have now been overtaken by the (UN) Convention and our Constitution"<ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/mary-mcaleese-brexit-has-produced-an-enraged-not-engaged-society-1.4073595 | title=Mary McAleese: Brexit has produced an 'enraged, not engaged society' | newspaper=[[The Irish Times]] | access-date=22 November 2019 | archive-date=6 November 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191106205946/https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/mary-mcaleese-brexit-has-produced-an-enraged-not-engaged-society-1.4073595 | url-status=live }}</ref>

===Threat to leave Church ===

McAleese has written to Pope Francis threatening to quit the Catholic Church if it comes to light the Vatican "failed to act to protect members of the [[L'Arche]] community" from the organization's founder [[Jean Vanier]]. He founded L'Arche in 1964 to work with intellectually disabled people. On 22 February 2020, L'Arche announced that it had received credible complaints that Vanier had sexually abused at least six women.<ref>{{Cite web|url = https://cruxnow.com/church-in-uk-and-ireland/2020/03/former-irish-president-threatens-to-quit-catholic-church-over-vanier-revelations/|title = Former Irish president threatens to quit Catholic Church over Vanier revelations|date = 5 March 2020|access-date = 14 March 2020|archive-date = 14 March 2020|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200314115628/https://cruxnow.com/church-in-uk-and-ireland/2020/03/former-irish-president-threatens-to-quit-catholic-church-over-vanier-revelations/|url-status = live}}</ref>