Very Catholic Ireland is rapidly secularizing. In January of this year, after a 10-year campaign carried out by secular activists, the «Humanist Association of Ireland» (which on its website defines itself as a congregation of atheists, agnostics, freethinkers, rationalists and skeptics) he was allowed to perform wedding ceremonies. For the first half of the year, there was only one legally authorized officiant, Brian Whiteside, literally swamped with requests; now 10 more have been appointed to help clear the huge backlog. Until now, Irish people who didn't want a religious wedding had no alternative but 15 anonymous minutes in front of the registrar. Now the «Humanist Association of Ireland» can guarantee an atmospheric wedding: music, readings chosen by the officiant and the spouses, evocative scenarios. Ceremonies of this kind were already celebrated by the association only with symbolic value, now with the new law they also have legal value.
The boom in this type of marriage is the indicator of the unstoppable process of secularization that has invested one of the most Catholic countries in Europe: just think that in Ireland religious marriages in 1996 were 90%, then dropped to 69% in 2010 The law establishes that the celebrants cannot profit from their office and the fee set by the Humanist Association for a standard wedding (450 euros) should only serve to cover expenses. "We don't have a salary like priests," Whiteside observes, "so I think it would be fair to be able to make a small profit." Secular humanist marriages are also legal in the Netherlands, Scotland, Australia, Canada, Norway, New Zealand and some US states, while in Germany, Austria and the Scandinavian countries, although they cannot yet replace civil ceremonies, are quite widespread.
On July 12, the Irish Parliament gave the green light, for the first time, to the possibility of abortion but only if the mother's life is in danger.
Attachments: 7SEVEN – LONG BACKLOG FOR GODLESS WEDDING SERVICES IN IRELAND
