WHY LETTERKENNY RC CHAPEL IN THE HOSPITAL SHOULD BE CLOSED

CONTEXT, LETTERKENNY GENERAL HOSPITAL HAD A ROMAN CATHOLIC CHAPEL. IT WAS CLOSED DOWN FOLLOWING THE FLOOD JULY 2013 DUE TO DAMAGE. A COMMON ROOM FOR PEOPLE TO GO TO REFLECT AND PRAY IF THEY WANT IS TO BE SUBSTITUTED FOR IT. THIS IS IN RECOGNITION THAT THE ROMAN CATHOLIC FAITH IS NOT THE ONLY FAITH IN IRELAND AND THE ROOM WILL BE OPEN TO EVERYONE NO MATTER WHAT RELIGION OR SYSTEM THEY FOLLOW. A HOSPITAL CHAPEL RETENTION COMMITTEE WAS FORMED TO RE-OPEN THE SECTARIAN CHAPEL.

FAO: Hospital Chapel Retention Committee

Can a Catholic parish or hospital treat a same sex couple as married?  No.  Catholic hospitals discriminate and letting the Church have any benefit in a hospital such as a chapel is unnacceptable!

With regard to the Roman Catholic Chapel in the Hospital, replacing it with a Prayer Room is the right decision.
 
The Hospital is funded by the state and not the Catholic Church. Therefore there is no right for Catholics to get special treatment and privileges such as chapels with the tax payers money. The state is to be neutral on religious affairs. We have to be neutral most of the time so why not be neutral about this chapel issue? Neutrality is necessary for the sake of fair play and religious equality. It is the Catholic Church’s job to promote the faith not the state or the hospital.
 
Not all Catholics or patients in the hospital care deeply about the Blessed Sacrament being there. More people walked past that chapel than who used it.
 
Not all Catholics or patients in the hospital feel comfortable about being exposed to the Catholic faith.
 
If I had a relative who committed suicide I would not want the services of a God or religion that would suggest the possibility that she or he is in Hell for all eternity. You have no right to suggest or imagine such possibilities in the absence of proper evidence for the possibility of Hell.
 
It is insensitive when people are angry at God or whatever to be exposed to religion. Do all women that have had abortions and feel guilty want to see holy statues and chapels in hospitals of all places? It is the height of ignorance to be in your face about a religion that would ban abortion even if a quarter of women were to need it to save their lives. It is the principle.
 
The prayer room will bring atheists - who will use it for reflection and not prayer, Roman Catholics, Protestants, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses together and treat them for the equals they are. That is exactly the message we need to get out in a world troubled by religious strife. And before you say religion is about peace please read the Old Testament which Jesus said was the word of God. God commands that people be stoned to death and everything. He commanded Jesus to undergo torture or so we are told.
 
And as for the dramatics about “Removing the Chapel is an insult to our faith,” may I remind you that your own Bible says you have full access to God anywhere.
 
“Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus” Hebrews 10:19
Acts 17:24 AMP - The God Who produced and formed the world and all things in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in handmade shrines.
You are demanding that the Blessed Sacrament has to be there for people to be close to God - that is what is an insult to the faith and God’s alleged desire to be close to us always. And think about the insult you are offering to people who don’t take the Catholic religion as seriously as you do and who want to share with other religions as a gesture of good will. Think about Catholics who agree with secular values and these Catholics are in the majority. Think about Born Again Christians and Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses who would find the teachings about the Blessed Sacrament very upsetting if they understood them.
 
And there are Muslim staff in the hospital. Their religion teaches that blessed sacraments and holy statues are offensive to God regardless of how well meaning the users of these things may be. They believe that God dictated the Koran their holy book. You will claim that you do not intend to see them offended. But have you asked them all? The question is not "Are they offended?" but, "Should they be if they understand and follow their religion correctly?" Unless that question is dealt with people will only make a hypocritical dog’s dinner of inter religious respect. They will exude the following message: "If you are not offended good and if you are I do not care. Christ is god and if that offends you then tough".  
 
The Koran condemns They do blaspheme who say: "Allah is Christ the son of Mary." But said Christ: "O Children of Israel! worship Allah my Lord and your Lord." Whoever joins other gods with Allah - Allah will forbid him the garden and the Fire will be his abode. There will for the wrong-doers be no one to help..
-- Sura 5:72
 
 
The Koran condemns the veneration of saints so there should be no images of the saints in the hospital or in the chapel.
 
010:018 DENIES SAINTS INTERCEDE FOR YOU
“They serve, besides God, things that hurt them not nor profit them, and they say: "These are our intercessors with God." Say: "Do ye indeed inform God of something He knows not, in the heavens or on earth? Glory to Him! and far is He above the partners they ascribe (to Him)!"”
 
016.020-21 BANS ASKING SAINTS TO PRAY FOR YOU

“Those whom they invoke besides God create nothing and are themselves created. (They are things) dead, lifeless: nor do they know when they will be raised up”
018:102
 
THE FOLLOWING SHOWS THAT THE MATTER IS OF ETERNAL IMPORTANCE TO GOD AND ISLAM “Do the Unbelievers think that they can take My servants as protectors besides Me? Verily We have prepared Hell for the Unbelievers for (their) entertainment”
 
009:031 - SAYS THAT AS JESUS IS NOT GOD IT IS IDOLATRY TO WORSHIP HIM

“They have taken as lords beside God their Rabbis and their Monks
and the Messiah son of Mary, when they were bidden to worship only One God. There is no God save Him. Be He Glorified from all that they ascribe as partner (unto Him)!
 
Your ultimate goal is to have people conditioned into the Catholic faith and to get special treatment for that faith to help maintain that conditioning. Religious error and refusal to see the truth gets validation from the public presence of religion and seeing others congregating in its name.
 
There are more important things for you to do than worry about the chapel. Where were the petitions and protests when Martin Ridge documented how the priests and bishops of Raphoe protected clerical child abusers and when Columba Nee suggested that the files incriminating them were burned?
 
It is right to be careful with matters of religious freedom for the last thing the Hospital needs is to be put at risk of litigation over religious favouritism and discrimination just to please the few who care about the chapel.