Jeremy Irons on Catholicism, Abortion, and Marriage

A report that one of this blogger's favorite actors not only "lives in a medieval castle keep" but has "an unconventional side to him, despite having been shoehorned into the British public school system" — Will of Irons – Inside Jeremy Irons West Cork castle.

Among his "many, many opinions" that interviewer Martina Devlin suggests "will offend, make him look nutty or pretentious, or leak like a sieve under scrutiny," are that of the Church, he says, "I love its intransigence," of abortion, "It's evil," and of thirty years as the husband of one wife, "I take it a day at a time." More:

He returns often to a discussion of Catholicism, which seems to fascinate him. He had the local priest in to bless the castle when work began. It’s not that he believed it was haunted, he just thought it sensible to lay to rest any uneasy spirits in view of the fact that men were on scaffolding 100 feet above ground. He has never felt any spectral aura, although a guest spoke of “a sad female presence”.

I point out that a castle would have witnessed so much pillaging and marauding, it should be inundated with sad female — and male — presences. And he laughs along good-naturedly.

But back to the Catholic Church. “It has gone through a difficult time, with the reputation of some of its priests in tatters, but everyone is tarred with the same brush. I’m saddened by that. The difficulty was the church held such power and absolute authority,” he says.

“The great thing about the Catholic faith is that it’s unwavering. If you take the Pope’s stance on abortion, it’s the only one that’s been constant within western religions.

“Others have said abortion is allowed — it’s not an evil. You only have to abort a child to see what it does to a woman’s spirit. You can never say it’s right. Sometimes abortion is the lesser of two evils, but you can never say it is not an evil.

“If you stop saying that, where do you draw the line?” he continues. “Do you say because a family has a lot of children that there are too many and it’s all right to kill one? We have to accept that there is a difference between right and wrong.”

When asked if he would consider becoming a Catholic, he insists he is “not a club man”. He was brought up Church of England, but regards himself less specifically as Christian.

"Can we pray him over the top?" asks Stephen Hand in linking to the article — Will of Irons, Jeremy Irons (Climbs higher than very many...SH). Mr. Hand continues, "But already he's a long way from Hollywood..."