A WEST Belfast priest has hit out at plans to light up Belfast City Hall in support of abortion rights.
The National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWC) want to illuminate the building in green on September 28 to mark International Safe Abortion Day.
At a council committee meeting last week the proposal was endorsed by Green, Alliance, Sinn Féin and SDLP councillors with the DUP voting against.
It will go before the next full Council meeting on Tuesday, September 1.
Fr Paddy McCafferty from Corpus Christi Parish described the proposal as "grotesque" and "deeply offensive".
"This proposed spectacle is grotesque and deeply offensive to many citizens who value human life at all of its stages from conception to natural death," he said in a letter to Belfast City Council which he published on social media.
"It is a disgusting abuse of an iconic building which is supposed to be a space for all persons of all views and opinions. It is not acceptable at any level and displays a deep seated ideological bias against and contempt for the pro-life community, which includes persons of varied religious and political persuasions.
"I hope that this proposed illumination does not take place. Belfast City Hall has been lit up to highlight many good causes which unite decent people. This pro abortion stunt is not one of them.
"Belfast City Hall must not become a billboard for such macabre and iniquitous propaganda which celebrates the murder of unborn babies."
