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A CATHOLIC PRIEST in Ballina, Co Mayo dedicated both weekend homilies to calling out the members of his congregation who had voted Yes in the referendum on same-sex marriage on 22 May.
Fr Tom Doherty, the curate of the parish who was ordained in November 2013, told the congregation that people who voted Yes had given ‘two fingers’ to the Catholic Church.
He used the analogy of ‘barbarians at the gate’ to describe the result of the vote, and spoke about the ‘immorality’ of the referendum.
The constituency of Mayo voted narrowly in favour of the referendum – 52% Yes versus 48% No.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie, parishioner Louise Heneghan (who was present at both masses on 23 and 24 May) said that “people are still not happy about this, there’s a lot of anger with the locals still”.
“Nobody saw it coming. It was the condemnatory tone he used,” Heneghan said.
He accused those who voted Yes as putting two fingers up to the church, and told us to ‘recite the creed, if you think it has anything to offer you’.
There was no real coherence to it though. He mentioned ‘barbarians at the gate’, and the immorality of Yes voters, but he gave no reason as to why he felt that way.
Heneghan said that the priest asked churchgoers who had voted Yes to stand up during his Gospel homilies.
However this has been disputed by other people in the area.
Some parishoners are believed to have walked out of the church in response to the comments by the priest.
Fr Doherty has been curate of Ballina parish for the last 18 months. Efforts to contact him by TheJournal.ie were not successful.
Louise Heneghan / Twitter@pimlids Agree but as I say all priests shouldn't be targeted for the actions of one.We're lucky to have open minded clergy in town minus 1.
— L. NíHéineacháin (@LaobhaoiseNihE) June 2, 2015
In an interview with the Western People, the priest defended his homilies as “not meant to condemn”.
“It was meant rather to invite us all to reflect on how we as a church will find our feet in a rapidly changing society,” he said.
I drew upon some historical parallels to highlight the importance and the need for mature reflection moving forward.
Regarding his suggestion that parishioners recite the creed if they felt it had anything to offer them, Fr Doherty said “it was simply an invitation to people to pray the creed in a meaningful way at a time when our church was awakening to the challenges which lie ahead of her”.
Despite the fallout from the sermons, Heneghan does not think there will be any lasting repercussions for Doherty from the incident.
People are disgruntled alright, and they’ll voice their opinions, but I don’t think Fr Doherty will face trouble, no.
“This is something that will blow over,” she said.
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Priest furious that congregation can think for themselves.
Priest trolls entire parish without using Internet.
Trolling has been around since long before the internet, in fact when i was growing up in the 90′s we use to troll people the whole time and we had no computer or even dial up back then.
I’ve been trolling since the days you had to dial into a bulletin board system and wait 24 hours for your forum posts to be transferred across the Fidonet.
I was at a wedding at the weekend and the priest rambled for 10 min about how marriage was Catholic and between a man and a woman, it was embarrassing for the bride and groom. don’t know what happened but he wasn’t at the dinner and had left before the couple had gotten to the front door.
He wouldn’t have said it at my wedding, the cheeky twerp!
Did he hand back his bundle of tax-free notes?
Morality, my arze.
Think for themselves Charles? If they were able to think for themselves everyone in that building would have got up and walked out, this arrogant cleric was addressing a flock of timid sheep and he knew it,
@John he was driving a new Toyota Avensis too I wonder how many homeless people the money that was used to buy his car could have fed. greatest bunch of hypocrites.
paddy it was a wedding, out of respect for the people getting married I think people were intelligent enough to ignore his bigotry.
Priests and the church should get a reality check..its hardly wonder the church is half empty on Sunday’s. . There are fewer and fewer young people attending. .hardly wonder!!
Why should they be embarrassed? It’s a Catholic wedding Mass and the Catholic Church catechism affirms that marriage is a covenant between a man and a woman and that Christians in the wedding bond have partaken of a Sacrament of the Church. Surely if they are Catholics they should not be embarrassed at what the Church clearly teaches and professes, and which it expects communicants to profess as well.
I myself am not a Catholic, but it seems to me if you’re going to get married in a Catholic parish that you should be on board with what the church teaches/confesses about the nature of marriage.
Agreed!
They are bitter that we know longer do as we are told. We actually are able to follow our own conscience. Isn’t that tough for them to accept!
Their club, their rules and they won’t change. If you don’t like them – just leave. It looks like most have already.
1 Billion Catholics and Counting
Kidding yourself Peter. The church in Ireland is almost dead. Not my opinion. Just a cold hard fact.
It won’t finally die until people who don’t believe in what it preaches and don’t go mass or any other services stop babtising their kids. I know, I know, this is for getting into schools. But that won’t be fixed until people stop babtising – as long as they continue it’s self-perpetuating.
And also this mad fixation with first communions and confirmations when the families involved never have a thing to do with the church otherwise. Ah what harm, they are nice social events you say? Just throw a bloody party, any time you like.
People think they have stopped listening to the church, but they haven’t really as long as they continue to celebrate these events as though they matter to them in some religious way, when they really don’t at all.
The irony of course ‘thedoctor’ is that on their deathbeds the amount of non believers looking for a priest will rise.
@gabbi, it is patronising and conceited in the extreme to think that the only thing between your beliefs and those of another is the state of their health.
If a priest came anywhere near me when I lay dying, I’d summon up all the strength I’d left to punch the person who called him, and I won’t be punching myself. Such blatant disregard for my beliefs at such a sensitive time would deserve nothing less.
You are both correct. But it won’t matter. There won’t be any priests left to do baptisms or the like. There are 2 priests under 40 in the whole of Dublin.
It’s dying. Won’t be long until it finally dies.
Yes Peter. 1 billion and that count is going down
‘When we come to the end of time and Peter sitting in state, he will smile on the three old spirits but call me first through the gate, for the good are always the merry save by an evil chance.. and the merry love to fiddle and the merry love to dance’
Only because you can’t official leave the church. Furthermore, plenty of people I know, two are here beside me now said they put Catholic down on last censos but havn’t been to mass since childhood and voted Yes , and are not religious. They said they were Catholic on censos because that’s their background/ tradition. It means nothing, they are certainly not catholic… I wonder how many others in that 1 Billion are real Catholics..?
@edward I am willing to put quite a high bet (assuming they are married/have kids) that they also got married in a church, baptised their kids, and dressed them up for their first communion and confirmation.
It’s the profile of the typical Irish ‘catholic’.
I billion Catholics, the world is gone mad Ted.
@Katie You are right, the two beside me are and did. I won’t and I think a lot of under 30′s won’t either. It’s very hypocritical …
@edward Good.
And if it helps, I am not under 30 by a fair old bit, didn’t marry in a church and have five kids, two still at home, none baptised. We found schools, so they got educated just fine without that. They all considered the whole communion/confirmation thing strange and creepy. People asked ‘are they not jealous of the money?’. Honestly, that’s all anyone ever asked, which I think says a lot. They were not as it happens, it just didn’t seem like something that had anything to do with them.
They’ve all come out just fine (so far at least) without this tradition, they are a lot better for it I think. The thing I notice most is how free they are of guilt and shame, which was the default outcome of the catholic ‘formation’ so many of us went through in school.
And the parties. Communion/confirmation is harvest time for caterers, renters of bouncy castles, purveyors of frilly frocks etc. It ebbed a bit since the massive excesses of the tiger years, but it’s coming back with a vengeance.
“babtising”? Good God!
It so stings that the statistic says 1Billion. Just because we have become an introverted island of cynics doesn’t mean the rest of the world agrees. The rate of Baptisms increases every year. Vocations in many parts of the world have increased. We have a Pope from the Southern hemisphere for a reason. I love Ireland but globally our story is a small part of something much greater with a 2,000 years if history behind it and let’s not mention the Incarnate Word.
I only care about Ireland. Couldn’t give a flying feck about South American religion. Mass attendances dropped 75% in the last 25 years in Ireland. 25 years from now? You do the math.
Yes, new baptisms in developing countries, much like Ireland used to be.. They go in – offer to “educate” the children and look after the sick – then encourage these poverty stricken people to donate every spare penny they have to the church – to continue the Vaticans amassing of wealth.. Give it a couple of decades and those people will be just like us, reeling from the corruption, paedophiles and abuses – and out for Vatican destruction..
When the priests in Somalia are driving round in brand new SUVs while expecting donations to the collection plate from people who can barely feed themselves, you know nothing in that corrupt stinking organisation has changed.
@arnie Yeah, sorry. I’m a small bit dyslexic and tend to have issues with b and p and didn’t have a copy editor handy. Doesn’t change the point though.
Katie, very good points. What I can’t understand though is people who still attend mass being shocked or offended by what this priest did. The Catholic Church had made their opinion on SSM quite clear so if you don’t agree what are you doing sitting there listening to them.
Church in Japan survived for four centuries without priests, ideas die hard
Doesn’t account for the 4million baptisms every year globally, that the Population of Ireland
Pete, you can push all the stats you like but we all know the countries you are relying for the really big numbers of catholics.
I’m not so worried how the Philippines are doing for example as long as religion in the west is continuing to die and decay.
Gabbi your indoctrinated, indoctrination is a very powerful force, when Stalin died millions of God following Russians wept openly in the streets, they’d become addicted to the very thing that had enslaved them, religion ditto, all drugs work in same way I.e like tobacco users, it’s killing them but they must have another one
Peter O’Reilly ,
20 Billion and counting, of populations , who won’t be fooled anymore by their porkie pie stories and whacko ‘Rules’ !
@peter if you take the Catholic Church out of our school system there would be very few Catholics. the get them when they are young policy is coming clear to everyone if your religion is so strong why do you need to baptise people when they are so young they can’t make up their own minds. communion and confirmation ceremonies are just brain washing and thankfully people are getting wise to the churches tricks.
Well that says it all only the West matters, some would say the West falls deeper into decadence and decay while the developing nations are the future
One billion catholics give birth to only four million kids a year? Strikes me that they’re breaking one of two rules – you must baptise your kids or you must not use contraception. Either way it seems like a fair chunk of those one billion catholics don’t care about some core Catholic teachings.
I suppose we leave out the billions of other believers as well
Correction it was actually 16.4 million Baptisms last year, missed the 16
Only their presence in our schools keeping them alive. They are no longer worthy of that privilege.
Downwards ??
2000 years Peter you think that’s a long time? David Attenborough was talking about something that happened on earth 80 million years ago…do you think that Attenborough was telling fibs and that it really all began 2000 years ago?
Yes.. Lots of new catholics born in impoverished nations to people told not to use contraception.. That’s if they don’t die trying to pop out more good Catholic babies..
As soon as the standard of education improves in the developing world the number of religious people will drop there too. At present they’re busy indoctrinating and calling it education.. Just like they did here..
Counting down, yes.
6 billion non-Catholics! protect the minority!!!!!
A priest not in touch with reality…I am shocked
A priest that is in touch with reality James.
Sore loser.
Ah man I’d go to Mass just to stand up
You’ve got to hand it to the Catholic church. Mass attendance dropping scientifically, fewer men wanting to join the seminary,people turning their back in droves. So what do they do ? they alienate a section of those that are still left. Brilliant :-)
why did we wait so long…..
Nobody has any right to know how you voted unless you wish to tell them. It’s a secret ballot! People like this priest are just annoyed that they have lost the power they once held, when they used to be able to dictate to the people!
He is entitled to act so I suppose can’t say I am surprised by this. But no one has to simply sit there and put up with it any more. Not like in times past when the social pressure to accept it would have been overwhelming. Not today..
I see so many catholics decided to vote yes – because although the idea that two people of the same sex marrying is the same thing as a man and a woman marrying to conceive and raise a family is ridiculous, It is better to be perceived as being progressive in the modern era. Perception is everything.
Many people who are counted in our census as Catholics evidently did vote yes. Clearly they failed to follow the church teaching. Perhaps because it routinely protected child sex abusers and in so doing stripped itself of all moral authority.
That would by my perception Gabby.
Gabby.
When you tell someone you’re married you have to generally add the “with children” if you have them. Marriage is about the couple, the fact it happens to sit within the section of family does not mean children are a requirement.
Please, ditch the straw men, we already passed the damn referendum.
Graceful in defeat.. If my parish priest did that during mass I’d give him two fingers and walk out
Is it not a criminal offence to interrupt a religious service or am I mixing up countries?
Blasphemy law?
Sounds like a fair number of them did exactly that..
You are referring to the idiot priest here are you not?
Fire and Brimstone in Ballina!
i was wondering where enda disappeared to.
Another day, another thing to be outraged about.
It angers me to my core. The sooner every shred of Catholicism and religion is stripped from our constitution and legislative the better this country will be. The YES vote was not just about LGBT; it was one massive step for one tiny country away from the church towards a more equal, secular society.
…Then the heads in Rome wonder why they are losing numbers in Ireland?
Stupid actions such as done by this representative show again a dying ideology that is its own worst enemy.
DECLARATION OF DEFECTION FROM THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH
I ____________________________, do hereby give formal notice of my defection from the Roman Catholic Church. I want it to be known that I no longer wish to be regarded as a member of the Roman Catholic Church.
I further declare that I am aware of the consequences of this act regarding the reception of the sacraments of the Church, including the sacraments of the Eucharist, marriage and the sick and also with regard to burial.
I undertake to make this decision known to my next of kin and to ensure that they are aware of these circumstances in the case of my being incapacitated.
I acknowledge that I make this declaration under solemn oath, being of sound mind and body, and in the presence of a witness who can testify as to the validity of this document.
Signed:____________________________
The Rome org now has re-written its rules to NOT allow people to leave officially.
They can’t be more accurately expose for their numbers really as they are in Ireland alone – falling.
Rules Jeff? Those rules do not lawfully apply to anyone considering when you agreed to join you were about 6 mths old……
Exactly most peoples parents enrolled them into their club before you were old enough to have a say, then they don’t allow you to leave.
Specifically tell them you are pro LGBTQ rights, pro choice, pro euthanasia and also think transubstantiation is a load of codswallop.. They have to excommunicate you then apparently..
Really, to whom would I have to declare that those positions are sincerely held beliefs to?
There’s a freedom of association lawsuit in this somewhere and I’m dying for someone to take it. I’d have done it with pleasure myself but I left the church before they changed the rules.
Wow Joe.. That’s not at all creepy that you decided to look into who Stephanies employer is..
And then put it here as a comment.. That’s not freaky or inappropriate or anything..
And people wonder why some of us use pseudonyms around here..
Hi Joe, Firstly that’s not how you spell Stephanie and secondly I actually don’t work for them anymore but, when I did, the state paid my salary so I’ll patiently await your apology, you creep.
—-Apology Pending—– Don’t hold your breath. Love how he went to all that effort then spelt your name wrong. Sums him up perfectly.
Bet they’ll still trot a long next Sunday though to listen to this idiot.
Who do these clowns think they are?
Time to let it go, the vote passed and its history. Leave them to continue preaching their hatred to the remaining few that will listen. Life goes on without them being in a position to deny a minority group the opportunity of being equal anymore …
This is good! let them step up to the plate and show their madness so that the sane can walk away.
Back in the 80s a priest at mass started preaching that unbaptised children who died went to limbo. This was after the church had changed its mind and decreed that these children went to heaven. I walked out and haven’t been back since except for friends’ weddings or funerals.
There was a similar situation in Castlerea in Roscommon after the vote. There was a mass walkout (excuse the pun!)
why was that,did a priest say something o was local man John Watees preaching ?
Why is the priest getting out of his box, this is the same parish the priest and his partner went to court over a mortgage and who had a right to the property after they split up,
Just stop going to mass. Problem solved.
Mad Mike, unfortunately that does not solve the problem. There is still a priest on every school board. Majority of our schools are run by Catholic ethos- exempt from equality laws- free to brainwash children and oppress LGBT teachers and students. There is still a blasphemy law, enacted in 2009 which is outrageous. Our constitution was sent to the Vatican for approval! It is laced with religious protection and propaganda. That is just a few examples. If only it were as easy as “Just stop going to mass”. Sure, most people have, churches are closing down country wide. The church needs their unjust power and authority taken away and their ‘special status’ revoked. The Church needs to pay tax just like any other multi national business!
The Church doing its level best to finish itself.
Oh what a laugh. I’d have left the church laughing!! You couldn’t write this stuff. It would make a great Father Ted Sketch. Lol!!
I was at the mass and just want to make a few points in relation to the above article and to Louise Heneghans twitter comments.
1. Fr Doherty is the curate not the Parish Priest.
2. At no stage during the mass did Fr Doherty ask anybody who voted yes to stand up.
3. Louise has said she was at mass on saturday evening and sunday and has since agreed she did not hear him asking anybody who voted yes to stand up either day. People in front of her told her he did. She said she was standing at back and could not hear well. I could hear everything ok and didnt hear these comments.
4. She said earlier that people walked out. She now agrees nobody left till communion time which is quite common. She should have had a good view of this standing at the back.
5. Seen a tweet Louise sent during mass time on the saturday evening.
Louise has been rumbled tweets protected and no mention of the apparent stand up in the paper either. So the story is essentially a made up dramatization with no stand up or walk out. Pitiful anti church propaganda. Disgusting.
Hope the parish priest is reminded of her deceit during any future religious ceremonies she may wish to have/attend.
Mas Mayo, that’s excellent, someone has been telling porkie pies it seems!
No Sam for Mayo though……sorry.
Grow up
This is the fall of the church , and it’s ugly very ugly . Who the hell does this person think he is . What a propagate of hate and spite his man is and then he calls himself a man of God . Wake up call ? Prison more like
I think it’s a beautiful thing.
You should check the comment a few above your own – all Louise’s tweets were lies it would seem.
Sounds like a wrestler
Sure there is a man that is true to his convictions and holds to the teaching of the church and the message of the bible. Though I heartily disagree with his nonsense, I can respect him more than the hypocritical christian apologetics that interpret the message in a way that best suit themselves and adopting the teaching to what they think people want to hear.
Ye respect him for trying to get people to stand up so he could publicly shame them?
Really? Ye think that is something worthy of respect?
@TheDoctor – devil’s advocate here – why are these people voting Yes to SSM, if they’re Catholics? The church, the pope, the doctrines, and the Bible all make it very clear that they’re opposed to homosexuality.
So if they disagree with the church on that issue, why the fook are they sitting in mass?
Because they believe in god and jesus but also believe their church is man made and can be wrong.
Why do they go to a church that they believe is wrong?
I doubt most people agonise too much over the box-tick when the census form is completed Mrs S. That exercise is not a proclamation faith but simply inertia.
“Why do they go to a church that they believe is wrong?”
I don’t so I am guessing only that many people avoid the inner conflict. For some reason “staying with” the church whilst not believing all it teaches.
So this priest seeks to shift them off the fence and make a choice. He can do that if he wants.
Would be interested to see how many simply garb a thicker towel to drape over the fence top….
Well it should be a a proclamation of faith if you tick the box – that’s what religion is.
Guilty as charged Mrs S
Then you’re part of the problem.
You can blame people for being brainwashed. I blame the people doing the brainwashing.
People need to take responsibility for their own hypocrisy.
One minute the Church is dead the next minute it’s a vastly successful brainwashing organisation
Oh Peter. Try harder. Or your god will punish you.
Try logic
Try reading.
Ah Mrs S, you’re too young to be so bitter.
And is this priest not interpreting the message in a way that best suits him?
Someone ordained a fruit cake, not the first nor the last.
Ah the great unwashed clergy of Ireland, quick to condemn when it suits but only moves at the pace of a stopped clock when they need to accept blame! #Catholicchurchdraggingirelandbacktothemiddleages!
I’m moving gin to the next story on the journal.ie before I am struck by lightening here.
So basically the Journal have gone with a story without fact finding once again. Another copy and paste job, another anti Catholic Church article just for the sake of it. If only the Journal was as quick or brave to publish articles about DOB then maybe we could try and take them a bit more serious.
I was at this mass on Sunday and he never once asked yes voters to stand up nor did he say they gave the two fingers to the church.
He should give the ballot box the same respect he expects the confessional should receive.
If people are so happy and proud of their YES votes, what is the problem? If they have a guilty conscience, it is hardly the fault of this priest! Jesus said, “Follow me”, “Keep my commands”, “Repent”. He did not say “ah do whatever you want”. Christians are called to follow God’s ways and NOT the ways of the world. People need to decide if they are following Christ or not. If you want to live by YOUR rules, you can always set up your own church.
People are naive if they expect a pat on the back from the church for going against its teaching.
And yet the priest had absolutely no right to know what any of them voted. It was a secret ballot. The fact that they stood up shows they’re not ashamed of shunning homophobic crap coming from an organisation that supported the nazis and condoned slavery.
It is downright disgraceful god says judge not and thought shall not be judge they only have to look at themselves no one is in a position to judge and the god I believe in welcomes all to his house
.
God says Go & sin no more! (Jn 8:11)
If its one thing the Journal should cover more it’s anti Catholic church, pro gay marrage stories as they never seem to get much coverage here…
Delighted for Fr Tom, he is a young enough open minded guy. He has the same problem many Catholics do now, if you dont agree with the ‘rules’ of the Church, noone is going to cry if you dont attend mass. The authenticity of Church teaching needs to remain intact. It’s clear a lot of people disagree with some of the teaching but you cannot have it both ways. Just because society is going the way of ‘anything goes’ the Church wont. Fr Tom has every right to do what he did, he is a pastor, if you dont like it there is a door.
And I hope many people take that door and move to a more tolerant, Christian place of worship.
In effect he’s observing that most Irish Catholics if questioned on the “Doctrine” and the “Dogma” are in fact more protestant than catholic in their faith, myself included.
Why is it that in a time where murder, rape, drug use, sexual harassment, abortion, hypocrisy and assault is at large that the people choose to turn on a man who has sacrificed wealth and fortune to help those around him. With the combined intelligence of those commenting against Fr Doherty on this site, has any one of you made the creative decision to find the true story that has not been based on a comment on the website where remarks less intelligent than the corner of your wall reside?(twitter of all places!). The last time menace, bullying and intimidation of this level happened in the very same town, one of the priests took his own life. Unless the people of the parish and country want the same blood on their hands I suggest they take a step back and have a look at who their words are affecting. So much for Ireland ‘moving forward’.
So he didn’t bring politics in to the church then? Even Jesus was against what this priest did.
If people want to believe in Christ then they can’t pick and choose what they like and don’t like, if your a member of a political party you have to toe the line on political matters as well but that does not get the tut tut in the same way as being Catholic or a Christian, why is that?
Well done to this priest. Hypocrisy has no place in the Church. If you don’t agree with the Church….stop saying the Creed and stop receiveing Holy Communion.
Jesus would have thrown him out for bringing politics to the pulpit.
These priests , bishops and archbishops do not represent Jesus .
Jesus would have voted yes
He would have been disgusted at these imposters
Someone tell Doherty that the Catholic Church does not run peoples lives anymore, cheeky bast*ard!
He should just come out; he’s internalising his anger at the straight world.
Where’s the problem? Yes voters were asked to stand up and show themselves………why wouldn’t they?
He had no right to know what any of them voted, and merely confirmed what many believe about the church, they’re only interested in control and persecuting those who are not willing to submit to them, or indeed those who weren’t made cisgender and heterosexual, at least they’ve finally given up persecuting non Caucasians..
if he was attempting to shame people he would of asked who voted for fg.
Trish a person’s vote is private, if they didn’t want to stand up and be counted, they didn’t have to. However, if they were ashamed of voting yes, then taht’s another issue altogether.
In any event, the Catholic Church has its rules and regulations and if you don’t like them, just sling yer hook. If you’re not part of the Catholic church, this shouldn’t bother you too much.
Apologies in advance to the perpetually offended.
Shanti, I haven’t a clue what your rambling, incoherent post was about. Try it in English and repost it. Thanks.
Ah James, how’s about you learn English?
Nothing incoherent about my post.
For reference, those big words are all in the dictionary, and several of them exist online – may I suggest you try using them?
Shanti, that was a fair attempt but anyone who references an online dictionary clearly isn’t serious about using English as a means of communication. So feel free to have another go and if I’m at a real loose end later I’ll read it, for amusement if nothing else.
Nobody was asked to stand up or proclaim their YES vote. These tweets are mostly lies spread as an attack on the priest. The usual anti-church propaganda from some Irish people it would seem.
Lol, so the Oxford dictionary is not accessible online no? If it’s online it’s somehow inferior?
That’s seriously pathetic James.. Just because you can’t deny the church is all about control and persecution..
Shanti, if you are going to try and argue with me, will you please use English, not textspeak or any of the usual crap you use when you ‘communicate’ with your ‘friends’.
If you dont play the game dont make the rules.
Christ made the rules?
Who cares what these narrow minded minions think? The nation has spoken and that trumps the Vatican!
A true priest who called his flock to metanoia, just as Jesus did (Mark 1: 14-15), unlike the majority who place their security in the affirmation of the people and vice-versa. Popularity, affections and comfort have taken the place of God in their live; false idols! They will not name the sins of our times and call their people to conversion. Look at the statement of the primate of Ireland who has distanced himself from Cardinal Burke’s comments that the people of Ireland are worse than pagans. He says the theological language of the Church can seem to be offensive in public discourse. The problem with his argument is that the people who voted in favour of SSM are Catholics who should know and understand the language of their faith! The fact they DO NOT is his failing, the failing of priests and bishops to hold and teach the faith as deposited! Can you imagine Hindus finding the language of their faith offensive??!!!! How ridiculous that a bishop of the Church should speak this way, perhaps he needs a new job!
Didn’t jesus say “go sell everything you have and give to the poor”??
Didn’t he also say that those praying to be seen to be righteous and holy who’s actions didn’t match their words would be going to what the Catholic Church try to claim all sinners go to (Hell, which isn’t in the Bible, non believers and sinners die – which is what “hel” means – it’s a viking word) the place of eternal torment and burning was especially for the hypocrites..
And yet we are supposed to take the Vatican seriously? If jesus was here he would be tearing the Vatican a new one, they’re the biggest bunch of hypocrites on the planet.
You sound perfect why haven’t I heard of you before?
True, I forgot – “false idols”?? So what’s Mary and all the Saints? Drawing worship from the Lord and yet encouraged by the Catholic Church..
A cursory reading of the Bible exposes the Catholic Church to not be Christian..
The only way to stop this cult is if parent’s stop telling there children lies.
There is nothing before birth and the very same applies after death.
If people would only accept they will not be present at there own funeral.
Live this life, there is no next.
He had no right in or out of church to ask people how they voted. Having said that the whole congregation should have remained seated and not accepted his order to stand.
That part was made, unless you believe someone went to a wedding, Saturday evening mass and Sunday morning mass over the same weekend. If you go to mass that often you won’t be the type to disagree with a priest.
It’s bitter anti catholic propaganda
Its certainly taking a long time for the penny to drop!
What do you expect? using “punishment” and “extinction” as techniques to bully and guilt trip older congregations – classic age old catholic church approach to communicate a message. It’s their go to approach in the absence of any meaningful authority.
When mass ceases to be a social obligation they’re in big trouble.
Who will rid me of this acursed priest? Get alive Fr.Doherty.
“This will all blow over” famous last words
That’s amazing – if only others could see the light lol
The gay light
This moron is wearing his Roman collar to tight. Promote him to bishop so he can really run off at the mouth.
Yes and the people he was ‘calling out’ sat there and took it.
Its time to leave an organisation that cannot support you when you have a different outlook on life.
have your say