PRIEST TALKS OF SAVING 8TH AT FIRST COMMUNION
A PRIEST has defended talking about the abortion referendum at a First Holy Communion ceremony, insisting it was parents who ‘walked out with their children’ who spoiled the day – not him.
Angry parents left the Communion Mass when Fr Martin McVeigh, parish priest in Clogherhead, Co. Louth, began discussing saving the Eighth Amendment in front of their children at the weekend.
Fr McVeigh, who previously inadvertently showed gay pornography to parents at a school presentation in Co. Tyrone, said it was not his intention to disrupt the day for anyone and that he was sorry some people felt it was the wrong thing to do.
However, the parish priest insisted he ‘did not spoil it – those who walked out with their children did’.
‘I wanted to make a personal statement, which was in line with the Church’s teachings, and it was not well received by some, but not all. I just gave my reasons why I was voting No, and why I felt my parishioners, as decent and compassionate people, should do the same thing,’ Fr McVeigh told the Drogheda Independent.
He continued: ‘I had told the parents I wanted to speak to them at the end of Mass and the children should banter among themselves. I was only less than a minute into a few sentences when I was stopped.
‘It was not terribly explicit what I was saying, and children are hearing about it every day on the news.
‘I do regret some people wouldn’t allow me to say it, and I regret some people felt they had to walk out.’
Dozens of parents left the church with their children before the end of the Communion Mass after Fr McVeigh spoke to them about saving the Eighth Amendment, including talking about how formed a child is in the womb at 12 weeks.
One outraged father, Keith Delaney, reportedly said he was furious after the priest preached about the referendum vote at the Holy Communion Mass last Sunday, saying it was ‘totally inappropriate’.
Parishioners complained when the cleric – who, in 2012, accidentally showed gay porn to parents of schoolchildren in Northern Ireland – was appointed parish priest of the Co. Louth village in 2013.
Fr McVeigh took a sabbatical after the images flashed up on a screen as he made a presentation to the parents of children preparing for Confession, in advance of their First Holy Communion, at St Mary’s Primary School in Pomeroy, Co. Tyrone.
In a statement at the time Fr McVeigh said: ‘The last month has been the most of difficult in my life.’ He denied the images were his and the PSNI said he had no case to answer.