Priest ‘steps back’ from school role after guest’s ‘rant’ at Mass
A PRIEST has ‘stepped back’ from a school chaplaincy role after a man he invited to speak during a Mass for primary students launched into a tirade of anti-transgender and homophobic remarks.
Shocked parents walked out of the service for pupils at Gaelscoil Uí Riada in Bishopstown, Cork on January 30 when the man ‘went on a rant’ about divorce, gender identity issues and the decline of the Church.
He criticised the selection of non-binary artist Bambie Thug to represent Ireland at Eurovision and used terms such as ‘gender bender’, according to one mother who witnessed the incident, forcing the school to apologise to parents.
Now, following a report that celebrant and parish priest Fr Michael O’Leary will no longer provide chaplaincy services for the school, the Diocese of Cork and Ross confirmed yesterday the ‘issues’ had been resolved.
A spokesman said: ‘The issues around ministry to children attending Gaelscoil Uí Riada have been satisfactorily resolved by the school, the diocese and the local family of parishes and this has been communicated to the parents by the school. There is no further statement being made.’
A diocesan spokesman earlier told The Echo newspaper that ‘Fr O’Leary has recognised that it’s best for the school that he step back from that role’. The spokesman said Wilton parish is one in a ‘family’ of four parishes, and the chaplaincy of Gaelscoil Uí Riada ‘will be provided by priests from the other parishes and lessons about guest speakers have been learned’.
One mother previously told the Mail she was shocked by the comments made at the Mass that was intended as a celebration of inter-generational faith, with grandparents and pupils invited. It is understood the man was due to talk about the importance of sharing faith between generations but instead ‘went on a rant’, that included claims divorce has ‘ruined’ the country and criticism of Bambie Thug. She also described how the man used outdated terms such as ‘gender bender’ while speaking from the altar about gender identity politics and the collapse of the Catholic Church. The mother told the Mail: ‘It was a normal Mass and then the priest asked a man to come up and address everyone.
‘We all thought it was going to be about how it’s important to share your faith with other people in your family but it wasn’t that.
‘He just started going on and on about how Ireland has changed and that divorce ruined the country, nobody is going to Mass.
‘At the start we were all just looking at each other going: “What?” Then he started going on about Eurovision and Bambie Thug getting chosen to represent Ireland and how this was a bad thing. He then used the term “gender bender” and that’s when people started kind of murmuring. I just sat there with my mouth open. I couldn’t move.
‘I thought, “Is this really happening?”’ Some parents got up and walked out and were shouting out but I honestly can’t remember what they were saying. I was just glued to my seat with shock.
‘You could see the poor priest was just mortified. He didn’t know what to do, the poor man. I know the priest well and he’s a very tolerant and decent man so it looked like it was a big shock to him as well, to be fair to him.’
The mother said a lot of massgoers were angry after the service and the priest repeatedly apologised to parishioners and tried to explain that he knew nothing of what the man was going to say and that he disagreed with what he had said.
She said: ‘This whole thing was surreal, really. I don’t understand how he was let up there. He might have lied about what he was going to say. It was supposed to be a really nice event but you had people angry, upset or confused. He was just rabbiting on about how nobody goes to Mass any more and that there are more gay people now or something like that.
‘Honestly, I was just so shocked by it all. I had invited my father to come down as I thought it was going to be a nice Mass and a nice thing to do.
‘The priest was dealing with the aftermath of it and was just a deer in the headlights. The whole thing was chaos. I know a lot of the parents spoke with the principal directly after and gave him an earful but it wasn’t his fault either.’
School principal Breanndán Ó Gréilligh has already apologised to parents in a letter, the Irish Examiner reported.
‘Some parents walked out’