Priest: Hierarchy deceitful over baptism

Fr Iggy O’Donovan has accused the Catholic Church hierarchy of “luring him into a trap” and behaving in a mean and deceitful way over a complaint made about a baptism at which he officiated.

The Augustinian priest described the person who made the complaint as “belonging to, what I would call, the extreme, right-wing, extreme fundamentalist, I think throwing bottles of holy water at TDs outside the Dáil and things of that sort”.

Fr O’Donovan yesterday explained his recollection of the ceremony in Drogheda at the heart of the controversy.

“My normal thing when I am doing a baptism, I would pour the water, and usually I would ask the parents ‘would you like to pour a drop of water on your child, given that John or Hazel is likely to spend more time with you than me in his or her Christian life’,” he told Today FM’s Ray D’Arcy show.

“There was never a problem about that. In this particular case, one of the people present alleged that I had not poured water but had allowed the parents and godparents to pour the water. That was not my recollection but I was prepared to accept that I may have overlooked that, I may have made an error.”

He said the parents and godparents of the child did not have a problem with the ceremony, though the child had to be baptised again. He said about a fortnight later he was approached by the parish priest of Drogheda, Fr James Carroll, while out walking on a beach, who told him there had been a complaint.

“He did not name the complainant. I checked the details, I got back to him, I wrote a little report of my recollection of the day which I handed over to him in good faith.

“He said this is probably a case of scrupulosity, overemphasis on the letter of the law rather than a spirit. [He said] let’s be serious for a minute, ‘let’s talk about Tipperary hurling where I come from’. I took it that was it.”

Fr O’Donovan said he recalled being unwell on that day with a “blood pressure problem.”

“Be that as it may, I thought no more of it and handed this over to him in good faith thinking that was the end of it, only to realise later that I had been lured into a trap. By conceding anything that I might have made a mistake, I was actually more or less saying I did make a mistake, or worse still that I had done it deliberately or had tried to abuse the sacrament, which was certainly not my intention.”

The matter was referred to Cardinal Sean Brady.

“This was the autumn of 2012. I thought that was the end of it until February this year when I had another call from my Provincial telling me that he had a communication from the prior general in Rome, that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had been in touch and were very concerned about me causing confusion and scandal.

“I think there may have been other issues at stake. This was used as a stick, not just to beat me, but a certain type of priest, there is a group of us who have been under pressure in recent times. Over the past 12 months, I knew that I was being monitored. It is very sad when fellow priests pass information up the line with a view to hurting you.”

He said he realised he belongs to a Church where “the great majority of our people have literally walked away from it for one reason or another and there are so many problems and so many difficulties that you suddenly find yourself worrying about the deckchairs on the Titanic”.

“The sad thing about this is that it was not about the baptism but about me and people like me and Tony Flannery. This particular baptism was used in a mean and deceitful way.”