Irish Examiner View: Modern massgoers reject callous preaching

Fr Seán Sheehy has inadvertently opened a wider debate in sticking to his guns — a debate on what Christian faith really means.

Fr Seán Sheehy said Mass in a Listowel church over the weekend, criticising the promotion of abortion and transgenderism. Picture: Domnick Walsh / Eye Focus LTD

The markers of a changed Ireland can vary according to one’s opinions and perspective, but there can be no doubt that the reaction to Fr Seán Sheehy’s comments at a Mass in Listowel, Co Kerry, last week suggests a citizenry unwilling to accept hatefulness as doctrine.

Fr Sheehy’s sermons last weekend criticised the HSE for promoting promiscuity, adding that sex between men and between women was a sin, and that sexual sin was rampant. He was also critical of the promotion of abortion and transgenderism.

Some Massgoers left the church in protest, and since then the Bishop of Kerry has apologised for the hurt caused by Fr Sheehy’s remarks. 

However, the priest has not backed down, saying in a radio interview yesterday that gay politicians are going to hell. 

If this were the Ireland of 60 years ago, the internal conflict between a bishop and a priest alone would have galvanised observers far beyond the relevant diocese: Covert ecclesiastical power struggles were the subject of much-fevered speculation in an Ireland dominated by the Church.

Last weekend’s sermons and the subsequent reaction show a very different country, one in which Massgoers refuse to feel beholden to the teachings of the Church and instead leave it in protest at the views being expressed, while a bishop can acknowledge and apologise for the hurt caused by a priest’s comments from the altar.

It may be that Fr Sheehy has inadvertently opened a wider debate in sticking to his guns, however — a debate on what Christian faith really means.

If he is correct in saying that he is only preaching Catholic doctrine and scripture, how can those hateful remarks last weekend be reconciled with the Pope himself indicating his support for same-sex civil unions?

Even the most cursory examination of the development of religious doctrine shows radical change over the centuries, but Fr Sheehy’s fundamentalist interpretations have long been out of favour within the mainstream Church.

For many observers, Fr Sheehy’s moral authority is undermined by his behaviour in a notorious 2009 court case. At that time he was a character witness for Danny Foley, subsequently convicted of sexual assault, and after the trial Fr Sheehy queued to shake Foley’s hand and said he just wanted to support the man.

Even in the days of the Old Testament there was a name for this kind of behaviour: Rank hypocrisy.