A priest in Ireland has stood by a homily he delivered attacking abortion and Transgenderism despite ever-increasing attempts by leftists to cancel him.
Catholic Priest Fr. Seán Sheehy delivered a number of sermons last weekend attacking government and societal pushes towards transgenderism, abortion and homosexuality in Ireland, which he described as being sinful.
The homilies have since provoked outrage from activists across Ireland, who have demanded that Fr. Sheehy apologise and be disallowed from preaching.
However, despite even his own local bishop having sided with the cancel mob — describing the homily as “not appropriate” and as not representing the “Christian position” — Fr Sheehy has stood by his preaching, telling Ireland’s state-owned broadcaster that they are backed in the teachings of the bible and the Catholic Church.
“The Church teaching does not change. It was the same yesterday, today, and would be the very same tomorrow. And what the Church taught is based on the Scriptures and the scripture do not change,” Fr. Sheehy told Radió Teilifís Éireann.
When asked if he was challenging the authority of the local bishop in standing by his homily, Fr. Sheehy insisted that he was not, but that even bishops must make sure they abide by the teaching of the Catholic faith, and are not merely bowing to public pressure.
“Of course I accept the authority [of the bishop], but by the same token, when he says to me, that that’s not the Christian faith, then he needs to read the Catechism and he also needs to read the Scriptures as well,” he said, accusing the bishop of sacrificing “the truth in order to appease people who do not want to face the reality of sin”.
After saying that it is a “reality” that transgenderism and the “promotion of sex between two men and two women” constitute “mortal sin”, Fr. Sheehy has been attacked on all sides of the Irish political and cultural sphere, with the priest even saying that the local bishop has since taken him off masses in his local parish of Listowel.
Even senior members of the Irish parliament have come out to lambast the priest, with the country’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney, slamming the comments as being “disgraceful”.
“I think they’re disgraceful comments and I think they are a reflection on the person that made those comments rather than anything else, and they should be withdrawn and there should be an apology,” he said.
Meanwhile, the head of the country’s Labour Party, Ivana Bacik, also condemned the priest’s homily, describing it as being “deeply hurtful and quite shocking”.
The country’s Deputy Prime Minister Leo Varadkar — who is openly gay — took a more muted approach to the comments, denouncing the content of the homily though emphasising that Fr. Sheehy had every right to give it.
“The [Deputy PM] does not believe that gay people will go to hell for being who they are, nor does he believe that any man or woman can make such a judgment,” a spokesman for Varadkar said, while also clarifying that the politician “respects [Fr. Sheehy’s] right to express his religious beliefs freely”.