A REBEL cleric has expressed alarm at Cardinal Sean Brady's ultimatum to the Government on rights for cohabiting couples.The Government will be making a mistake if it brings in legislation to give cohabiting and same-sex couples the same rights as married people, Cardinal Brady has warned.
But the outspoken Father Iggy O'Donovan yesterday said that when it came to sexual morality and relationships, "clergymen often make the worst leaders possible".
He told Mass-goers at the Augustinian church in Drogheda that despite his reservations about cohabiting or same-sex unions, he nonetheless respected the views of those who saw these as civil rights.
In 2006, Fr O'Donovan was censured by the cardinal and the Vatican after he concelebrated an Easter Mass with an Anglican priest.
He was forced to issue a public apology for breaching Catholic Church rules, in spite of huge local and national support.
Yesterday, the monk said in his newsletter, which was distributed to Drogheda Catholics, that from reading the press in recent days, he had become somewhat alarmed that a serious Church-State row might happen soon in Ireland.
The Government has almost completed drafting a bill which aims to rectify certain anomalies on the position of cohabiting and same-sex couples, he said.
"Most reasonable people would agree that where disadvantage, discrimination or other penalty needs to be remedied, that it should be remedied," he added.
"Irish people enjoy the give-and-take of political banter. This is evident at election time. But when politics and sexual morality get entangled, all reason goes out the window."
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(Source: II)