The Catholic Church is becoming increasingly isolated in its attitude to
homosexuality, former president Mary McAleese has warned.Mrs McAleese believes while the Vatican is losing its argument on its teachings, some youngsters in Catholic schools are left battling an internal conflict. She said the numbers of young men who have died by suicide is galling, with gay men one of the most at risk groups.
"They are the victims, one, of homophobic bullying; they are also frankly highly conflicted," said Mrs McAleese, who is studying canon law in Rome after her 14-year term which ended in November.
She said the vast majority of children in Ireland went to Catholic schools, where they would have heard the church's attitude to homosexuality.
"They will have heard words like disorder, they may have heard the word evil used in relation to homosexual practice," said Mrs McAleese.
"And when they make the discovery, and it is a discovery and not a decision, when they make the discovery they are gay when they are 14, 15 and 16 an internal conflict of absolutely appalling proportions opens up. They may very well have heard their mothers, their fathers, their uncles, aunts, friends use dreadful language in relation to homosexuality and now they are driven into a space that is dark and bleak."
She warned that with more debate, and greater research, the Catholic Church "is going to become increasingly isolated in its attitude to homosexuality" and gay people's civil and human rights.
The former president met the Papal Nuncio Charles Brown, who represents Pope Benedict XVI in Ireland, shortly after Easter to specifically draw his attention to the issue.
But she fears the issue will not be tackled until the "omerta" or code of silence on the issue is broken.
She also said the child abuse scandals have left "a massive hallowing out of trust" in the church's Episcopal leadership, but she believes it lost its grip on society years before as it insisted on obedience in a world where people were becoming increasingly educated and had access to other opinion.