Outspoken actor Gabriel Byrne has launched a stinging attack on the Catholic Church and described it as a “force for evil”.However, he said it was his own unhappy memories of the seminary, where he says he was sexually abused by a priest, that made him decide not to raise his two children as Catholics.
And in a no-holds-barred interview with The Sunday Telegraph, the 62-year-old says he remains unrepentant on his views of organised religion and even claimed the Catholic Church once drew inspiration from Hitler’s Nazis.
Recalling the time he was sent away to an English seminary at just 11 to study for the priesthood, he said: “It was part of the culture. It was a very religious, oppressive society, though we didn’t see it as oppression at the time.
“I think the religion I had — and I don’t have any now — was rooted in a kind of childish fantasy.
“The Jesuits have that expression: ‘Give us a child until he is seven and he will be ours for life.’ That was why the Catholic Church and the Nazi party fed off each other. After the rally at Nuremberg, the Pope said: ‘We need to be doing something similar and we have the theatre for it with St Peter’s,’ so that was when he started coming out on the balcony to address the crowds.
“And the Nazis, meanwhile, were learning from the Jesuits and making sure they got the child by seven in order to have them for life — the Hitler Youth.
“De Valera signed the book of condolence when Hitler died. There was a sneaking regard among many Irish people for Germany and Hitler. England’s pain was Ireland’s gain.”
The New York-based actor, who triggered a storm when he described The Gathering as a “scam”, said he feels fortunate to have escaped the clutches of the Catholic Church.
“They have way too much hold on this country,” he said. “It’s a very corrupt and nefarious institution. The nuns were vicious because you have all these women living together in denial of love. They turned inward on themselves, became twisted creatures. I saw nuns being awfully cruel to me and to my sister. Horrific. Horrific.”
Referring to his decision not to raise his two grown-up children as Catholics, he said: “I never discussed religion with them. As far as I’m concerned, it didn’t do me any good.”
* Byrne’s latest film, All Things To All Men, is out on Friday.