Hurling star Donal Óg Cusack hopes the new pope will “walk the walk” on the issue of gay marriage.The Cork goalkeeper, who revealed he was gay in 2009, wants Pope Francis to let him get married in his parish church in Cloyne, Co Cork, because it is so much part of his local community.
Donal Óg, 35, wrote on a popular Irish-American website that his mother and her friends, who cleaned the local church on their hands and knees, were delighted with the inauguration of Pope Francis.
“We don’t talk much about the Pope or his business when I call to the house,” said Donal Óg. “We talk about what’s going on in our mad little village and we talk about hurling.
“In our house, the Pope might get his picture stuck to the fridge but Christy Ring was the only man we knew to be infallible and hurling has always been the one true faith.
“Still, I’d like to know someday about how the mother feels about the fact that her son whom she loves won’t ever be allowed to get married in the church that she cleans in the village she has always lived in.
“The Pope who gets the bus and talks about love is against gay marriage. He’s never been to Cloyne, by bus or by car, but he’s one of the last people on Earth who cares that I am gay.”
Donal Óg believes that people who love each other are entitled to get married.
“If I find somebody I love, the Pope won’t be letting me celebrate that relationship in the church which baptised me, gave me my communion, confirmed me, and which will probably seize my body for burial if I let it.”
He said he also expected the Pope would have a “hissy fit” if he did find somebody he loved and they wanted to share their home with a child who needed loving parents.
“Gay adoption, he [Pope Francis] says, is child abuse,” said Donal Óg. “That’s a pretty big steaming slice of ignorance for any badged rep of Catholic Church Inc to be offering to the customers in this day and age.”
The sportsman, who is currently single, said the Pope was now in the perfect place to learn a little bit about the realities of child abuse.
“Someday some fellow like me is going to decide to get married in a little church in some place like Cloyne, just like the people he grew up with and the people he plays with,” said Donal Óg.
“I wouldn’t want to be the priest who explains the Pope’s position to the mothers of Ireland when they’re done cleaning the churches and I wouldn’t like to be the man who bars the door to the community that makes up the church.
“So, my brothers and sisters, the lesson for the day is — taking the bus isn’t the same thing as walking the walk.”