Fr Brendan Kilcoyne questioned whether he had been wrong and Mr Burke had been right, and that he was being taught by the evangelical Christian, who he claimed had “shamed” Catholics with his trenchant stance.
“From the beginning, I felt that Enoch could have dealt differently with the issue in the school; dealt with the principal differently. But he is right,” said Fr Kilcoyne, who is the parish priest in Balla, Co Mayo.
“There is a huge problem if you’re teaching [about transgenderism] in a Christian school. There is a huge problem if you are acknowledging alleged gender transformation, gender transition in a Christian school,” he added.
Fr Kilcoyne said he originally believed that Mr Burke could have framed his objection differently and that his family could have handled the issue differently – particularly when disrespect was shown for the courts.
He also felt that Mr Burke should not have continued showing up at his former school in Westmeath but said his sympathy was growing “as a result of his persistent personal witness and the appalling price he’s paying for it”.
“I must acknowledge that, if I am right in this, that I am being taught by him. I must acknowledge that as a matter of honesty,” Fr Kilcoyne added on an episode of his podcast, The Brendan Option.
“I was outraged by his behaviour, the behaviour of his family in court. Now, I’m beginning to wonder that, if they sincerely believe that the courts are applying an unjust law, what choice does a citizen have?” he asked.
“I am the most innocuous, harmless little creature you can imagine… but I am seriously beginning to wonder whether I was not wrong and Enoch right – that’s where I am now.”
Fr Kilcoyne said Catholics may have to think more about the issue, and may have to conclude that Mr Burke – who is not a Catholic – has shamed us.
“I am beginning to think I may have been wrong, I don’t question for a second that what [Mr Burke] is highlighting is absolutely wrong. What I questioned was the way in which he was doing it.”
He called on Catholics to “get your schools back”, and suggested that the public was failing to address the issue of transgenderism being taught in classrooms “out of cowardice and laziness”.
“And I’m saying to you, Stop laughing at Enoch, right? Now, I didn’t laugh at him. I was bothered, I was worried, and I was disapproving… it bothered me that he was doing something that many of us didn’t have the courage to do.”
On December 20, Mr Burke was freed from Mountjoy Prison, where he was being imprisoned for refusing to comply with High Court orders to stay away from his former place of employment at Wilson’s Hospital School.
He currently owes €193,000 in fines accrued for breaching that order, and will face a larger fine of €1,400 a day if he continues to attend the school when it reconvenes next week.