In 2012, the General Secretary of Ireland's ruling Fine Gael party, Tom Curran, chaired a session of a conference by the Association of Catholic Priests.
The association had as one of its confounders Tony Flannery, a priest who has since been removed from public ministry, who is a brother of a Fine Gael chief strategist.
Flannery admitted to voting for a removal of Ireland's anti abortion laws in 2018.
Democratic Party operative John Podesta coined the term ‘Catholic Spring’ during his scheming to plant party operatives within the Catholic Church in order to steer church teaching towards party policy.
The movement never quite got off the ground, but Ireland has had a ‘Catholic Spring’ of its own.
It started with Fine Gael shutting down the Vatican Embassy. Then, the establishment of the ACP (in 2010, before FG took power) laid the groundwork for a network of priests who would be trotted out by media to either be supportive of or ambivalent to the State's policies, particularly its referendums.
State politicians such as abortion campaign leader Josepha Madigan partnered with Radical Synodalists, such as We Are Church, in order to call for changes which would be more in line with party policy. Madigan also ‘deputised’ when a priest did not show up for Mass, conveniently happening to say prayers in his absence and then calling for women’s ordination afterwards.
Beauty peagant winner and Irish American Maria Walsh, who is now an MEP, was given a speaking tour around Catholic schools in Ireland in order to promote the State's policies on same sex relationships. She raised the rainbow flag in place of the Irish flag in most of those schools.
Now, as the entire force of the state weighs down on their fellow priest, the Association of Catholic Priests have sensationally added weight to those attacking their colleague.
Father Timothy Hazelwood went on state media and actually said ‘it's up to him’ when asked about Bishop Raymond Browne stopping Father Sheehy from saying public Mass.
“He had no regard for the families that were sitting the pews, for people who would have gay or transgender members and their families.
It was, ‘I'm going to let you have it whether you like it or not.
He (Fr Sheehy) is not a priest of the Diocese of Kerry, he's a retired priest who worked in the United States where that kind of polarised way of thinking and engaging is very prominent.
So, it's up to the Bishop of Kerry but I don't think many priests in Kerry will be inviting him to fill in for them.
I think in Ireland, there's a different way we try and do things where we are bit more considerate”.
Considerate? This is the same ACP that complains about a lack of vocations, then complains about young priests and goes on state media to bash their fellow priests when they commit the Cardinal Sin of criticising their beloved Fine Gael.
The fact that the recent Synod Synthesis Report echoed, almost word for word, rants against young priests by members of the ACP should set alarm bells ringing in Rome about the potential for the compromised integrity of the Synod.
Why would any young priest want to join an Association of Catholic Priests that sides with the government against their own colleagues?
The next stages of the Synod in Ireland must address the close relationship between government policy and the Association of Catholic Priests.