A newly unearthed interview from Stephen Donnelly has exacerbated the growing rift between the Minister for Health and Catholics, especially in light of incendiary comments that he has made about First Communions and Confirmations.
The Health Minister has issued a warning to the bishops which the Irish Independent referred to as ‘blunt’ today, on the same day that an explosive interview with Hot Press was unearthed on social media. In that interview, Donnelly admitted to smoking marijauna and enjoying it, he also admitted to having visited a ‘strip club’, but refused to be drawn on questions about other drugs that he had used. In the interview, he also stated,
I’d like to find a way to decriminalise small quantities of weed. If a grown adult wants to grow a herb and then smoke it, and there are no negative consequences for other people, then they should be allowed to do that.
This seems remarkably different from his opinion that Catholic bishops are ‘putting lives at risk’ by performing Communions and Confirmations, in church settings where not a single transmission of Covid has been linked.
After being asked was he religious, Donnelly (who also stated that his campaign for election was managed by someone who had led Obama’s campaign in Toledo) told Hot Press:
I’m a non-practising Catholic. I would describe myself as spiritual – not in a twinkly bells sense. But I do believe that there is more out there than what we see in the physical world. I do believe that Jesus Christ was around 2,000-odd years ago. Was he the physical personification of God the Catholic Church preaches? I don’t know.
He then continued:
I have huge difficulty with some of the Catholic Church’s dogma around things like homosexuality and abortion and the role of women. And, I think, sadly, they have a lot to answer for.
In 2018, Donnelly (who’s government presided over 3,000 domestic violence 999 calls being ignored in large numbers during lockdown) claimed that the church ‘promoted’ a ‘shameful, hypocritical and destructive view of women across the Globe’.
Donnelly (who’s government have been criticised for their poor responses to domestic violence) then double down on his sectarian slurs.
Donnelly also tried to interfere in the internal matters of the church with a tweet that unleashed a Twitter mob after Archbishop Eamon Martin, after the Archbishop followed church procedure by stating the automatic excommunications of politicians who vote for abortion.
Many Catholics are still convinced that they are living in the late 70s or early 80s and that any playful to and fro with politicians will not ultimately affect them and that it is still licit to throw a few quid into the Fianna Fail church gate collection.
When legions of Gardai are surrounding villages to stop people attending Mass, as happened in Cavan earlier this year, then it is time to wake up and smell the coffee.
