With Pope Francis leading the way on dignified and prayerful responses to the current crisis in Ukraine, some priests have chosen to take a different route.
On a day where the Russian Ambassador appeared on Russian state media Russia 24 to claim that Ireland was the most overtly anti Russian nation in the West, an Irish priest was appearing on his own country’s state media to broadcast himself throwing paint onto the gates of the building.
Father Fergal MacDonagh previously hit the headlines after allowing an Imam to pray to Allah, invoking the names of Moses, Jesus, Mohammad and all the prophets on the altar of a Catholic church.
Now, he appeared on Liveline with Joe Duffy, a popular talk show on Irish state media. The audio is below, where he douses the gates in red paint, sets off an alarm, discusses the building being destroyed by arson and finally gets approached by a Garda.
It is as surreal as it sounds.
The stunt coincided with the Russian Ambassador Yuriy Filatov appearing on Russian media and stating that the relationship between Ireland and Russia had deteriorated:
Naturally the general political situation is simply hostile towards Russia and everything Russia.
A very negative role, of course, is being played by mass media that shows an absolutely tendentious picture of the events happening in Ukraine at the political level, but Ireland is in the forefront in the European Union and wider with regards to various anti-Russian events.
In this regard, it is probably hardly possible to talk now about any relations between Russia and Ireland. We are mainly supporting a channel of communication with the Irish.
“There is probably a certain sense in this because even in these difficult periods there is need in them.”
As our minister, Sergey Lavrov, said in the interview maybe they will stop going crazy in the West and will understand where, what and how in reality, but for now we are dealing with what we have.