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Father Sean Sheehy | St. Mary's Listowel/Radio Kerry/YouTube screen shot New Zealand Catholics can only dream of a priest like Father Sean Sheehy, forbidden by his bishop to say Mass for the crime of preaching the Gospel.
Tragically, we have no shortage of such bishops - although it's hard to imagine them daring to attract such headlines and controversy, just as it's hard to imagine many Kiwi Catholics walking out on a homily they didn't like.
Treat yourselves to the video of Fr Sheehy's oh-so-Oirish homily and let Bishop Brown know what you think of him - maybe as "faithless and craven", as a reader of this blog put it in an email to the bishop at <raybrowne@dioceseofkerry.org
An Irish bishop has apologized for a priest’s homily describing abortion and homosexual acts as examples of sinful behavior.
Bishop Ray Browne of Kerry published an apology on Nov. 1 for “the deep upset and hurt caused by the contents of the homilies” given over the weekend by Father Seán Sheehy.
Video of the sermon (https://twitter.com/i/status/1587373094351634433) was shared widely on social media and sparked both strong criticism and support from commentators.
Sheehy, who is retired, had been filling in for a parish priest at St. Mary’s Church in Listowel, a County Kerry town of fewer than 5,000 people. The reprimanded cleric on Wednesday told Irish media the bishop was “muzzling the truth in order to appease people.”
In his recent sermon, the Irish priest reflected on sin, penitence, sainthood, and God’s forgiveness.
“You rarely hear about sin, but it’s rampant,” he said. “We see it in the promotion of abortion. We see it for example in this lunatic approach of transgenderism.”
Another example, Sheehy said, was “the promotion of sex between two men and two women. That is sinful. That is a mortal sin and people don’t seem to realize it. It’s a fact, a reality, and we need to listen to God about it because if we don’t, then there is no hope for those people.”
Several of the congregation heckled the priest and some walked out.
“And so God is also telling you and me today, look, you have a responsibility to seek out those who are lost. You have a responsibility to call people to an awareness of the fact that sin is destructive, sin is detrimental, and sin will lead us to hell,” the priest said.
Then Sheehy reflected that the saints honored in November are former sinners.
“When we honor the saints on the first of this coming month, we honor people who are saints. Why are they saints? Because they’re repented and because they sought forgiveness. As somebody said one time, heaven is full of converted sinners,” he said.
“And so today, God says to us, ‘I have come to call sinners, but if you don’t admit you’re a sinner, then you’re not listening to my call and I can’t do anything for you because it’s a two-way street.’ Now, there are people you see who won’t like to hear what I’m saying, but the day you die, you will find out.
“What I’m saying is not what I invented, it is not what I came up with, [it] is what God is saying. And the day you die, you will find out that is the truth. Our prayer for people is that you, it won’t be too late for people. But how will people know that God wants to forgive them if we don’t tell them? How will people who are lost be found if we as God’s people don’t call them and say look, God loves you, he has come to call sinners, but he wants you to have life and have it to the full,” he continued.
“That’s what he wants. He wants you to live life to the fullest … we can only live it through, with, and in his grace,” the priest said.
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| Clasping hands with the Antipope, the man Father Sheehy has to deal with |
Bishop Browne’s statement regarding “the offending homilies” said that “the views expressed do not represent the Christian position.”
“The homily at a regular weekend parish Mass is not appropriate for such issues to be spoken of in such terms,” the bishop continued.
“The Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is a Gospel of love and ever proclaims the dignity of every human person. It calls on us all to ever have total respect for one another,” Browne added, saying: “This fundamental Christian teaching was beautifully proclaimed” in recent readings at Mass.
What Bishop Browne fails to understand or prefers to ignore is that the Gospel of love means speaking the truth in love. Especially we need to speak of the Four Last Things: Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell.
Speaking to Radio Kerry, Father Sheehy said the bishop had stopped him from saying Mass.
“I know myself what I said cannot be disproven by any honest-to-God Christian or Catholic teaching, and that’s the bottom line,” the priest said.
Irish newspapers were quick to report the priest’s controversial past support for a convicted sex offender.
Sheehy was a character witness for Daniel Foley, a former bouncer convicted of sexually assaulting a woman in the parking lot of a nightclub in 2008. He joined dozens of the accused’s supporters in court when the conviction was announced in December 2009 and shook the hand of the then 35-year-old Foley, and made disparaging comments concerning the woman’s status as a single mother, The Irish Examiner reported in 2013.
What were the comments, we wonder? They are not reported. Allegations of sexual assault are all too easily made and much harder to deny.
The then-bishop of Kerry, Bill Murphy, censured Sheehy, who resigned from his parish in Castlegregory soon after the verdict but continued to support Foley.
Was Father Sheehy hounded out of the parish? His continued support for the convicted man speaks volumes for his integrity.
There are about 140,000 people living in the territory of the Diocese of Kerry, the vast majority of whom are Catholic. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/252711/irish-priest-reprimanded-by-bishop-for-offending-homilies-about-sin
Nominally Catholic, it would seem.
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| St Brigid |
St. Patrick, St. Brigid and St. Colmcille, pray for holy Ireland.
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ReplyDeleteIs any church which in refusing to preach on sin necessarily rejects the remedy thereof, namely the gospel itself, is such a church worth fighting for?
ReplyDeleteI suggest that this question is for every believer to consider himself. but for me the answer is a resounding NO.
not only are such churches degraded into mere country clubs but they are burbling irrelevancies which stand for nothing as they believe nothing so can offer nothing.
they are not only a waste of time but they are unutterably boring!!!!
it is far better to come out from such an aposatte assembly lest we share in their sin by staying.
But as I said let every beliveer determine in his own mind his reponse to such manifest apostasy
yours
Stefanvs Svm
A reader of this blog whose parish church is one of those you mention is wrestling with the problem presented by her husband's, son's and young adult grandson's attendance, every Sunday, and in the case of the husband also at one weekday Mass, with our reader. Does she stay with this 'country club' - which is hugely important to her husband - for the sake of family unity, or in defence of the faith must she leave and go without the Eucharist?
DeleteTo Stefanvs Svm and "a reader of this blog whose parish church is one of those you mention":
DeleteDont leave whatever you do. This is Christ's Church. You cannot judge the Bride of Christ by the errors of a few errant bishops and priests. We must stick up for Christ and His Church.
Please read the following from Bp Schneider and Cardinal Mulller, especially the words "Authority is defined by its limits, and obedience is also defined by its limits".
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/bp-schneider-pope-has-full-authority-but-cannot-weaken-the-integrity-of-the-catholic-faith/
The Pope, and many bishops and priests have on many issues far exceeded their authority. So we laity are released from obedience in these areas. This means we are not only free, but compelled to criticise our leaders where they are wrong.
So get to work and start correcting them. Walking away is to fail to do your duty before our Lord.
To Anonymous who addressed me as Stefanvs thus making it clear who he or she is talking to.
DeleteThanks for that courtesy.
I am not a catholic so I do not share catholic ecclesiology (doctrine as to who or what the Church is).
and I left the churches i used to frequent many years ago so to me the question is already answered.
As for the "Bride of Christ" I suggest you look at the book of Hosea were the prophet was commanded to marry a woman who then played the harlot. God foreknew this but commanded this marriage to in order to make a point.
as for my duty before the Dread Lord (I style Him such for he is absolute monarch, I view Him as Autocrat and moreover the term was used of kings in old days) i think "come out of her": Rev 18:4 is most apt
they are apostate. they will not repent. i see no other choice but to leave them. i certainly left the apostate churches of my youth.
If i had stayed with any of them i would have been long dead by now, consumed by despair from believing their legalstic heresies. It was literally get out or die
and these men here who deny so mch core doctrine held by ALL churches, are clearly apostate, regardless of where one stands on such inhouse debates as catholic v protestant or catholic v orothodox etc
So he speaks about sin and the need for repentance but when he supported a sinner convicted of a crime of a sexual nature he was censured.
ReplyDelete