GALWAY CITY CHURCH:LEAFLETS CONTAINING a bishop's statement on the Lisbon Treaty went missing from a Galway City Church yesterday. Earlier, some parishioners had objected to the statement being included in the parish newsletter but it is not clear whether the two incidents were connected.
The parish newsletter at The Franciscan Abbey Church contained an extract from Bishop Noel Treanor’s statement to the joint Oireachtas Committee that the church is not opposed to a Yes vote in the Lisbon Treaty.
But Fr Gabriel Kinahan was confronted by a number of parishioners after the Saturday evening Mass requesting that the extract be removed from the newsletter. He told them he could not do so and following 8am Mass yesterday all the parish newsletters disappeared from the back of the church.
Fr Gabriel said: “I’m not saying that these people were responsible but it is an unfortunate coincidence that after I was confronted on Saturday night all the leaflets disappeared from the back of the church following the 8am Mass on Sunday.”
Fr Gabriel who is guardian at Galway’s Franciscan Church says they will be viewing CCTV footage to try and identify who stole the Mass leaflets. “In blunt terms somebody stole the leaflets from the back of the church.”
Fr Gabriel says it is up to everyone to make up their own minds on how they should vote on the Lisbon Treaty. But he added that no group had a right to say that voting Yes was against the wishes of the Irish Catholic Church and the statement by Bishop Treanor was representative of the views of Cardinal Seán Brady. New leaflets were printed for 12.30pm Mass yesterday. Fr Gabriel said the Franciscans might also print copies of the statement in full and leave them in the back of church.