Jennifer O’Connell: We owe Fr Seán Sheehy grudging thanks for his repugnant screed

Do you get a pass on hate speech if you can claim to be preaching the word of God?

Before Fr Seán Sheehy stood on the altar in Listowel last weekend to confidently denounce homosexuality as being “against nature”, shriek about the “lunatic approach of transgenderism” and condemn “the promotion of abortion”, this was chiefly an academic question. The yawning chasm between the Catholic Church’s retrograde views on what happens in our private lives and the values of a secular society belonged to the realm of things to which indefinite blind eyes can be turned.

The blind eye has been an essential tool of social cohesion since the foundation of the State. These days, it is what allows us to legislate for abortion and marriage equality and still broadcast the Angelus twice daily. It is the handy little bit of doublethink that permits us to ignore the fact that almost 90 per cent of our primary schools remain within the patronage of the Catholic Church, while only 78 per cent of the population said they were Catholic at the time of the 2016 Census and one in 10 had no religion.

[ Listowel priest denounces sex between two men and two women as a mortal sin ]

[ Obsession with sexuality partly responsible for sermon controversy, priests say ]

[ Priest at centre of controversial Listowel homily stands over his remarks ]

It is the hypocrisy that insists presidents, judges, taoisigh and tánaistí must swear a religious oath regardless of whether or not they believe what they’re saying — while simultaneously congratulating ourselves on being an open, progressive and secular State.

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So in this respect at least, we owe Fr Sheehy grudging thanks for his repugnant screed, much of which he had the opportunity to repeat ad nauseam across the media in the days afterwards. He shone a light in places we’d rather not look. Religious influence over Irish public life is such a constant that, without people like Fr Sheehy to shake us out of lethargy, there is a risk that we might stop noticing it. He succeeded in making the church’s views on LGBTQ people — and the question of when and where the public expression of those views might cross the line into hate speech — very much a live issue.

The Act will criminalise intentional or reckless communication, or behaviour likely to incite violence or hatred against anyone with a protected characteristic

Coincidentally (or perhaps not) the new Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences Bill was published just two days before his tirade and is due to come into force in 2023. The Act will criminalise intentional or reckless communication, or behaviour likely to incite violence or hatred against anyone with a protected characteristic. It balances the right to freedom of expression by offering several defences, including that the material concerned consisted of “a reasonable and genuine contribution to literary, artistic, political, scientific, religious or academic discourse”.

The Act is not going to be worth much if you can get around it by insisting you’re contributing to “religious discourse” by repeating what was said in a sometimes misogynist, occasionally homophobic, 2,000-year-old text as the “word of God”. Conveniently for those who like to claim his imprimatur, God’s word is sufficiently opaque that it can support a whole spectrum of views. So Pope Francis is channelling the word of God when he muses, on the subject of gay priests, “who am I to judge”. Enoch Burke is equally convinced he has God’s backing when he is suspended from his job and jailed for contempt of court, refusing to call a transgender pupil by the pronoun “they” or when thundering about the evils of “the widespread normalisation of homosexuality”.

The real value of the legislation isn’t in the successful prosecutions it will bring. It is important for the message it sends: that this is a tolerant society in which you are free to believe what you like, but you are not free to say what you like. You are not free to stir up hatred of protected groups without repercussions.

[ Ireland’s growing tolerance leaves dogmatic religion at a loss ]

If that message means anything, then the Catholic Church must go further than simply apologising, as Bishop of Kerry Ray Browne did, to “all who are offended”.

“The views expressed do not represent the Christian position,” said Bishop Browne.

Really? Which views don’t represent it? Roman Catholic doctrine is fairly clear. While being gay is not a sin, it is “objectively disordered” and being in a relationship as a gay person is “intrinsically immoral”. The church has no official position on transgender people, so perhaps that’s what he meant.

In truth, Fr Sheehy is not a lone crusader. He is merely saying the quiet bit out loud.

In areas outside education, the church’s influence these days may be largely symbolic. But if words matter … then symbols matter too

The key question, then, isn’t how we respond to a cruel outburst by someone who was previously notorious for his public support for a convicted sex offender. It is how we as a society respond to the fact that an organisation with these beliefs continues to enjoy such outsize influence over important areas of Irish life — including our education system, our hospitals and the twice daily broadcasts on our national media stations.

Hours of classroom time are dedicated to the religious instruction of children. And while parents can opt their children out, as Atheist Ireland highlighted again this week, most schools do not offer an alternative. As a result, “children of Catholic parents get two and a half hours more education every week, for eight years, than children of atheist or minority faith parents”.

In areas outside education, the church’s influence these days may be largely symbolic. But if words matter — and they do, or there would be no need for any hate speech legislation — then symbols matter too. As the Angelus bells ring out later today, or as your children start their preparation for their First Holy Communion or Confirmation, or as you get ready for Christmas Day Mass, it’s worth remembering that all Fr Sheehy was doing was repeating, more bluntly than his Bishop would like, his organisation’s terms and conditions.

The Catholic Church, of course, enjoys the same right as every group and individual to believe what it likes. The question is why we are still choosing to bow down in deference to it.