A PRIEST IN Kerry who sparked backlash over comments he made during a homily on Sunday has stood over his remarks and accused the Bishop of Kerry of “muzzling the truth” after he said that the views expressed were not representative of Christianity.

Fr Seán Sheehy, a retired priest deputising for parish priest Fr Declan O’Connor, told parishioners at St Mary’s Church in Listowel that sex between two men or two women is sinful and that free condom schemes from the HSE promote promiscuity.

He also said that Irish legislation took a “lunatic approach” to “transgenderism”.

A number of people left the Sunday morning mass in protest, while the video of the mass sparked backlash on Facebook and Twitter.

One person told The Journal that the sermon was “like stepping back to 1980s Ireland.”

The Bishop of Kerry, Dr Ray Browne, issued a statement yesterday morning in which he apologised for the homily and acknowledge “the deep upset and hurt” it had caused .

“I apologise to all who were offended. 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 statement read.

“The Gospel of our Lord and Saviour 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.”

This video from St Mary’s Church in Listowel is absolutely shocking…. pic.twitter.com/VYHu3Ktc3d

— Shane McAuliffe 🐷✈️ (@ShaneMcAuliffe1) November 1, 2022

However, speaking to Radio Kerry yesterday, Fr Sheehy stood by his comments. 

He told the radio station that Bishop Browne had told him that he was going “to take me off all masses”, but said that he “could care less, really”. 

“I know myself that what I said cannot be disproven by any honest-to-God Catholic, Christian or Catholic teaching, and that’s the bottom line,” he said.

He added that the bishop was “sacrificing the truth, or muzzling the truth in order to appease people.”

He also told Radio Kerry this morning that at a mass he gave yesterday morning, where he reiterated that he was stating what was in the Gospel, he received “a standing ovation”.

“When I completed the holy sacrifice of the mass, the people applauded, a standing ovation. What about them?” he said.

“What about the people who came into the sacristy and said: ‘It’s high time we actually heard the truth.’ What about those people? Are they fundamentalists too?”

Fr Sheehy, who returned to Kerry from Baton Rouge in Louisiana in the US in 2007, has previously made the news after outcry when he shook hands and provided a statement for convicted sex offender Danny Foley of Listowel, in Tralee Circuit Court in 2009.

Then Bishop of Kerry Dr Bill Murphy distanced himself from his actions.

Contains reporting from Emer Moreau