Priest brands Mary McAleese's Baptism comments as 'nonsense' and 'grotesque'
Fr Brendan Kilcoyne suggested Mary McAleese was exhibiting signs of an “unhealthy obsession”, and said her behaviour towards the Church was “really quite weird”
A parish priest has dismissed recent comments about Baptism by Mary McAleese as “nonsense”, and claimed her interventions on religious matters were getting “increasingly grotesque”.
Fr Brendan Kilcoyne, who was formerly diocesan secretary in Tuam and parish priest in Athenry, suggested Dr McAleese was exhibiting signs of an “unhealthy obsession”, and said her behaviour towards the Church was “really quite weird”.
It was reported this week that she argues in a forthcoming book that infant Baptism infringes upon children’s fundamental human rights and personal autonomy as they cannot provide consent.
She contends that this deprives children of their right to freely choose their own religion as they mature, and characterises the current practice as a recruitment mechanism and “lazy doctrine of obligation”.
In a podcast published this week, Fr Kilcoyne said Dr McAleese seemed “angry” and “bitter”, and likened her frequent interventions on Church matters as “a kind of macabre carnival”.
“I’m very sorry to say, at the risk of sounding discourteous and even insulting, that we’re beginning to see Dr McAleese as a Halloween event, that honestly her interventions are increasingly grotesque and her general behaviour towards the Church is really quite weird,” he said.
“I don’t know what’s going on in her life, and life is difficult for all of us. To me, she certainly doesn’t seem happy. She seems bitter. She seems angry. I don’t know, she may have good reason for that.”
Fr Kilcoyne dismissed her latest comments as “nonsense”, and advised Church communities to “just get on with it and don’t be distracted by this nonsense”.
“I honestly don’t feel there’s much to see here,” he added.
Fr Kilcoyne is currently the parish priest in Balla, Co Mayo. He previously served as the diocesan secretary of Tuam and was president of St. Jarlath’s Secondary School. He was also parish priest in Athenry.