Abortion in Ireland: Cork politician refused communion over vote

The refusal of the Eucharist to a public representative in the Republic of Ireland has been “unambiguously condemned” by the Association of Catholic Priests.

It follows reports that Fine Gael TD and Minister of State Colm Burke was refused Holy Communion at a funeral Mass on Friday.

He was told this was because he had been “excommunicated” over his “support for abortion”, according to Irish broadcaster RTÉ.

Mr Burke had voted in favour of repealing the Eighth Amendment, a process which led to legal abortions in the Republic of Ireland.

In 2018, the country voted overwhelmingly to overturn the abortion ban by 66.4% to 33.6% – a landslide win for the repeal side.

The Eighth Amendment had granted an equal right to life to the mother and the unborn child.

In a statement, the Association of Catholic Priests – a body with about 1,000 members – said it is “not the role of the priest to judge the conscience of another person”.

“Like every member of the Catholic Church, public representatives must act in accordance with their conscience,” the association said.

“The priest does not own the Eucharist and would do well to ponder the statement of Pope Francis that he has never refused the Eucharist to anyone.”

The incident took place at Whitechurch in Blarney, County Cork, on Friday when Mr Burke was attending the funeral mass of a Fine Gael member.

Mr Burke said he was “taken aback” when Fr Gabriel Burke refused to give him the Eucharist.

“He just gave me a blessing. He said, ‘you’re not getting it’. He said ‘you’ve been excommunicated’.”

Fr Burke has since been reported as saying that it was because of Mr Burke’s “support for abortion”.

“My argument is that we couldn’t have repealed it unless there was a referendum and it was passed by referendum,” Mr Burke said.

“My understanding is that Canon Law, in fact, doesn’t give him the authority to refuse to give Holy Communion to anyone.”

Cloyne diocesan secretary Fr Jim Moore confirmed that Mr Burke had been in touch with him on Friday.

Bishop William Crean, who is currently unwell, will be contacting the TD “in the early days of next week”, Fr Moore added.