Fr. Brian D’Arcy Says That Gay Couples Should Be Entitled To Adopt

Fr Brian D’Arcy, one of Ireland's best known priests, has controversially declared, in the second part of a major in-depth interview, published in the latest Hot Press, that he believes gay couples should be entitled to adopt.
He will also stun conservative Catholics by saying that he would have no personal objection to giving his blessing at same-sex marriages. He also goes directly against long-held Church dogma when he expresses the hope that the current pontiff, Pope Francis, will allow divorced people to re-marry in the Church.
And in an extraordinary statement, he estimates that 50% of the congregation where he currently works are people in second relationships or second marriages.
Taking a position that is likely to be criticised by ‘pro-life’ organisations, Fr. D'Arcy acknowledges – in what is a special Repeal the Eighth issue of Hot Press – that he feels it’s inevitable that the Eight Amendment to the Constitution – originally passed in a Referendum in 1983, and which gives the ‘unborn’ an equal right to life in all circumstances, with Irish women and Irish mothers – will be repealed. Fr. D'Arcy also speaks movingly about how he has had countless conversations with mothers faced with the sometimes heartbreaking decision of having to travel to England for a termination.
“I have sat with mothers, night after night after night. And I have always said to mothers, 'What ever you choose is the right choice'. I always say that to mothers. My own view is that we should try to save all lives,” he tells Hot Press writer, Jason O’Toole.
During the course of the interview, Fr Brian D’Arcy makes it clear that he is 'pro-life’ – but he will certainly raise Catholic eyebrows with his response to questions on the morning after pill.
Fr D’Arcy – whose interview is described in Hot Press as the most honest dialogue ever between an Irish Catholic priest and a national publication – will no doubt infuriate his superiors even further by backing the proposal to cover repatriation costs in abortion cases involving fatal foetal abnormalities, so that the foetus can be brought back to Ireland and buried here if the woman is forced to go to the UK to have an abortion.
“Whatever about the abortion, I have no problem at all having respect and love and care for the little infant whose life didn’t get a chance,” he says. "So, whatever we should do to make the mother and father of that infant good, so much the better. I have no problem with that. In fact, I think it’s a good thing to do be compassionate and loving in that situation.”
The rebel priest – who has already been warned by the Vatican that he faces being censured further if he continues to makes statements that fly in the face of traditional Catholic teaching – reveals that the views he expresses on women priests could see him stripped of his collar. “I could get the second yellow card and be silenced forever,” he states.
In what is a wide-ranging and thought-provoking conversation, which runs over six fascinating pages in the magazine, Fr Brian D’Arcy also has startling things to say about the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, who censured him in 2010.
“I think people really have to read the interview in full,” Hot Press editor Niall Stokes says. “It isn’t just impressively honest and revealing in the way that it casts a hugely informative light on what Brian D’Arcy describes as the clerical club, which – in his view – has ruined the Catholic Church. He is fiercely critical of the institutional Church, while still wanting to remain part of it. In that sense, the interview is a very nuanced personal testimony about one man’s struggle to make some kind of sense of a religion that has been seen, increasingly, as anachronistic and out of touch. It will be very interesting so see what people’s response to the detail of it is."
Also covered in this highly controversial interview with Fr. Brian D’Arcy:
– His reasons for heavily criticising the Papal Nuncio, Charles Brown;
– His problems with the way women are treated by the Catholic Church;
– His response to being caricatured as Fr Trendy;
– When he was stalked by a female admirer;
– Threats to his life;
– His feelings about the fact that Shannon Airport is being used by US military;
– His major fears about the impact of the Brexit vote;
– His thoughts on a United Ireland.
And, somewhat poignantly, Br. Brian D’Arcy finally reveals in the interview why he believes his days as a priest are numbered...
It's all to be found in the pages of the brand new Hot Press, on shelves Thursday September 15.
You can Buy Hot Press 40-16, our Repeal the 8th special direct from hotpress.com
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