A Fine Gael TD and Minister of State has said he was “taken aback” after a Catholic priest refused to give him communion at a funeral mass and told him it was because he had been “excommunicated”.
Cork North Central TD Colm Burke voted in favour of repealing the Eighth Amendment, a process which led to the legalisation of abortion in Ireland.
It has been reported by the Irish Times that that is the reason why Fr Gabriel Burke of the Blarney parish refused him communion on Friday.
Mr Burke, who is Minister of State at the Department of Health, has contacted the Cloyne diocese for clarification on the matter and said this morning he is in the process of writing a letter to the bishop on the matter.
The incident took place at Whitechurch in the Blarney parish on Friday, when Mr Burke was attending the funeral mass of a long-standing Fine Gael member and parishioner.
He said three priests were giving out communion and he went to Fr Gabriel Burke as he was the closest to the side of the church in which he had been sitting.
According to Mr Burke, there was a previous incident some time ago when he was not given communion by Fr Burke, but he thought that was something to do with mask-wearing during the pandemic.
“I went up and he refused to give me [Holy Communion],” Mr Burke said of Friday’s mass. “He just gave me a blessing. He said, ‘you’re not getting it’. He said ‘you’ve been excommunicated’.”
According to Minister Burke, Fr Burke did not elaborate any further on his reasons. “He leaned forward and said, ‘you’ve been excommunicated’.”
Fr Burke has since been reported as saying that it was because of Mr Burke’s “support for abortion”.
The TD, who said he attends mass in his local church – which is not Whitechurch – most weekends, said this morning: “My argument is that we couldn’t have repealed it unless there was a referendum and it was passed by referendum.”
He also said: “My understanding is that Canon Law, in fact, doesn’t give him the authority to refuse to give Holy Communion to anyone.”
Asked for his reaction to what happened on Friday, he said: “I was just taken aback by it.”
He added that he has “a plethora” of people in his extended family working in different roles within the Catholic church, including his late sister who was a Mercy Sister for years.
Cloyne diocesan secretary Fr Jim Moore confirmed that Mr Burke had been in touch with him on Friday about the matter, and said that Bishop William Crean who is currently indisposed will be contacting the TD “in the early days of next week”.
Asked whether Fr Burke was right or wrong in what he did, Fr Moore said: “That’s something that’s between the bishop and his priest.”