Jacinta O’Donnell and Geraldine Flanagan have stepped down from the church choir and other church music activities.
A gay couple in Kildare have stepped down from the St. Michael’s Catholic church choir in Athy after receiving abuse from a local church activist, including a “very personal” text message and “hateful stuff” on his Facebook page.
Jacinta O’Donnell and Geraldine Flanagan, who were married in July, took the decision to step down from the church choir and other music activities after receiving abuse from local church activist Anthony Murphy.
Describing the course of action taken by the couple, O’Donnell told KFM: “We’ve been mulling over it all summer when we were made aware of Anthony Murphy’s feelings and when we saw some of the very negative and I suppose hateful stuff that was on his Facebook page etc.
“And then when I got the very personal text message from him…
“Geraldine and I, you know, the only thing we’ve ever tried to do is provide a music ministry and the whole idea behind that was to enhance the Eucharist and we felt that bringing that trouble to the church door would be really futile and negate anything we were trying to do.
“We thought about it long and hard and it was and still is a very difficult decision we came to,” she added.
“We’re both very upset by it.”
Anthony Murphy, who is opposed to gay people being active in the Catholic Church in leadership roles, also spoke to KFM about the recent developments in Athy, saying: “This is not about personalities.
“Well, clearly, you know, the way the choir operates in Athy, Jacinta and Geraldine are positioned on the altar in the sanctuary, on a stage almost, sharing the stage with the parish priest.
“You cannot have a contradiction where the church teaches one thing and people right next to the tabernacle, the Blessed Sacrament, contradict all of that teaching.”
Murphy has conveyed his views to the parish priest Canon Frank McEvoy, who has been very supportive of Jacinta and Geraldine, according to the couple themselves.
You can listen back to the KFM interview in full here.
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