Money for gay centre ‘morally wrong’ – Bishop

The Bishop of Galway has slammed the Society of the St Vincent de Paul (SVP) for a large allocation towards a new city resource centre for the gay community, which he said promotes a culture that was “morally wrong”. The €45,000 donation came from the Maureen O’Connell Fund, which was set up after she bequeathed her pub, O’Connell’s on Eyre Square, to the society which later sold for €7.8m. Bishop of Galway Martin Drennan wrote to the charity organisation at local and national level this week after confirmation of the donation to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community support group Amach was published in the Connacht Sentinel. The Bishop has requested the reasons behind the funding and hinted that it could jeopardise the relationship between the society and the Catholic Church, which regularly held collections for the charity. Yesterday, Bishop Drennan told Galway Bay FM he took the decision to write the letters after queries were made to his office which he believed proved the society’s reputation had been damaged. “My problem is with the moral judgment involved in making the decision,” he remarked. “Gay culture is a different culture. We respect their view. But in our eyes it’s morally wrong behaviour and we cannot put funds at the service of behaviour we don’t believe is morally correct… We cannot be seen to support a culture that promotes that kind of activity.” “There’s a lot of damage to their own supporters who are asking should we support Vincent De Paul any longer.” Vice chairperson of Amach, Nuala Ward, invited the Bishop to sit down and talk with the organisation to discuss their work, which involved collaborating with bodies such as the Health Service Executive, the gardaí and suicide prevention groups. “I’m sure when he’d see the work we’re doing, why we’re doing it and how the wider community – not just the LGBT community are benefiting – I’d be confident he’d change his mind,” she remarked. “It’s unfortunate, it’s just a pity he didn’t contact us first before making these statements.” A spokesman for SVP said the impression out there that the society was a Catholic organisation run under the auspices of the Church was wrong. “It has a Christian, Catholic ethos. We have very close ties with the Catholic Church, but we have a board of management which is a lay board of management, the Hierarchy has no representative. No other motive can be attributed to the grant other than for need, just as is the case for the 60 other grants approved,” he stated. For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.