This article is from page 1 of the 2008-06-10 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 1 JPG
on Monday that he felt it “inap- propriate” that Fr Cullinan, who was filling in for parish priest Fr Liam Enright, “used his sermon for the po-
litical purposes of campaigning for a No vote in the Lisbon Treaty”.
However, Fr Cullinan denied preaching politics: “I didn’t preach for a ‘No’ vote from the altar. It might have looked to some people like I did call for a ‘No’ vote but I didn’t,’ said Fr Cullinan, who re- fused to explain what he said about the treaty at Mass.
Fr Cullinan is a chaplain to Limer- ick Institute of Technology where he is responsible for the pastoral care of students, including many from Clare. He said the treaty was “a huge issue for us here”.
“The European Commissioner for Human Rights, Thomas Ham-
marberg, criticised Ireland last month for not legislating for abortion. And that is the European commissioner for human rights.”
However, Mr Hammarberg is not an EU commissioner. Rather, he is a commissioner for the Council of Eu- rope, a separate body to the EU and one to which the treaty does not ap- ply. He is a former head of Sweden’s Save the Children charity.
It is understood that Fr Cullinan made his controversial remarks at Masses in Cratloe’s two parish churches last Sunday.
“He talked about homosexuals and that because of Europe thousands had to be paid out because of discrimina-
tion,’ another Massgoer revealed.
“Tf he didn’t tell us how to vote, he was bringing up issues he had with the referendum,’ he added.
Fr Seamus Madigan, a spokesman for the Bishop of Limerick, Dr Donal Murray, said “that the reported re- marks made by Fr Cullinan are per- sonal to him and are his opinion”.
He added the Bishops of Ireland, including Bishop Murray, “are en- couraging people to use their vote wisely and not to use it as a protest vote”.