A Fine Gael TD and Minister of State claimed to be “taken aback” when a Catholic priest told him he had been “excommunicated” and declined to give him communion during a funeral liturgy, reports RTE.
Colm Burke, the TD for Cork North Central, voted in support of removing the Eighth Amendment, which allowed abortion to become legal in Ireland.
That’s the reason Fr. Gabriel Burke of the Blarney parish reportedly denied him communion on Friday, according to an Irish Times story.
The Department of Health’s Minister of State, Mr. Burke, has inquired about the situation with the Cloyne diocese, reports RTE.
The event happened on Friday at Whitechurch in the Blarney parish while Mr. Burke was present at the burial mass of a longtime parishioner and member of Fine Gael.
He added that there were three priests serving communion, and as Fr. Gabriel Burke was the one next to the side of the church where he had been seated, he went to him, reports RTE.
Mr. Burke claims that there was an earlier instance where Fr. Burke refused to give him communion; however, he believed this to be related to his mask-wearing during the epidemic.
“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’,” reports RTE.
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