Fr Desmond Laughry spoke at a Sunday Mass in Newry, Northern Ireland shortly after the World Meeting of Families in Dublin. At the Cathedral of St Patrick and St Coleman, Fr Desmond spoke about how views on marriage have changed, and why it should not matter “who is gay or who is straight or who is black or who is white.” He hinted that Catholics may be more accepting of LGBT+ people, which led to a formal complaint being made to Bishop Philip Boyce.

The priest continued: “Our sexuality is God’s gift to us as the person we are, that we should have the freedom to be the sexual person that we are, and not be judged on our sexuality by having to identify as gay, straight or bi, or whatever.”

Fr Desmond’s words sparked outrage in one church-goer, who made a complaint via email to Bishop Philip Boyce about the priest’s confusing and embarrassing actions, stating:

“Fr Loughran has actively defied Catholic Church teaching by giving a pro same-sex attraction/marriage sermon. This is heresy and simply MUST NOT be tolerated by you or anyone in the diocese” and went on to say, “Fr Loughran’s actions only serve to cause further confusion and embarrassment to the Catholic Church and to those who try to be faithful Catholics.”

In his email, the man also linked an article by churchmilitant.com, reporting that the priest “vocally supported the normalization of same-sex marriage.”

Responding to the complaint, Bishop Philip Boyce, the current apostolic administrator of the diocese of Dromore, explained:

“The homily of Fr Loughran has come to my attention. In fact, Fr Loughran is a good priest for the past 25 years and this is the first time that anything like this has happened. I did call him in and warned him that he has to [be] very careful of what he says in the pulpit because it can be misinterpreted. He does not condone same-sex marriages, nor does he consider homosexual acts to be morally correct, and yet that impression was given by his words. Any future such sermons have to be submitted to me beforehand.

I thank you for your concern. Do keep all priests in your prayers.”

Following the response, the man explained his dissatisfaction with Bishop Philip Boyce’s response, saying:

“Whilst I welcome that you report to have called ‘him in and warned him that he has to very careful of what he says in the pulpit,’ I find it somewhat disingenuous to state that things he said, ‘can be misinterpreted.’ There can be absolutely no misinterpretation in Fr Loughran’s intentions and the content of what he said, which were clearly pre-meditated and did not for one moment help explain the complex issues of why the church can only ever support a model of natural family and married life, being exclusively heterosexual in nature.”

The man further explained his disappointment by claiming the priest’s words were a “crime” against nature and the Holy Spirit and stated that the Bishop’s actions were “just not good enough”.

Meanwhile, Fr Desmond Loughry’s comments sparked some interest on social media, with one Twitter user calling it “an inclusive tone that I haven’t encountered before in the Catholic Church here.”

This controversy comes after Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s comments about the Catholic Church’s ‘hurtful’ language used to describe LGBT+ people, in which he explained he strongly disagreed with the church’s view of gay people as “contrary to natural law.”