Local politicians have expressed concerns over a ‘Call to Chivalry’ summer camp hosted by a conservative Catholic group, which was held in Kildare this weekend.

The camp aimed at 12 to 18 year-old boys and their fathers took place in Prosperous from July 3 to 10.

As well as daily recitations of the Rosary, participants were introduced to medieval swordsmanship in an attempt to educate them in the “truths of the Catholic Church” and to instil “manly virtues” and “Catholic militancy” in order to counter a society “awash with immorality and sin”.

The 2023 camp, hosted by the Irish Society for Christian Civilisation (ISCC), is the second time that they have run what is eventually intended to be an annual event in Ireland.

According to an article published in The Journal, local representatives “said they were concerned at how appropriate the camp is for youths, in particular its aim to ‘instill [sic] manly courage’ in the youngsters in its charge.

The ISCC is part of a wider organisation going by the Catholic Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) movement, which was founded in 1960 in Brazil and expanded to the U.S. in the 1980s.

Speaking to The Journal, Newbridge Social Democrats councillor Chris Pender expressed concerns that the chivalry camp and TFP were “peddling a message to young boys who don’t necessarily know any better at that age.”

Pender, who asserts that he is the first openly gay county councillor in Kildare, also believes that his sexual orientation “would form a massive part” of what he feels the TFP is “teaching people to be militant against”.

He continued, “It sounds like a very specifically fringe organisation on the outskirts of the Catholic Church but their status as a fringe group also depends on what support they get from dioceses in the church”.

He concluded, “I know a lot of churchgoers here and I would know a lot of priests in the church and I have no issue with them. I believe faith is a very personal thing. I was brought up with a born-again Christian mother and so I respect people’s ability to respect people’s desire to believe in something so I will never denigrate somebody’s belief.

Nuala Kileen, a colleague of Pender’s, also spoke out about the “alarming” teachings that she believes the ISCC is delivering through the  ‘Call to Chivalry’ summer camp. 

“I’m shocked by what they’ve described,” she said. “If you’re deliberately exposing young people and just shoving your doctrine down their throat, you’re manipulating those young people”.

She also expressed grave concerns over the ISCC’s link to TFP, equating their conduct to “something out of the Handmaid’s Tale”, suggesting it “has me thinking that women are the ‘Property’ part”. 

Fine Gael Councillor Joe Neville, warned of the fundamentalist practises of the camp, saying, “I go to mass and help out with the church here but this sounds like a typical Catholic Church in Brazil or the US, the fundamentalist side even. That leads to more division and I wouldn’t like for that to be recreated here.”