Seeking clarification on a grant made by the St. Vincent De Paul (SVP) to fund a resource centre for LGBT people in Galway, Bishop Martin Drennan inadvertently said he believes homosexuality is morally correct.

The grant of €45,000 is to be paid over a three year period by the SVP to Amach LGBT Galway as a contribution to a resource centre, which Galway City Council has pledged to provide.

Speaking on Galway FM’s The Keith Finnegan Show, Bishop Drennan (pictured) said that on “moral grounds” the Church could not support the grant.

He added that homosexuality was “in our eyes morally wrong behaviour and we cannot put funds at the service of what we don’t believe is morally incorrect.”

Unaware that he’d just stated a double negative, thereby endorsing homosexuality, Bishop Drennan added that he  hoped the issue could be resolved in a way “that would restore the image of the Vincent de Paul.”

If it “supports an organisation we dont’t agree with, we can’t support it anymore, that’s what I’m hearing,” he said.

A SVP spokesperson told The Irish Times that the grant, which came from the Maureen O’Connell (MOCF) fund, was used in accordance with the wishes of Mrs O’Connell, who left the society her pub on Eyre Square in her will.

He added the SVP position was to help people “on the basis of need and in a non-judgemental way.”

The decision to help Amach LGBT Galway “was made purely on the basis of need in the Galway area, in the same way as all requests for support are assessed. It does not signify any other motive.”