DUBLIN (LifeSiteNews) –– Ursula Halligan, a pro-abortion, self-professed lesbian “Catholic” journalist is one of fourteen delegates representing Irish Catholics during the current European Continental Assembly of the Synod on Synodality in Prague.
In a statement issued online, the Irish Catholic Bishops Conference presented the names of its delegates taking part in the week-long Synod event in Prague, which is the Continental stage of Pope Francis’ Synod on Synodality.
Led by Archbishop Eamon Martin – President of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference (ICBC), Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland – there are four people attending the Prague event in person. Ten more will attend online, one of whom is prominent Irish journalist Ursula Halligan.
As noted by the ICBC, Halligan is the “Joint Coordinator of We Are Church Ireland,” an organization which publicly rejects the Catholic Church’s magisterial teaching on the male-only priesthood, priestly celibacy, homosexual acts, abortion, divorce, and the denial of Holy Communion to those in adulterous relationships.
Citing a commitment to the “renewal of the Roman Catholic Church on the basis of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) and the theological spirit developed from it renewal of the Roman Catholic Church on the basis of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) and the theological spirit developed from it,” WACI outlines 6 chief aims. These include:
- Increased lay governance of the Church
- Female ordination
- Greater freedom to accept contraception, homosexuality, IVF
- Removal of clerical celibacy
- The primacy of individual conscience over the teaching of the Church.
READ: LGBT-friendly Irish bishop gives talk to dissident ‘Catholic’ group pushing for women priests
Halligan’s promotion of anti-Catholic ideologies is not limited to her role representing WACI, however, as the organization’s principles are very much her own.
In a much-lauded move in 2015, Halligan presented herself to the world as a lesbian, in light of Ireland’s referendum on same-sex “marriage.”
Writing in the Irish Times, Halligan stated how “I believe a Yes vote [to support same-sex “marriage”] is the most Christian thing to do. I believe the glory of God is the human being fully alive and that this includes people who are gay.”
Her vocal opposition to Catholic teaching has been consistent, and very much in the public sphere. During the 2018 World Meeting of Families in Dublin, WACI hosted a Pride meeting in Dublin at which Halligan interviewed the former Irish president Mary McAleese, a long-standing critic of the Church’s teaching on the sinful nature of homosexual acts and disordered inclinations of people experiencing homosexual attraction. The audience laughed as McAleese sarcastically said she had “not yet” gone to Confession after voting “Yes” to overturn Ireland’s ban on abortion.
At that same 2018 event, Halligan called the Catholic Church’s opposition to same-sex relations “deeply insulting and offensive.”
“I reject the Church’s teaching that gay people are ‘objectively disordered’ and that our love is ‘intrinsically evil’,” said Halligan, who simultaneously professed to be a “committed Catholic.”
“As a Catholic I’m looking for full sacramental marriage for same-sex couples,” she continued.
Halligan even argued that prominently pro-LGBT Father James Martin SJ was not doing enough to promote LGBT ideology within the Catholic Church.
Ursula Halligan says she agrees w Mary McAleese that current Church teaching on homosexuality is evil. Church needs to include LGBT community and change language like ‘intrinsically disordered’ she says. #WMOF18 pic.twitter.com/a8IAKlJk5y
— Daragh Brophy (@DaraghBroph) August 23, 2018
Halligan’s heterodox personal campaigning also includes lobbying for female priests as well as supporting abortion, and voting to overturn the nation’s Constitutional protections for the unborn.
LifeSiteNews asked the Irish Catholic Bishops Conference why Halligan was included as part of the Irish Catholic delegation to the European synodal event, but received no response.
In comments provided to LifeSiteNews, Anthony Murphy – editor of Catholic Voice – called Halligan’s participation in the meeting “yet another slap in the face for faithful Catholics in Ireland.”
“Ms. Halligan claims to be a devout Catholic, deviant would be a more accurate description,” said Murphy, highlighting WACI’s heterodox ideals.
“The group she represents has a narrow focus and is obsessed with advancing the ordination of women and pushing the notion that same sex couples can be ‘married.’ They value whatever is ‘Woke’ over the Word of God and the Tradition of the Church. Their agenda is closer to communism – and just as totalitarian – than it is to Christianity,” he continued.
The radical LGBT agenda infiltrating the Catholic Church is persecuting another brave priest, who now desperately needs your help to speak on his behalf.
Fr. Joachim Wernersbach has been SUSPENDED by his abbot of the Benedictine Tholey Abbey for preaching against gender ideology and the heterodox Synodal Way — pushed by Pope Francis and the German Synod of Bishops.
Fr. Wernersbach is also suspended from performing pastoral activists in the surrounding parish, and is being subject to “an ecclesiastical investigation.”
We need everyone to speak up for suspended priest Fr. Wernersbach — the LGBT agenda cannot claim another brave and devout priest.
SIGN and SHARE now.
Pro-life and pro-family priests around the world are being silenced and cancelled, while pro-LGBT activists get hand-written letters from the Pope, like Fr. James Martin.
Fr. Wernersbach simply reiterated Catholic teaching in his Christmas homily: “You hear about gender and transgender, transhumanism and reproductive health, wokeness and LGBTQ, diversity and identity. Of multiple genders and gender reassignment, plus this devastating new understanding of revelation from the Synodal Way,” he said.
“My dear friends, even the terms are absolutely disturbing. They all have one thing in common: they lack beauty, they lack coherence, and they lack naturalness. They are not aligned, not in harmony with the inconceivably beautiful Divine Order.”
For this denunciation of anti-Catholic trends, Fr. Wernersbach has been suspended by his own abbot. The entire homily has also been removed from YouTube.
The systematic persecution of pro-life and pro-family priests must end now.
Demand that Fr. Wernersbach be restored to full priestly ministry and demand that his superiors STOP shilling for the LGBT agenda!
Good and faithful priests are being systematically cancelled — but you can raise your voice to stop the attacks.
SIGN NOW before it’s too late.
Fr. Wernersbach needs your voice!
MORE INFORMATION:
German priest punished by superiors for preaching against gender ideology, Synodal Way
“Her inclusion at such a high level meeting means it is difficult not to conclude that the synod is a merely a process for dissenting Catholics to undermine Church teaching,” he added.
Murphy also pointed to “weakness” in the Irish hierarchy, noting how Archbishop Martin had noted how synodality “should seek to affirm and enhance the teaching authority of the pope and the bishops, not diminish it,” yet despite these comments, still allowed Halligan to join the event.
How can he [Martin] be taken seriously when he invites someone like Halligan to be a key part of the process and permits her to influence the direction of the Synod. As ever it appears that the bishops of Ireland are content to sit on the fence and support both sides of the argument – anything to avoid teaching the faith and all for an easy life. It is little wonder we are experiencing such a crisis of faith in Ireland.
Murphy called on the archbishop to “use the teaching authority he claims he wants to see affirmed and enhanced” in order to attend to the “faith and eternal salvation of the people in Ireland.”
This is why he must tell Ms. Halligan, that what is sinful can never be blessed and what is against nature can never be considered natural.
“The Church must defend and explain these eternal truths with the same courageous zeal today as in previous times,” Murphy stated.