Former Irish President Calls Out Catholic Church for Emotional Abuse of LGBT+

Mary McAleese, who served as Ireland’s President from 1997 to 2001, has called out the Vatican for damaging LGBT+ youth with its teachings.

She has said the Catholic Church must be held accountable for their treatment of the LGBT+ community and the irreparable emotional and mental damage they have wrecked upon Ireland’s youth.

“I think in the past we presumed they would do everything right,” McAleese said.

“We now know, of course, that was a dangerous, dangerous presumption behind which dreadful appalling things happened to children.

“We know of the abuse that children suffered both physical and sexual. I’m now talking about the mental and emotional torture of children which we may have overlooked.”

McAleese has been a staunch supporter of LGBT+ rights, having a gay son of her own.

She has spoken out against the church before, saying in 2012 that gay teenagers are one of the most at-risk groups in the country because of the teachings of the Catholic Church.

“They will have heard words like “disorder”, they may even have heard the word “evil” used in relation to homosexual practice.

“And when they make the discovery, and it is a discovery and not a decision, when they make the discovery that they are gay when they are 14, 15, or 16, an internal conflict of absolutely appalling proportions opens up.”