A rift has emerged within the Irish Catholic Church after it emerged that a priest had refused Communion to an Irish politician because he had voted in favour of the liberalisation of abortion laws following the 2018 referendum that paved the way for abortion in Ireland.
Colm Burke, Fine Gael's Teachta Dála (TD: the Irish equivalent of an MP) for Cork North Central, had been attending a funeral Mass for a constituent and party colleague in the parish of Blarney on the outskirts of Cork city, which part of the diocese of Cloyne that covers much of Cork’s hinterland.
