‘I’ll go to jail’ over COVID-19 mass fine

A local priest is adamant he will “go to jail” sooner than pay a €500 fine issued for breaching COVID-19 regulations by hosting Sunday mass last month.

“I'll go to jail before I pay that,” Fr PJ Hughes, a Mount Temple native and parish priest in Mullahoran in Cavan, said this week.

“Cromwell must've risen from the dead. Queen Elizabeth brought in the Penal Laws and Cromwell tried his best to enforce them. But now this Government is enforcing them no problem at all.”

Fr Hughes was slapped with the €500 fine after allowing parishioners to attend mass despite having being told he was breaching public health regulations.

Around 40 people attended on March 7, after which Fr Hughes received the fine notice by post on March 18, the day after St Patrick’s Day.

Fr PJ, who was a curate in St Mary's Parish in Athlone for six years, joined the Missionary Society of St James the Apostle to undertake a five-year mission in Guayaquil, Ecuador, in 2009. He ultimately remained there until the summer of 2017, when he returned to Ireland.

Fr PJ was assigned to Leamonaghan parish in Offaly, where he spent two years, before becoming parish in Mullahoran, County Cavan.

Despite repeated warnings from gardaí and advice from his bishop, not to mention the threat of stiffer penalties in future, Fr Hughes insists he will still not turn people away from the local church.

“I was being fined for holding an organised event with people present, is what I was told. [Gardaí] came in before mass and told me I was breaking the law, and the people present were breaking the law, but it was my fault because I allowed them in,” recalls Fr Hughes, who is unaware if gardaí issued fines to anyone else that same day.

The outspoken priest, who first expressed his frustration at the prohibition of public masses during Level Five restrictions with this newspaper in November last year, is particularly aggrieved by the continued restrictions in light of Holy Week and Easter approaching.

Fr Hughes said: “They're taking away our civil liberties, our freedom to practice religion. We either believe in God or we don't. He's the highest power or he's not. If he's not, then let the Government come out and call a Referendum and vote God out of the Constitution,” says Fr Hughes.

“I think it's crazy because we have a situation where the Government and NPHET are now playing God. I mean, they've abandoned God!

“If I go to court, or anyone else, we swear on the Bible to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. They might as well scrap the Bible... and God! That's what I'd suggest... we're only paying lip service this way, its only a joke! This Government and this country is mocking God now! He's not our creator any more, he can do nothing for us as far as the Government is concerned.”

Fr Hughes published his views in last weekend's parish bulletin for Mullahoran and Loughduff, which was posted on the churches' Facebook page.

In it, Fr Hughes said it is hard to believe that, for a second year, that people are unable to partake in the ceremonies of Holy Week.

Located within the Diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise, Fr Hughes acknowledges his Masses came to the attention of authorities, including Bishop Francis Duffy after “somebody reported me”.

Fr Hughes maintains the current Covid regulations contradict his interpretation of Article 44 of the Constitution, which deals with rights to practice religion freely.

“I'll go to jail if I have to. I don't care. If this government continues to act in a Pagan fashion, they have demoted God to irrelevant and unnecessary.

“The only thing I am not obeying is [Bishop Duffy] at this stage. He's my superior here... but I'm not afraid of people... I'm more afraid of God! I don't accept we have to stop saying Mass because NPHET says so. The guards said I'm creating a hotspot for Covid. There's no proof of that. I asked them to prove it and they couldn't. So why did they say that then? They're threatening me. I was threatened.”

The Garda Press Office refused to confirm or deny that a fine was issued to Fr Hughes. Instead, a spokesperson responded: 'It is not the policy of An Garda Síochána to comment on named individuals.'