Priest and mystic clash over All-Ireland prediction

A Kilkenny priest has defended his criticism of a local psychic who has predicted that Kilkenny will win the All-Ireland hurling championship for a fifth time in a row next month.

Fr Joe Delaney, who is the former parish priest of Callan, said he was "more alarmed than ever" after ‘Mystic Moira’ hit out at comments he made on a local radio station calling such predictions by psychics, “the devil's work.”

Fr Delaney warned that recourse to mediums could cause “serious psychological and spiritual harm to individuals” and could cause people to be “addicted to finding out about the future, resulting ultimately in a loss of faith.”

Mystic Moira, who is based in Bennettsbridge, Co Kilkenny, had claimed that ‘the spirits’ had told her that Kilkenny would take the Liam McCarthy Cup for an unprecedented fifth time in a row.

After Fr Delaney called psychic predictions ‘devil’s work’, the mystic said Catholic clergy “failed to understand that a true psychic medium like myself is not in any way influenced or inspired by evil forces or the devil.”

She said claims like those of Fr Delaney had been used to justify the “cruel killing of thousands of women in the middle ages, accused of witchcraft when in fact they were merely gifted people who had developed their psychic ability and in many cases brought healing, both physical and spiritual, to their fellow human beings.”

These included, she added an innocent woman called Petronella, who was burned alive in Kilkenny in the 13th Century with the local bishop and clergy looking on.

Mystic Moira said Fr Delaney did not understand the work of psychics who drew “strength and inspiration from the forces of light.”

But the priest stood by his remarks, saying that said nobody could defend the way witches were treated in the Middle Ages but the truth was that they were feared “because people knew the harm witches could do and still do. The fact that Mystic Moira identifies with them is very revealing - many of them thought of themselves as blessings on humanity, unaware that the source of their power lay in the demonic.”

“God forbids (recourse to mediums) because he loves us and wishes to protect us from harm,” Fr Delaney said.

In claiming to help bereaved people by providing evidence of their loved ones survival in the spirit world, Mystic Moira was, he went on, doing exactly what the Bible condemned when it said: “Do not consult mediums or fortune tellers, for you will be defiled by them.”

“Christianity and Mystic Moira are in opposite camps.”

SIC: CiN