Courtney McGrail
Staff Reporter
Dublin football star Jack McCaffrey has praised the “powerful” work of priests in Africa after a recent trip there.
The Clontarf native, who describes himself as an atheist, revealed his new found respect for clergy following his visit to Ethiopia with the international aid charity Goal.
“Look, a lot of people get a lot of comfort out of it. And I see that in my own family. And also when you come out here you really… you see a lot of people in Ireland have become disenfranchised from the Catholic Church for very good reasons, but when you look at some of the work that priests do out here, and subject themselves to a very lonely lifestyle compared to others, it’s a pretty powerful thing to see in action,” he told the Sunday Independent.
The footballer also said he was “surprised” at how many times religion had been mentioned during an under 21 team bonding exercise with Dublin.
“Religion wasn’t meant to be the focus of it at all but it just got mentioned in passing a few times. A fair few people from my peer group mentioned it, I was surprised,” he said.
