Society is not open to faith in God – Katie Taylor

Olympic boxing champion Katie Taylor, known for her strong Christian faith, has said that Irish society is “open to everything except for God”.

While the boxer has been mocked for her public expressions of faith, she said “it’s not something that really bothers me”, but that it was a “shame” that in the “country of saints and scholars” which celebrates St Patrick’s Day every year, “there’s very few practising Catholics or practising Christians”.

“We are living in a society today where you can talk about everything. Everyone is open to everything except for God, so unfortunately that’s the world we are living in today… [some] people get offended when you mention how great God is,” the Bray native said.

She told the Sunday Independent that she had gone through some “doubts and fears” in her life but “if anyone says that they haven’t gone through any struggles or setbacks – they are lying”. “There are times in competitions when I have doubted myself or had a few fearful thoughts and that’s when I have to cling onto God and cling to the scriptures and to focus on what God is saying and not take every thought captive,” she said.