Cruelty and ignorance: Father Dominic Valanmahal, a Catholic priest in India, is under fire after claiming that autistic children are animals caused by porn, masturbation, homosexuality, and adultery.

Father Valanmahal, a Catholic priest from the state of Kerala, recently delivered a fiery sermon where he claimed that autistic children were animals, while blaming autism and hyperactivity on parents who engage in pornography, masturbation, homosexuality, and adultery.

In his sermon Father Valanmahal asked:

Why does this generation have autism and hyperactivity? That is to say, mentally retarded children are in abundance?

Father Valanmahal continued:

Adultery, masturbation, homosexuality, porn, if you are addicted to these, I say to you in the name of God. . .when you get married and have children, there is a high possibility of bearing these type of children. They lead an animal-like life. They copulate like animals. They bear children like animals. Therefore those children also, will be like animals.

The remarks from the insensitive and intellectually incompetent priest have been met with righteous outrage. In particular, there has been an outpouring of support for preventing Father Valanmahal from leading a Catholic retreat in Ireland.

The Irish Times reports:

An invitation sent to controversial priest Fr Dominic Valanmahal to lead a retreat in Ireland should be withdrawn, Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has said. … Fr Valanmahal had been invited to conduct a retreat at the Syro Malabar Catholic Church in Tallaght on October 26th, 27th and 28th next. On Thursday morning, a spokeswoman for Archbishop Martin, who has jurisdiction over the church in the Dublin archdiocese, said he had been in contact with the Syro-Malabar community “and told them that Fr Dominic Valanmahal should not be invited here.”

In addition to comparing autistic children to animals, and claiming that autism and hyperactivity in children are caused by parents who are “addicted” to “adultery, masturbation, homosexuality, and porn,” the good father has also claimed that he has been able to “cure” children with autism by giving them the “Holy Communion.”

The Irish Times notes:

The priest has also claimed that on previous visits to Ireland, he “cured” one such child in Dublin. He “stood in the middle of the house and said ‘In the name of Jesus, I command, I bind the spirit of autism and hyperactivity that has infested this house. I banish it. Banish it to the foot of Jesus’s cross’,” he said. On another visit to Ireland, he claimed to have “cured” a child in Limerick. “They bring this child. Praise the Lord. The child was cured 100 per cent. I gave the child Holy Communion. Now the child studies in a normal school. Not only that child, but her younger siblings were also touched by the messiah,” he said.

So not only does the priest believe that autistic children are “like animals,” he also believes he can “cure” autistic children with the magic of “Holy Communion.” Only religious superstition could lead a man to be at once so cruel, and so ignorant.

Bottom line: Father Dominic Valanmahal claims that austisitc children are nothing but animals caused by their parents’ addiction to porn, masturbation, homosexuality, and adultery.