He also said the Church will have to reassess its approach to a wide range of issues following the groundswell of support last Friday week for same-sex marriage.

Father Gary Darby, a co-parish priest in Portmarnock, Co Dublin, told his congregation at mass today that the vote has been a wake-up call for the church.

He recieved rapturous applause for his sermon, in which he voiced opinions that would have caused significant controversy only a few years, or even months ago.

He said that most young people he knows don't attend mass because they say the church is now irrelevant to them. But Fr Darby said that he believed young people didn't attend mass because they also felt judged and shamed by the institution. He also told parishioners that he also felt the same when he was growing up.

The priest also told parishioners that the Church needs to have a discussion about the way in which people who are divorced or separated are treated by it.

He said that some people escape from abusive relationships and the only way they have a chance at future happiness is to separate or divorce. He said the Church must embrace them.

Gay people also need to be included in the Church, he said, and that married priesthood must also be discussed by the Church.

He echoed Archbishop Diarmuid Martin's calls last week that the Church needed to have a reality check following the passing of the same-sex marriage referendum.

The Vatican called it a "defeat for humanity".

Meanwhile, Archbishop Eamon Martin reacted to the referendum debate at Mass in Knock for the Armagh diocesan pilgrimage.

“Among the many lessons that we as Church can learn from the referendum debate is to re-commit ourselves to the pastoral care of anyone in society who experiences victimisation and stigmatisation ," he said.

to reach out pastorally to different kinds of families and relationships while at the same time continuing to be advocates for a Christian vision of marriage and for the unique and fundamental contribution to society of the family founded upon the love and marriage of a man and a woman ...

 As Pope Francis said on Friday: ‘Evangelise with the message of merciful love”