Fr Peter McVerry says there are "two different worlds" in Ireland - adding that he is angry because of what homeless people experience in the country.
It comes after a newspaper letter from the veteran homelessness campaigner was widely shared online today.
Fr McVerry's Irish Times letter 'a tale of two cities' contrasts charges faced by homeless individuals for petty thefts with the current Dáil attendance controversy.
He wrote that he had attended court with "a young homeless boy who had been charged with theft of a bottle of orange, value €1".
The letter has received hundreds of shares on Twitter following its publication overnight.
Speaking to Newstalk about what drove him to write the letter, Fr McVerry said: "I just got so angry.
"I got angry because of what homeless people experience - if they commit a minor, minor offence they will be prosecuted.
"Somebody commits what I would consider a morally indefensible act, and legally it's perfectly OK."
He added: "There's a lot of hypocrisy in our society.
"We live in one country, but there are two different worlds."
