Papal Nuncio Archbishop Charles Brown also said that Irish Catholics had to face up to the reality that parishes will increasingly be staffed by non-Irish missionary priests.
In a revealing and in-depth interview due broadcast on The Meaning of Life with Gay Byrne on RTÉ television on Sunday evening, Archbishop Brown was asked specifically about the cases of Fr Tony Flannery and Fr Brian D’Arcy, both of whom have had restrictions placed on their ministry for promoting views at odds with Catholic teaching.
“There’s a lot of priests who are unable to minister fully for different reasons. And whatever the Church can do, or whatever I can do, to re-integrate them, to help them to re-integrate, I’m obviously going to do that,” the archbishop said.
However, he also cautioned that “the people who are actually involved directly in those cases would be the religious superiors of the men”.