IRELAND
Irish Independent

Friday April 27 2012

Editorial

The news that Father Brian D’Arcy, one of the best-known and most popular priests in the country, has been censured by the Vatican and that his newspaper and magazine articles are now effectively censored in advance of publication by the church authorities will come as a shock to many lay Catholics.

For the past two decades, as the Catholic Church suffered one hammer blow after another as the full extent of the clerical child sex abuse scandal gradually emerged, Fr D’Arcy held out hope for many ordinary believers that the church would one day emerge strengthened from its ordeal.

That is why the action that has been taken against Fr D’Arcy will be so disheartening for so many. They will wonder why the Vatican apparently found it impossible to accommodate a priest who patently had the church’s best interests at heart…