IRELAND
Irish News
BRIAN CAMPBELL
21 November, 2015
FR BRIAN D’Arcy is many things – a priest, a writer, a broadcaster, a loyal Fermanagh GAA fan and a deep thinker.
The Enniskillen-based cleric became headline news in 2012 when the Vatican censured him because his journalism and radio broadcasts had allegedly “scandalised” the Catholic faithful.
His views on celibacy for priests, contraception and his vocal criticism of the Church’s handling of clerical sexual abuse led the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to censure him and insist that his Sunday World column be checked by a Church censor before publication.
When the story came to light, Fr D’Arcy said he had been “living with the pain of censure for 14 months”. He went on, “I remain a priest in good standing and I have continued to carry out my priestly duties with the same dedication as before.”
He said he had continued to write and broadcast “since the news of the Vatican’s displeasure was filtered down to me” in 2011. “I shall continue my ministry in communication because I believe that the Church cherishes freedom of speech as an inviolable principle.”
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