McAleese made complaint to pontiff over Vatican snub

FORMER Irish President Mary McAleese has revealed she made a formal complaint to Pope Francis after being banned from attending a Vatican conference in March.

Mrs McAleese, a vocal supporter of same-sex marriage, had her invitation to attend an International Women’s Day conference withdrawn in February over her support for LGBT rights.

The Vatican event was organised by the Voice Of The Faith group to “empower and advocate for Catholic women to have a seat at the table of decision-making in the Catholic Church”.

Mrs McAleese, who marched with her son Justin at the Dublin Gay Pride Festival, made the revelation in an interview with Brendan O’Connor on RTE Radio One yesterday. The decision to invite the former Irish first citizen was opposed by Cardinal Kevin Farrell, who is prefect of the Dicastery For The Laity, Family And Life.

She said: “I made a formal complaint against Cardinal Farrell to the Pope. The Pope is the only person as his superior who could rectify and deal with and judge that complaint. I made a formal canonical complaint to the Pope about Cardinal Farrell’s actions.

“Having received neither an acknowledgement nor a reply to date, I can only presume the Pope is his immediate superior, that this was done with his approval.

“They claim there is a process for dealing with such complaints, I’m six months down the road of that complaint and I haven’t had the letter back that says we’ve received your complaint.”