Mcaleese made complaint to pontiff over Vatican snub
FORMER 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Mcaleese, a vocal supporter of same-sex marriage, had her invitation to attend an International Women’s Day conference withdrawn in February over her support for LGBT rights.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 Mary Mcaleese & Pope John Paul II complaint and I haven’t had the letter back that says we’ve received your complaint.”
She added she had contacted the Archbishop of Dublin in a bid to rectify the situation ahead of the Pope’s visit for the World Meeting Of Families planned for next weekend.
But despite efforts, which she said continued for three months, the Vatican refused to budge.
Earlier this week a US grand jury report revealed thousands of children have been abused by around 300 Roman Catholic priests in Pennsylvania since the 1940s.
Mrs Mcaleese, whose brother suffered clerical sex abuse at school, said “one has to assume” the Pope was aware of the abuse outlined in the report.
She added: “These would have been well known, certainly in the latter days when all of these cases had to be sent to Rome, that he would have been briefed on them.
“You would like to think that he would have been briefed on them, these are so significant when you are talking about 300 abusing priests in six dioceses in the United States.”
On Pope Francis and whether or not he is part of a systemic cover-up, the former head of State said he is in a mode of thinking that puts the defence of the institutions first.
She added: “It’s not only systemic, it was directed from central command and control, which is the Vatican.
“I was astounded by what happened in Chile, because I did believe that this Pope was different.
“He went to Chile in January and denounced victims, accused them of defamation... and believed briefings he got from bishops.
“He chose to believe one side and that was the side that protected offending bishops and priests.”
On the Pope’s impending visit, Mrs Mcaleese added: “We are long past the point of accepting words of simple sorrow.”