POPULAR priest Fr Brian D’Arcy vehemntly denied having ever criticised Church teachings.
And the cleric told of his horror when the head of his religious order in Ireland rang him up over his newspaper column.
Fr D’Arcy, a member of the Passionist congregation, has been an outspoken critic of the Vatican on issues such as homosexuality and clerical child sex abuse.
But when he was told that the Pope’s Doctrine of the Faith watchdog was to censor his writings 14 months ago, the Co Fermanagh priest feared he’d been accused of criticising the Church’s basic beliefs.
Fr D’Arcy said: “I got a call from my Provincial (Superior) late enough one night. I knew it was over something serious. I wasn’t sure if an allegation had been made. I knew there would have been nothing in an allegation but that’s not to say one hadn’t been made.”
In an emotional interview on RTE’s Marian Finucane Show, the 67-year-old admitted he has avoided writing about contentious issues during a “dreadful, dreadful year”.
He added: “I have been very careful throughout my life to never, ever, ever criticise the defined doctrine of the Catholic Church. I have never even questioned it.”