FR BRIAN D’ARCY, who revealed this week that he has been censured by the Vatican, has said that that he would have to leave the priesthood if he had to stop writing about certain issues.

The journalist and broadcaster gave an emotional interview to Marian Finucane on RTE Radio One this morning, in which he said that articles he had written for the Sunday World, as well as his attitude and criticism of the Vatican’s way of dealing with child sex abuse and his liberal views of contraception were given as reasons for the censure.

Fr D’Arcy also said that he initally feared that an accusation of abuse had been made against him when he was first contacted by the Passionist Order and told that there was something wrong.

He was censured by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the theological watchdog. Fr D’Arcy has been asked to pass any articles that may be ‘contentious’ to an appointed censor.

He said that it has been a ‘dreadful year’ for him since the censure and became emotional at points during the interview, which you can listen to here.