Former President Mary McAleese, husband Martin and their son Justin (second left) with his husband Fionan. Photo: Brian Lawless

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

The former president had an invitation to attend an International Women’s Day conference rescinded in February over her support for LGBT rights.

Ms McAleese has been a vocal supporter of same-sex marriage both during and after the same-sex referendum debate, most recently marching with her son Justin who is gay, at the Dublin Gay Pride festival.

The Vatican event in question 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”.

Expand Close Former President of Ireland Mary McAleese, with her husband Martin (second left) and her son Justin (second right) and his husband Fionan (right) during the Pride Parade in Dublin Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Wire PA / Facebook

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Whatsapp Former President of Ireland Mary McAleese, with her husband Martin (second left) and her son Justin (second right) and his husband Fionan (right) during the Pride Parade in Dublin Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

However, the decision to invite the former Irish head of state was opposed by Cardinal Kevin Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life, which led to the event being held outside of the Holy See.

“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,” Ms McAleese told Brendan O’Connor on RTÉ’s Marian Finucane Show.

“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.”

She said she consulted with the Archbishop of Dublin with a view to rectifying the situation ahead of the Pope’s visit for the World Meeting of Families planned for next weekend.

However despite efforts which she said continued for three months there was no moving the position taken by the Vatican.

Earlier this week a US grand jury report revealed thousands of children were abused by around 300 Roman Catholic priests in Pennsylvania since the 1940s.

Ms McAleese said “one has to assume” the Pope was aware of the abuse outlined in the report which said leaders in the church had “largely gone with accountability”.

“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,” said Ms McAleese who has spoken out about the church’s handling of clerical abuse.

“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.”

Online Editors