Former president of Ireland Mary McAleese has expressed hope that Pope Francis will change the Catholic Church’s teaching on homosexuality as he has done this week on capital punishment.

Mrs McAleese also accused the pope of “bad manners” in failing to acknowledge or respond to a letter she wrote to him after she was excluded from a conference in the Vatican on international women’s day.

She expressed hope that the Irish message of what it means to be family would be highlighted at the World Meeting of Families which the pope will attend later this month.

The event originated as a showcase of orthodox Catholic doctrine which, she said, has been “very hard on gay men and women, gay children and gay adolescents. It has made their lives, for some of them, actually intolerable”. As pontiff he remained responsible for that doctrine and for its damage, she said.

Mrs McAleese was speaking at the Lighthouse cinema in Dublin where she received the inaugural Vanguard award of the Gaze LGBT film festival for her “unwavering support for the advancement of the LGBT+ community”.

The award was created this year, the 26th year of the festival and chairwoman of the festival board Sarah Williams said the award was “to recognise the extraordinary work she did throughout her presidency and since her presidency in talking out and talking loud and proud about equality for Ireland”.

Strict teachings

Mrs McAleese was asked by reporters about comments at the weekend by bishop of Elphin Kevin Doran about the papal encyclical Humanae Vitae which bans contraceptives and his view linking the “contraceptive mentality” with support for gay marriage.

Mrs McAleese said “in fairness to him he is articulating the strict teaching of the church. I disagree with that teaching”.

She added that “his connection between that teaching and the rejection of that teaching and same-sex marriage is not obvious to me” or to a lot of people.

“It would need a much more detailed explanation, some research and perhaps studies that he could refer to that might make that case. I find the case tenuous in the extreme and maybe flattering to the church.”

She said Pope Francis this week had “exploded the myth” that the pope could not change church teachings. She said he reversed centuries of church teaching on capital punishment.

The pope this week described capital punishment as unacceptable. Traditional church teaching does not exclude capital punishment.

“So I’m hoping that having done that this week that maybe next week or in weeks to come that he will challenge other doctrines that really in the light of science and in the light of a gospel of love has to be changed,” she said.

She added that the church has to take responsibility for the damage inflicted on men, women and children by the evil teaching it promotes around homosexuality.

Vatican conference

She also said she was disappointed at his failure to respond to her letter after she was excluded from the Vatican conference.

Mrs McAleese sent the letter on January 31st by diplomatic bag through Papal Nuncio Archbishops Jude Okolo who “went to great lengths to ensure it reached the pope as he regarded it as urgent”.

“Just over six months later I have received neither acknowledgement nor a considered reply. I think that’s regrettable. I also think it’s bad manners.”

She said she was very disappointed as a Catholic. “I had faith in this pope. But it would be wrong to say anything other than I am disappointed.”

She said the decision of Cardinal Kevin Farrell – who she described as the “mastermind of this papal visit” – to exclude her “was a deliberate personal insult to me. It was designed to send a message to me and I got the message loud and clear” that “I was not welcome”.

She said she would never have attended the World Meeting of Families. “I have never found it a very attractive event because ... it has pointedly made statements that are homophobic. I hope this one will be different.”