Diocesan weekly bans adverts for McAleese’s address

The official publication of the Archdiocese of Sydney, The Catholic Weekly, has refused to publish advertisements for an address by former Irish President Mary McAleese.

The paper’s editor, Peter Rosengren, told The Irish Echo in Australia that Ms McAleese had an “agenda” and that her reported views placed him in “some difficulty” as editor. “She is reported as being in favour of the ordination of women as Catholic priests and in favour of homosexuality – whatever that actually means,” he told the Echo.

Mr Rosengren told The Tablet that while he would have no problem accepting an advertisement if Ms McAleese called for the Church to abandon clerical celibacy, a matter of organisation or discipline, he could not permit the promotion of views undermining “settled doctrine”.

Ms McAleese is to deliver the second Rosemary Goldie Lecture at Sydney Town Hall tomorrow.