IRISH people overwhelmingly rejected enforced celibacy for Roman Catholic priests as support grew for a 73-year-old cleric who has fathered a child with a 31-year-old teacher.
Some 76 per cent of those surveyed in an opinion poll for a newspaper said that they were against priestly celibacy. The issue has dominated Irish newspapers since it was disclosed last week that Father Maurice Dillane and his lover, Madonna Byrnes, had gone into hiding with their two-month-old son.
The poll coincides with the imminent rehabilitation of Eamon Casey, the former Bishop of Galway, who fled abroad 14 years ago when it emerged that he had a teenage son.
Dr Martin Drennan, the current Bishop of Galway, confirmed that his 78-year-old predecessor will return from his self-imposed exile, which took him to Ecuador before he settled at his current parish in Staplefield, West Sussex.
Bishop Drennan said: “Bishop Eamonn Casey has decided to return to Ireland in the near future. He will reside in Beagh, Co Galway. I am very happy that Bishop Casey has decided to return.”
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Dr Casey, who served as Bishop of Galway from 1976 to 1992, quit his post after it was revealed that he had fathered a son with Annie Murphy, a divorcée from the United States who was half his age.
Father Maurice Dillane, a curate in the Woodford-Looscaun parish, quit the diocese to consider the future of the baby and its mother. He is believed to have met Ms Byrnes while serving in a previous parish within the Clonfert Diocese. The couple kept their affair a secret for nearly a decade after his return from missionary work in Texas.