Former Bishop of Galway Dr Eamon Casey is to return to Ireland from the UK to contest an allegation made against him in Ireland which emerged recently.
Mass-goers at Our Lady of Fatima church in Staplefield, west Sussex, were told on Sunday that Dr Casey (known there as Fr Casey) had stood aside from ministry and moved to another premises owned by the diocese of Arundel and Brighton to prepare for his return to Ireland to deal with the allegation.
No details of the allegation were available yesterday from the diocese of Arundel and Brighton, to which Dr Casey has been attached since 1998. A spokesman said yesterday he believed it "dates back some time". He said the former bishop was returning to Ireland so he could "clear his name".
A spokesman for the Irish Catholic bishops last night said he had no knowledge of any allegation against Dr Casey. Spokesmen for the Kerry and Galway dioceses, where Dr Casey served before resigning in 1992, said they knew nothing about any allegation. Several attempts last night to reach Dr Casey were unsuccessful.
Last Friday he moved out of the village of Staplefield, in the parish of St Paul's, Hayward Heath, before the announcement was made.
St Paul's priest Fr Martin Jakubas told the congregation - in a homily and in a letter distributed to parishioners - that the allegation had recently been forwarded to the diocese. He said Dr Casey had withdrawn from ministry at Staplefield to deal with the allegation.
According to one parishioner who heard the homily at Sunday's Mass, Fr Jakubas characterised the allegation as either "weird" or "strange". The parishioner, who did not want to be identified but is known to The Irish Times, said Fr Jakubas suggested that he thought the allegation was unlikely to be true.
The parishioner said news of this development had come as a "bombshell". He said Dr Casey was well liked by the congregation "for his warmth, humour and humility". He was also well regarded at the nearby Princess Royal Hospital, where he served as a chaplain, said the parishioner.
A spokesman for the diocese of Arundel and Brighton, Fr Stuart Geary, confirmed yesterday that Dr Casey would return to Ireland to deal with the allegation.
"It is his intention to return and face the allegation. At the moment he wants to clear his name as one would expect and understand. He is doing it in the way he thinks is right. He will deal with it in the best way for him and for all those who know him," Fr Geary said.
Fr Jakubas said Dr Casey was planning to move back to Ireland in the next year or so to retire, and that this allegation had merely speeded up his departure. He said he could not discuss the matter further and referred queries to the diocesan communications officer.
Dr Casey, who is 78, had not been in good health recently. The current primate of the Episcopal Conference of England and Wales, Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, was bishop in Arundel and Brighton when he offered Dr Casey a place there in 1998, after Dr Casey's contract with the American missionary Society of St James the Apostle in Ecuador ended earlier that year.