An Australian Catholic newspaper has refused to run an advertisement for an event featuring former President Mary McAleese because of her views on homosexuality and the ordination of women.
Ms McAleese is the guest of Catholic think-tank, Catalyst For Renewal, at an interview and open forum in Sydney next week.
The organisation’s aim is to “prompt open exchanges among the community of believers”.
But Catholic Weekly editor Peter Rosengren said it would not accept an advert for the event because of Ms McAleese's views.
“She is reported as being in favour of ordination of women as Catholic priests and in favour of homosexuality - whatever that actually means,” Mr Rosengren told the Sydney-based Irish Echo newspaper.
“No matter how admirable a person she is it places me in some difficulty as editor of the Catholic Weekly.”
He said that neither he nor the Church “see homosexuality as a sin”.
“The problem is that the Church believes God made man and woman equally in the image and likeness of God’s very self - therefore gender actually has meaning. “Homosexuality and other identifications that people may use to describe themselves such as bisexual, transgendered and so on … may obscure for people the meaning of their lives, but the dividing line for the Church is that homosexual acts definitely do,” said Mr Rosengren.
“Having previously employed an openly same-sex attracted columnist on an official Catholic newspaper I feel quite entitled to make these observations,” he added. On the subject of women priests, Mr Rosengren said “I think it’s quite clear that men got the consolation prize with the priesthood - only a woman could be the mother of God.
"As a married man in the … Catholic Church, I do not have the right to be ordained either, but I don't campaign on it as a matter of equality."
Catalyst For Renewal's president, Kevin Grant, told The Irish Times he was "disappointed" the advert was refused. "They said she held some views that did not accord with those of the Catholic Church," he said.
Mr Rosengren said he “quite admired” Ms McAleese’s reported views on abortion and divorce “both of which I understand she opposes”.
The Catholic Weekly has a readership of 50,000, and is sent to politicians in state and federal parliaments. It claims to be “Australia’s most successful non-secular newspaper”.
According to the 2011 census, Catholicism is Australia’s largest religion, practiced by 27 per cent of the population.
