The two Kerry priests at the centre of the row over whether unmarried couples should be allowed to receive Communion said yesterday the topic was closed as far as they were concerned and they wished for no further debate in the media on the matter.
Father Pat McCarthy, parish priest of Abbeydorney, said he had been inundated with telephone calls from as far away as Belfast on his view that unmarried couples were in breach of church rules and should not be allowed receive Holy Communion.
He said he had been merely pointing out the teaching of the church and had nothing further to add. When asked if he would allow the Taoiseach and his partner to receive Communion in his church, he said the subject was closed as far as he was concerned.
His colleague, Father Richard O'Connor, parish priest of Lixnaw, said: "I have shut down on this topic; I'm leaving it to the bishops."
Father Rory O'Sullivan, director of communications for the Kerry Diocesan Office, said he would not discuss specific cases such as that of the Taoiseach and his partner, but in general, the church was clear that if a man and a woman were living together out of wedlock, then they were in a state of serious and continuing sin and could not receive Communion.
The focus, he added, had been on sins of a sexual nature, but there were many other forms of serious and continuing sins and in these cases the same rules applied.
"People who find themselves in irregular unions should be assured of the love and pastoral care of the church even when they cannot be admitted to Holy Communion. They should be encouraged, nevertheless, to participate as fully as they can in the life of the church because they were christened in the faith and they are still members of the church," he added.
The Bishop of Cork and Ross, Dr John Buckley, said yesterday it was the duty of priests to guide unmarried couples and instruct them in the teachings of Christ. However, he declined to comment on the present controversy or on the row involving the Taoiseach, his partner and Cardinal Connell.