IRELAND
One in Four
The Catholic Bishop of Killaloe, Dr Willie Walsh, has described the timing of the Vatican's ruling on homosexuality in the priesthood as "unhelpful".
He also said an allegation against the former bishop of Galway, Eamon Casey, appeared to be "without any reasonable foundation".
Speaking at the launch of a new website for couples preparing to marry in the Catholic Church, gettingmarried.ie, Dr Walsh said he acknowledged the hurt felt at times in the gay community in Ireland.
"Given, if you like, the dark winter of the church in Ireland that we have experienced, I suppose for us the timing of it wasn't very helpful." He said he would have preferred if the document was an overall paper "relating to canvassing for priesthood". In most respects, Dr Walsh said, the Vatican document was not demanding anything more from people of homosexual orientation than from those of heterosexual orientation.