One of Ireland’s best-known priests has revealed the anguish the Church’s requirement of mandatory clerical celibacy has caused him.

Former president Mary McAleese has decried the Church’s treatment of five silenced priests, accusing Rome of operating through fear and imposing strictures on the clerics which “consume the truth”.

A priest in a town southeast of Paris has been accused of sexual assault and child pornography charges after a 22-year-old former choirboy accused him of abuse, and a police search found pictures of a young parishioner in his home, a prosecutor said.

A conservative religious order that enjoyed the favour of Pope John Paul II has apologised to victims of sexual abuse by its founder.

The Pope was today holding talks with a married archbishop who has been threatened with excommunication.