‘We are not getting the truth from Rome’

THE banter of the two men strolling into the conference hall spoke volumes.

One or both could have been priests, which might explain the chuckle when one said to the other: “We might end up in the leisure centre.” Images of Fr Ted in the lingerie department sprang to mind. The other man quipped: “Is there a trauma centre down here?”

The Catholic Church as figure of fun and crucible of pain: The crowd gathered at the Regency Hotel in Dublin yesterday did not want to entertain either view of the institution they hold so dear. An estimated 1,000 people convened in the conference centre as part of the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) organised event entitled Towards an Assembly of the Irish Catholic Church. The theme, one way or the other, was stressed by every speaker — the need for change.