Up to 200 people protested outside the offices of the Examiner newspaper in Cork yesterday because of an article in the paper on Tuesday, March 18th, which said that the Roman Catholic Church would be better off if the new pontiff after the death of John Paul II had a liberal outlook.
The article, by Examiner journalist T.P. O'Mahoney, a former religious affairs correspondent with the Irish Press, argued that the present Pope had rolled back the advances made by the last Vatican Council. He concluded the article by saying that while he prayed for the health of the Pope, he did not pray that his successor would be a clone of John Paul II.
Protest letters have been sent to the Examiner because of the article. Yesterday a group calling itself The Roman Catholic Faithful from west Cork protested outside the newspaper offices carrying banners. The 200 members of the group sang Faith of Our Fathers as a letter of protest was being handed in to the editor of the Examiner, Mr Brian Looney. The letter said that the article amounted to a gratuitous insult to Pope John Paul.