The Catholic Primate of Ireland Dr Sean Brady today said he was unaware of the details of allegations against disgraced former Bishop of Galway Dr Eamon Casey.
Speaking after a briefing with Minister of State for Health and Children, Brian Lenihan, Dr Brady said the first he had heard of the allegations were in this morning's press reports.
Dr Casey pictured in 1980
Dr Casey stepped down from his ministry in the English diocese of Arundel and Brighton following an allegation emanating from Ireland.
The Bishop of the diocese, Kieran Conry, said Dr Casey stood down, in accordance with policy, after he was informed of the accusation by a Church child protection officer.
"There's been no formal allegation, he's not been approached by the police or the gardaí in Ireland. My understanding is that a report came from Ireland from the Church that someone had been making an allegation," Bishop Conry said.
He added that the while the allegation was directed to the diocesan child protection officer, that did not mean the allegation was of child abuse. The officer was the only channel through which a complaint would be passed irrespective of its nature, he said.
Dr Casey is living in a house in the diocese and according to a diocesan spokesman is preparing to return to Ireland to address the allegation.
Dr Casey first hit the headlines in 1992 when fled to Ecuador after it emerged that he had fathered a child, now living in the US. He used IR£80,000 of Church money as maintenance payments for Peter, whose mother Annie Murphy had an affair with Dr Casey in 1974 when he was Bishop of Kerry.
He has twice had his driving licence revoked for drink driving - in Britain on both occasions, most recently in his Stapleford parish in 2004.
Dr Brady spoke to the press briefly today after meeting Mr Lenihan to discuss the Church's progress in implementing measures to protect children following the publication of the Ferns report last month.
Mr Lenihan briefed the Archbishop on the plans by the Health Service Executive to establish inter-agency review groups within each Diocese in the State. The review were announced in response to the Ferns report and its criticism of Church, gardai and child welfare procedures.