The Vatican has lodged an official complaint with RTÉ after one of the State broadcaster's television crews was questioned by police in Rome while filming a local actress and model dressed as a bishop close to Vatican buildings, writes Conor Lally.
The three-man crew of RTÉ1's Would You Believe series was shooting footage for a programme on the role of women in the church.
They were taken to a police station in Rome and questioned for three hours as to why their female companion was dressed as a bishop in such a religiously sensitive area.
Under Italian law it is illegal to wear clerics' clothing if not a cleric.
The Vatican has lodged a complaint to RTÉ claiming the crew had broken this law close to a property owned by the Holy See and in doing so had acted insensitively.
"It's all a bit Da Vinci Code-esque," said one RTÉ source.
The crew were also quizzed about their permits to film in the city. As a sanction, their permit to film Pope Benedict's Wednesday audience in St Peter's Square yesterday was withdrawn.
Vatican authorities became aware of the incident, which took place on Tuesday, only after Rome police contacted them to inquire if they had any knowledge of the Irish producer, cameraman, sound engineer and Italian actress.
The crew tried to argue that because the model was female it was clear they were shooting footage rather than trying to genuinely pass her off as a bishop.
The crew were in transit from Rome to Dublin last night and were not contactable.
However, a number of informed sources in RTÉ television confirmed the details of the bizarre events.
A spokeswoman for RTÉ denied that the three-man Irish crew and the Italian actress had been arrested.
She said they were questioned by police but were not in custody at any point.
Other sources said the authorities in Rome are very sensitive about any filming taking place on the city streets, particularly in areas close to the Vatican or properties owned by it.
"It seems in this case they had particular difficulties with the fact that the woman involved was dressed as a cleric," said one Montrose source.