The national executive of Accord, the Catholic Church’s marriage counselling agency, overruled a motion which would have required it to offer couples sexual counseling to divorced, gay and unmarried people, which would be against Catholic teaching.

The motion was tabled in October 2011 by the Wexford branch of Accord, and was passed by a comfortable majority of the 800 lay delegates, the Irish Times reports.

However the motion was subsequently ruled invalid by the national executive committee.  

The issue has emerged as part of a lawsuit taken by former Accord director Ms Ruth Barror, who is claiming she was dismissed unfairly by the organisation.

Counsel for Ms Barror, Sile O’Kelly, told the Employment Appeals Tribunal on Thursday that the motion was the real reason for her dismissal.

Counsel for Accord have denied this claim.

Motion five, originally tabled by the Accord Wexford centre, proposed to make “the full range of counselling and therapy services” available to all those seeking them from the organisation, including divorced, unmarried and same-sex couples.

Ms O’Kelly claimed Accord president Bishop Christopher Jones had said if the motion was passed, the organisation would be closed down.

It was passed at the meeting and Bishop Jones had felt “intimidated, threatened and blackmailed”, the tribunal was told. Ms O’Kelly said her client had taken wage cuts and was willing to take more, but her suggestions were rejected.

Tom Mallon, for Accord, said the matter was “a relatively straightforward redundancy”.

Giving evidence for Accord, Harry Casey, executive administrator of the commissions and agencies of the bishops’ conference, told the tribunal there were eight full-time and eight part-time staff at Accord head office and Ms Barror had not been replaced.

The national executive committee usually sifted through motions in advance of the annual meeting to decide if they were operational or a change of policy, Mr Casey said. No motion that would amend the constitution of the organisation could be put at an annual meeting without first being approved by the Bishops’ Conference.

The problem with motion five was that Accord had a difficulty with offering sex therapy to people who were not married. They did offer conflict resolution, addiction and other counselling to unmarried couples, he said, but did not refer them to psycho-sexual specialists. The teaching was clear: “Sex before marriage is not something the Catholic Church ever promoted”.

He had no memory of any discussion about motion five at a meeting of the bishops’ conference a month later at which it was decided Ms Barror should be made redundant. He admitted to having avoided her in the days following the decision because he was embarrassed.

Bishop Jones was “equally upset, and tense and nervous”, Mr Casey said, and asked him to attend the meeting with Ms Barror to tell her the bad news on December 16th. “She amazed me with her graciousness and strength,” he said.

The case was adjourned until April.