Christians have “a right and an obligation to express concerns about the manner in which those who are called to exercise responsibility in politics” live out their mandate, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has said.

His comments are being interpreted as a rebuttal of remarks by Minister John Gormley who told the Church to stick to the “spiritual needs of its flock.”

Speaking on Saturday at the Annual Pilgrimage of the St Joseph’s Young Priests’ Society, Archbishop Martin said that the obligation on the Church to speak “even when that message might not meet with agreement and acceptance” was non-negotiable.

The Church, he insisted “has its role in society and the message of Jesus Christ can and must be proclaimed in an appropriate way to any society”.

His remarks came after the Minister for the Environment, John Gormley, said that the Church “concentrate its efforts on looking after the spiritual needs of its flock and not intrude on temporal or State matters”.

Reacting to the Catholic hierarchy’s statement on the Civil Partnership Bill, which called on members of the Oireachtas to have a free vote on the Bill, Mr Gormley said that he “thought we had left the era of Church interference behind.”

Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern said, in an interview with the Irish Times, that politicians, when legislating, had to leave their religion to one side when legislating and not let it ‘cloud’ their judgement.

Last July, in response to a sermon made by a priest in his constituency, Mr Ahern said that when he legislated “particularly as a Government Minister, I don’t bring whatever religion I have to the table.”

Archbishop Martin, while acknowledging that the Church “has no role or desire to replace Caesar or in substituting itself for the political forum,” added that “Caesar is not God, and God is not irrelevant to the world of Caesar”.

He said: “Listening recently to some comments which seemed to express unease at the fact the Irish Bishops would address the political community on a fundamental question affecting society, I was struck to find in my diary just one year earlier, politicians complaining that the bishops had not been speaking publicly in support of a Yes vote at the Lisbon treaty.”

“True pluralism respects constructive voices whether they are welcome or not,” he added.

Politicians, the Archbishop said were answerable to “the challenges which affect the lives of citizens and of society and not just as potential voters, but as human beings who live and who are influenced by the concrete culture which grows up around them”.