There is now widespread anti-Catholic bias in the Irish media, a leading Irish cleric has said.

Fr Sean McDonagh, a founding member of the Association of Catholic Priests, said that the manner in which the media in Ireland had dealt with Church-related issues demonstrated that the bias against Catholicism was both “widespread and deep seated”.

In an interview with the Irish Catholic, Fr McDonagh said that this lack of balance had resulted from “bad publicity around the abuse cases in recent times”.

He said that it was the responsibility of Church members to combat this media bias.

“It is the role of the ACP and others to change how the wider world interacts with the Church. We need a culture of real honesty on this subject in the future,” he said.

Fr McDonagh cited the media’s presentation of the case of Sr Mary Theresa Grogan as an example of anti Catholic bias.

Sr Grogan was found not guilty of all counts of indecent assault brought against her by seven complainants.  

Fr McDonagh pointed out that none of the three broadsheet papers carried this news on the front page, nor did RTE mention it in the “What it says in the papers” slot in their morning new programme.

“I believe the story would have made banner headlines in all of the newspapers and other media outlets if she had been found guilty,” he said.  

A poll conducted by the Iona Institute last year showed that a clear majority of the Irish public overestimate the number of Catholic clergy who are guilty of child abuse.

The most authoritative estimate to date, conducted in the United States, puts the true number of accused priests at 4 percent.  

However, seven out of every ten respondents believe the number is higher than this and 42 per cent put the number above 20 percent. Of these, 27 percent believe the number exceeds 40 percent, and 17 percent put it at half or more.

Five percent of the public believe that between 90 percent and 100 percent of all Catholic priests are guilty of child abuse.