By HENRY MCDONALD - GUARDIAN.CO.UK
Added: Thu, 28 Jul 2011 15:20:01 UTC

Cleric says he regrets leaflet berating Enda Kenny over accusation that the Holy See downplayed child sex abuse scandals

Enda Kenny: parliamentarians from his Fine Gael party complained over the leaflet issued by Father Thomas Daly. Photograph: Julien Behal/PA

A Catholic priest in the Irish Republic has been forced to apologise for comparing the country's prime minister to Adolf Hitler because the taoiseach had dared to criticise the Vatican.

Father Thomas Daly issued the apology on Thursday after he likened Enda Kenny's denunciation of the Vatican's handling of clerical child sex abuse scandals in the republic to one of Hitler's speeches.

In a leaflet titled Heil Herr Kenny given to members of the Togher parish in Drogheda, County Louth, the priest wrote that the last European leader to issue such a blistering attack on the pope "was the ruthless German dictator Adolf Hitler".

Daly said, like Hitler, the taoiseach "had to face reality. A cautionary tale."
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