The Bishop of Galway today called on Dr Eamonn Casey to apologise for his affair with an American divorcee before returning to the diocese.
Dr Martin Drennan said the exiled cleric recognised he had made a huge mistake and he urged him to publicly admit his guilt.
"I think in some way he has let the church down and that requires some admission of guilt. Yes, I think a public apology would be very welcome in that sense," Dr Drennan said.
The Bishop denied that there had been a concerted effort to force Dr Casey out of Ireland after the revelation he had a teenage son broke 14 years ago.
"All of the rumours round that he was blocked from coming back that was not true. He was never actually forbidden from returning to Ireland," the Bishop told RTERadio. "As far as I know every Bishop is happy that he [Bishop Casey] is coming back."
Dr Drennan said he would have preferred if Dr Casey had stayed in Galway at the time and faced up to his responsibilities. "I suppose my own preference at the time would have been had he stayed put and faced the situation as it was, possibly because of the pressure at the time he felt it wiser to get out of the environment," he said.
"I think in today's climate we'd be more inclined to encourage a person to take responsibility for their actions and then see what consequences they needed to look at.
"He knows that he made a huge mistake and he knows it himself and he has said it to me as well."
But Bishop Drennan praised people's ability to forgive Dr Casey.
"What impresses me most is the quality of forgiveness of the people I have met," the Bishop said. "Everyone agrees what happened was traumatic. It disturbed people's faith and caused a lot of anger. Everyone agrees, they say time has moved on, we have all moved on, we'd like to bring this to a closure through forgiveness."
Dr Drennan insisted that Dr Casey would be welcome back in the diocese and that he could expect a sympathetic reception from the public.
Dr Casey was ordained as a priest in 1951. He worked in Britain for a period where he was active in social housing and Irish emigrant circles, and was appointed bishop of Kerry in 1969. During his tenure in Kerry, he developed a relationship with Annie Murphy, but the affair and birth of a baby son, Peter, was unknown when he was appointed bishop of Galway in 1976.
PA