POPE John, Paul II yesterday received the Taoiseach in a private audience in the Apostolic Library in the Vatican during which expressed his full support for peace process in the North.
Speaking afterwards, Mr Bruton described the 25 minute audience as "a happy occasion me", a description borne out the warmth of the Pope's parting remarks to him.
With his arm resting on Mr Bruton's, the Pope, visibly frail, paused at the door of the Apostolic Library to say in English: "We must keep up our good relationship. The contribution of Ireland to the spreading of the faith has been enormous."
Minutes earlier, as Mrs Finola Bruton and members of the Taoiseach's delegation were presented to him, the Pope had asked the Taoiseach: "Do you speak Gaelic?" When the Taoiseach replied that he spoke only a little Irish, the Pope then inquired about how much Irish was spoken and taught in schools.
There had been speculation that the Government's pro divorce stance in the recent divorce "referendum campaign might cause tension between the Popes and Mr Bruton.
But Mr Bruton said: "There was no discussion of that matter at all, it didn't arise. But we did discuss the importance of supporting the family in general because . .. I would recognise that families provide people with help and support at the times in their lives when they're vulnerable and without strong family structures people are going to face much more trouble in their lives than they would otherwise face. Therefore the State and the churches have a mutual interest to support families."
The divorce referendum issue did emerge during the Taoiseach's meeting with the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Angelo Sodano.
I repeated to Cardinal Sodano what I had said during the divorce campaign, namely that I believe it is very important that the churches should feel free to state their opinions very fully and frankly on any important issue of the day but that, equally, the civil authorities have got to make their decisions in the light of everybody's interests and that there are complementary but necessarily separate functions to be performed by the churches and the State," Mr Bruton said.
The Taoiseach said that the difficulties of the Irish Church, including child sex abuse scandals involving priests, did not arise in his discussion with the Pope.