The Irish Catholic paper has accused RTÉ and the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland of "a remarkable inconsistency" in how they interpret restrictions on political and religious advertising.
Both have banned an advertisement for the weekly as it contained the words "these are hard times for the Catholic Church, so hard that it's easy to forget all the good the church does".
An editorial in the paper has claimed that when this "inconsistency" was put to an RTÉ spokesman, he said he was "not interested in a 'philosophical discussion'."
The editorial pointed out that the advertisement "did not address the merits of belonging to the Catholic Church. It merely contrasted the hard times the church has been going through, with the good work it continues to do." The ban "isn't good enough".
An article in the paper by its editor Mr David Quinn quotes a barrister, Mr Gerard Brady, as saying the ban represented "an excessively narrow and restricted interpretation" of the Broadcasting Act, which was inconsistent with the Constitution.
The wording of the advertisement, intended to publicise last week's issue, read: "These are hard times for the Catholic Church, so hard that it's easy to forget all the good the church does. To remind us of that, the Irish Catholic will be running an advent series,starting this week, showing how the church puts Christ into Christmas through the countless good deeds of thousands of ordinary Catholics."
