The Taoiseach's special adviser, Dr Martin Mansergh, has urged the churches to unite against what he called the "ferocious secular assault" based mainly on the sins of the past.
"Unfortunately, some journalists-turned-historians - and I am only speaking of a minority - have not a notion of the first principles of historical evidence, for example that you do not treat hearsay material collected by a sworn enemy as gospel or indeed any other sort of truth," said Dr Mansergh, in what was seen as a reference to the current controversy concerning Dr McQuaid, the former Archbishop of Dublin. "Indeed, you treat it with the greatest reserve."
A professional historian and a member of the Church of Ireland, Dr Mansergh was speaking in Ferns, at an ecumenical gathering to launch a new book entitled Memory & Mission: Christianity in Wexford, 600 to 2000, edited by Fr Walter Forde, commemorating the 1,400th anniversary of the Wexford diocese.
The "new commandment", he said, seemed to be: "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour, living or dead, unless of course it would help to sell books or newspapers."