A former government minister, Mr Justin Keating, has described the Vatican's Dominus Iesus document and the Irish bishops' response to it as "disgraceful and harmful to human kind".
Mr Keating was Labour's minister for industry and commerce in the 1973-77 coalition and is president of the Irish Humanist Association.
Writing in the current issue of the Irish Humanist magazine, he said he could not find, "except for smoother language, any essential difference between the formulations of 60 years ago and that in the Jubilee Year document Dominus Iesus".
Referring to Cardinal Ratzinger's letter to bishops saying other churches should not be referred to as "sister churches", he said he thought the Archbishop of Dublin backed the letter with "a wonderful piece of reasoning".
Dr Desmond Connell had said the Catholic Church could not be the sister of any other church as she is the mother church.
"I always thought that one did not exclude the other. I know lots of sisters who are also mothers . . . it is not so rare," Mr Keating said.
