A leading Irish cleric censored by the Vatican has admitted he’d be a better priest if he was allowed to marry.

Fr Brian D’Arcy has made the claim in a television documentary of his life to be broadcast in Ireland on Monday.

In the programme he also questions his future in the priesthood after he was taken to task by the Vatican for publicly challenging some of its core teachings.

The BBC documentary also sees Fr D’Arcy revealing that he was sexually abused.

The Turbulent Priest programme features Fr D’Arcy as he travels across Europe and speaks to a number of other people about the Catholic Church’s teachings and whether he can continue in the religious life.

Among those he meets is the conservative priest Fr Brian McKevitt.

The Irish Times reports that Fr McKevitt describes the Ulsterman’s writings as ‘a kind of a candyfloss spirituality’.

Fr McKevitt adds: “It looks attractive but when you actually bite into it there’s kind of an absence of substance, an absence of nourishment.”