Archbishop to meet Pope

Archbishop Ward wants to return to his duties

The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Cardiff who is accused of ignoring warnings about two paedophile priests is expected to meet the Pope at the Vatican.

Archbishop John Ward requested the meeting after facing calls for his resignation following the conviction of two priests in the diocese for child abuse.

He wants to be able to return to his full church role.

The audience with the Pope will take place at the Vatican

The Roman Catholic church has appointed an apostolic administrator to carry out Archbishop Ward's official duties since he fell ill at the end of last year with deep vein thrombosis.

Archbishop Ward asked for the meeting with Pope John Paul following his return to full health.

Last week his official spokesman said if the Archbishop was asked to step down by the Pope he would immediately do so.

The Archbishop's spokesman, Peter Jennings, told BBC Wales that the Archbishop will not have to defend the way he dealt with two paedophile priests in the Archdiocese during his papal audience.

"I think the Pope will be very interested to hear from the Archbishop on how he intends to take forward his duties," said Mr Jennings.

"The Holy Father will also ask him how he is and in fact the doctor has given him a clean bill of health."

Archbishop Ward's duties have been taken over by an apostolic administrator - Bishop Edwin Regan of Wrexham - who was appointed last December

The Archbishop has been at the centre of controversy over his handling of the cases of Fathers Joe Jordan and John Lloyd who are serving a total of fifteen years for child sex abuse.

He has consistently maintained that he has been made a "scapegoat" for the controversy.

It has already emerged the Archbishop, who is 72, had refused an earlier appeal from the Pope's representative to resign his post

'Vicious campaign'

However, the Archbishop's press secretary Peter Jennings told BBC Wales last week that if requested by the Pope he would go immediately.

Mr Jennings said a small minority of priests had launched a "vicious campaign" against the archbishop.

He said the Cardiff archdiocese was not alone in having problems with paedophile priests.

He said in retrospect Archbishop Ward might have dealt with things differently, but his conscience on the matter was clear.

"Its quite a coincidence that these two matter situations aroses and people latched on to them," said Mr Jennings.

"But its a much deeper situations in the archdiocese than the two paedophile priests and that is a tragedy in itself"