Former Bishop of Galway Eamonn Casey was removed from public ministry by the Vatican in 2007 after allegations including child sexual abuse.
The revelation are made in a new documentary due to be broadcast on RTÉ on Monday.
Bishop Casey made headlines in 1992 after it was revealed he had secretly fathered a son with US divorcee.
The investigation by RTÉ, Bishop Casey’s Buried Secrets, in association with the Irish Mail on Sunday, focuses in the Catholic Church’s handling of allegations against Bishop Casey.
Details of the Vatican restrictions placed on him have never been made public.
Bishop Casey denied all allegations against him and was never convicted of any sexual crimes, remaining a bishop until his death in March 2017.
The Vatican has now confirmed that Bishop Casey was officially removed from ministry in 2007, following serious allegations.
Bishop Casey’s niece Patricia Donovan previously complained of child sexual abuse across the dioceses of Galway, Kerry and Limerick, claiming she had been abused by him for more than a decade from the age of five.
She later described her treatment at the hands of her uncle as “horrific”, alleging she was raped.
She reported the offences to UK police in 2005, but no charges were brought.
In 2019 it was also reported that Casey paid settlements to two other women who accused him of abusing them as children in the 1950s and 1960s, while a third settlement was made following his death.
Prior to Ms Donovan coming forward another accuser made allegations in 2001 when he when he was working as a curate in the UK Diocese of Arundel & Brighton.
The Limerick Diocese forwarded that complaint to their English counterparts and the Vatican.
It is understood Arundel & Brighton has confirmed that the complaint was lost and not reported to the British police, resulting in Bishop Casey remaining in active ministry for another four years.
In early 2006, the Irish Bishops confirmed that Bishop Casey was moving back to Ireland to retire.
It is now known that at that stage, the Vatican had received at least two allegations of child sexual abuse against him.
While the Director of Public Prosecutions decided not to prosecute, Catholic Church investigations continued.
The Vatican has now conformed to RTÉ that by 2006 and following unspecified allegations, “Bishop Casey had been requested not to publicly exercise the ministry” and that this was “reiterated formally” a year later.
They say he “was never reinstated...in spite of insistence from him and on his behalf” and “regardless of the outcome of the civil procedures”.
Former president Mary McAleese, who is a canon lawyer, believes church authorities were “worried” “about of restoring Bishop Casey to public ministry.
::Bishop Casey’s Buried Secrets, will be broadcast Monday at 9.35pm on RTÉ One and will be available on the RTÉ Player.
