The former president spoke candidly with RTÉ's Sean O'Rourke on Monday morning.
Mary McAleese has spoken in detail of the extent of abuse suffered by her brother at the hands of Fr Malachy Finnegan.
In an interview with Sean O'Rourke on RTÉ Today on Monday, she said tearfully that her youngest brother was "seriously, physically, sadistically abused" by Finnegan while he attended St Colman's Grammar School in Newry, Co Down.
"There were supposed to be no more secrets, and yet here we are. And there are a mountain of them," she said.
Ms McAleese also mentioned that her elderly mother only found out about the abuse in the Belfast Telegraph three weeks ago.
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While on air, she also spoke about how she has received neither an acknowledgement nor a reply to a letter she penned to Pope Francis after the Vatican declined her partaking in a conference in Rome.
The former President ruled out the idea of the letter not being received by the pontiff yet, as she said it had been sent by diplomatic bag.
Last week, following the Vatican's disapproval of her planned visit to the annual Why Women Matter conference on International Women’s Day,
McAleese described the Catholic Church as “an empire of misogyny”.
Speaking to reporters in Rome,
according to RTÉ, McAleese said that the Catholic Church is “one of the last great bastions of misogyny”.
On the role of women in the Catholic Church, McAleese said: "There are so few leadership roles currently available to women. Women do not have strong role models in the Church they can look up to," while she described the Catholic Church’s ban on women priests as “codology dressed up as theology”.
During the interview with O'Rourke, McAleese called on the Catholic Church to further strategise the inclusion of women.
She continued to say that the solution for this is readily available. "It is equality," she said.
Upon being asked if she accepted the authority of the pope, she replied: "Of course I accept the authority of the pope, I'm a Catholic - of course I do."
McAleese finished the interview with a brief conversation about the upcoming abortion referendum.
She mentioned that the Savita Halappanavar case caused her "great worry" and describes the 12-week law as a "non-medical model".
Although not stating it outright, McAleese hinted that she will support a repeal of the Eighth Amendment, mentioning that the protection of women is paramount.
"I am not at the end of my own thinking process yet," McAleese says.
Although she referenced her support of the Eighth Amendment back in 1983, she also mentioned how "disappointed" she is at how the current laws have worked out.
"The risk [to women] was never the intention."
