Mgr Micheál Ledwith was considered for elevation to bishop until the then Papal Nuncio consulted Father Gerard McGinnity, writes Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent
In the last term of the 1983-84 academic year six senior seminarians at St Patrick's College, Maynooth, felt compelled to go to Father Gerard McGinnity, then senior dean there, for help.
Over a period in 1983-84 the six had become so concerned about the behaviour of Mgr Micheál Ledwith towards their junior colleagues that they did "the unthinkable" for clerical students, as one put it. They went to the Trustees about the matter.
They met nine of the 17 bishop/trustees of the college on the issue, arranging separate meetings with the Catholic primate, Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich; Cardinal Cahal Daly, then Bishop of Down and Connor; Bishop Colm O'Reilly of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise; Archbishop Joseph Cassidy, then Bishop of Clonfert; Bishop Brendan Comiskey, who became Bishop of Ferns in 1984; Bishop Eamonn Casey of Galway; Bishop Edward Daly of Derry; Bishop James Lennon, an auxiliary bishop in Armagh; and Bishop John Ahern of Cloyne.
The six seminiarians, five of whom were later ordained and three of whom remain priests,were ignored. One bishop advised them to "go back and say your prayers".
In a letter to this newspaper on May 31st last Cardinal Daly and three bishops disputed the claims that they were approached by the senior seminarians with complaints about the behaviour of Mgr Ledwith towards their junior colleagues.
Cardinal Daly, the retired archbishop of Tuam, Dr Joseph Cassidy, the retired bishop of Derry, Dr Edward Daly, and the Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise, Dr Colm O'Reilly, said the seminarians' complaints had been about the former college president's "extravagant" lifestyle.
Subsequent to publication of that letter members of the group of six repeated to The Irish Times that they had made it explicit to the bishops then precisely what they were talking about. There was no confusion on the matter where they were concerned.
The day following publication of the letter from the four bishops, on June 1st, the Trustees of St Patrick's College, Maynooth, issued a detailed statement confirming that before Mgr Ledwith's departure from the post of President at Maynooth in 1995 "an allegation pertaining to sexual abuse of a minor" had been made against him, which he strenuously denied.
They also said "he made a private settlement with the claimant in late 1995, without admission of any liability". They continued that "in mid-2000 the Trustees were informed of another allegation by solicitors on behalf of a former student of the college between 1992 and 1994. Mr Ledwith vehemently denied the allegation."
In 1984, having failed with the bishops in their attempts to have something done about Mgr Ledwith's behaviour towards their junior colleagues, the six senior seminarians then went to Father McGinnity for protection. Theyfeared the bishops might stop their ordination, and they wanted their concerns about Mgr Ledwith to be addressed seriously.
Father McGinnity then spoke in confidence about these matters to Cardinal Tomás O Fiaich, Archbishop Dermot Ryan of Dublin, and Bishop Kevin McNamara of Kerry (like the cardinal, Dr McNamara was a former colleague of Father McGinnity's on the staff at St Patrick's).
Some time later in that last term of the academic year 1983-84 (April-June), as he recalls it, there was a meeting of the "College Visitors". These are eight trustee/bishops who act as a sub-committee on behalf of the 17 trustee/bishops at the college.
Among the Visitors at the time were Cardinal O'Fiaich, Archbishop Ryan, Archbishop Thomas Morris of Cashel, Archbishop Joseph Cunnane of Tuam, Bishop Kevin McNamara of Kerry, Bishop Eamonn Casey of Galway, and Bishop Michael Harty of Killaloe,
As Father McGinnity recalls it Bishop Casey left the Visitors' meeting and had Father McGinnity summoned to meet him. A discussion between the two about Mgr Ledwith's behaviour took place. The matter of Father McGinnity being consulted about Mgr Ledwith by the papal nuncio, Dr Albrandi, was also raised by Bishop Casey.
It is the procedure before names are submitted to Rome for appointment as bishop that a nuncio consults in secrecy people who know proposed candidates well. This procedure involves the person consulted answering a series of written questions. Mgr Ledwith, who was from Wexford, was seen as a front runner for the vacant See of Ferns.
In filling the Sub Pontificio Secreto (under pontifical secrecy) form, Father McGinnity made reference to complaints at Maynooth about Mgr Ledwith's allegedly inappropriate behaviour. It was this Bishop Casey was referring to when he accused Father McGinnity of complaining to the nuncio about Mgr Ledwith.
When contacted by The Irish Times this week Bishop Casey confirmed that the meeting with Father McGinnity had taken place, while disputing "the context". He would not clarify what he meant by this, nor would he discuss any of the content of that conversation.
A short time after that encounter with Bishop Casey, Father McGinnity was asked by Cardinal O Fiaich, who as archbishop of Armagh was also his bishop, to take a sabbatical. From Derrynoose, Co Armagh, Father McGinnity was ordained for Armagh diocese in 1972.
At the end of the sabbatical year, in April-May 1985, Cardinal O Fiaich visited Father McGinnity in Rome, where he had been studying, and informed him he was being removed from his post at Maynooth on the insistence of the other bishops. Clearly distressed, the cardinal asked for his resignation. Father McGinnity was deeply shocked by this.
As senior dean at the national seminary and a highly qualified academic he already held a noteworthy position in the Irish church and had every right to expect advancement. Predecessors in the post of senior dean there had included Dr Jeremiah Newman, later president of the college before becoming bishop of Limerick, and Dr Michael Harty, later bishop of Killaloe.
Under extreme duress Father McGinnity agreed to the resignation. He was appointed curate to Stonebridge, a rural parish near Portadown in Armagh diocese. He was there three years before being appointed dean of discipline at St Patrick's diocesan/secondary school in Armagh city.
He was 10 years in that post, making sure the students were up for breakfast at 7.30 a.m., were all in bed by 11 p.m. and attending to general discipline duties at the school. Intermittently he taught religion, French and Latin.
Unlike the other teachers at the school and though the only member of staff with a doctorate (from Trinity College Dublin, in Patristic Theology) he did not receive a state salary. His income consisted of some payment from the state for his part-time teaching of French and Latin, supplemented by a stipend from the diocese.
In 1999 he was appointed parish priest of Knockbridge, Co Louth, where he remains.
Last May, following a number of reports about Mgr Ledwith in this newspaper, The Irish Times was contacted by members of the group of six senior seminiarians about their experiences at Maynooth in 1983-84. In the course of a series of conversations the story of what had befallen Father McGinnity emerged.
Contact was made with him and he agreed, under pressure, to issue a brief statement on the matter to The Irish Times on June 5th. He then disclosed that he had been "demoted and humiliated"" by church authorities after taking up the senior seminarians' concerns in 1984.
He said that "in the interests of truth and transparency and to clear my own good name" he would make a full statement at a later date. That statement appears in this newspaper today.
Asked this week whether the church authorities had ever apologised to him for how he had been treated since 1984, Father McGinnity responded that not only had an apology not been forthcoming but there had been "regrettably, not even an acknowledgment of the injury, let alone reparation."