gamekeepers

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Jun 19, 2005

Well, it's a start. An Irish priest who tried (and failed) to flag a personnel problem was proved right and received -- not exactly an apology -- but a statement of regret.

McCullough said that the former senior dean of the college, Fr Gerald McGinnity, had expressed concern to a number of bishops about [Monsignor Micheál] Ledwith's "apparent propensities", both sexual and theological. McCullough said that no seminarians had made personal complaints.

McGinnity was removed as senior dean and the bishops took no action over his claims. Shortly afterwards, Ledwith was appointed president of the college.

On Thursday, Archbishop Sean Brady said the Maynooth trustees were now satisfied that McGinnity had acted in good faith and they regretted any hurt he had suffered.

Msgr. Ledwith was later to resign after complaints of sexual harassment of seminarians, and has subsequently found more congenial employment sacrificing pigeons to Isis among the neo-pagans of the Pacific northwest.

After leaving Maynooth, Ledwith moved to Washington state in the US, where he now lectures at a New Age college run by a woman who claims to be possessed by the spirit of a prehistoric warrior. The Ramtha School of Enlightenment claims to have presented 40 "beginning retreats" to more than 6,000 people in ten countries since 1999.

McGinnity, for his part, got a candygram.