Gerard McGinnity

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Very Reverend Dr Gerard McGinnity is an author and Parish Priest of Knockbridge, County Louth, Ireland, a parish of the Archdiocese of Armagh. He was appointed Junior Dean at St Patrick's College, Maynooth - Ireland's national seminary when he was 26 years old.

He was appointed Senior Dean at the age of 32 in 1978 - decades younger than previous holders of the post. Dr McGinnity was approached by students in 1984 who had concerns about the behaviour of the college's Vice President, Dr. Michael Ledwith - and these included concerns of a sexual nature.

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[edit] Dismissal from Maynooth College

He was abruptly dismissed from this position by Tomás Cardinal O'Fiaich, bishop of his home diocese, acting on behalf of the Trustees (17 bishops) of the College after he raised concerns with the bishops on behalf of six seminarians about the extravagant lifestyle of another senior academic at the College, Dr Michael Ledwith then Vice President of the College. O'Fiaich told McGinnity, "the bishops are gunning for you", so enraged were they that Ledwith's questionable relationship with certain students had been exposed. Some bishops even stooped to blatant lying by suggesting that Dr McGinnity left Maynooth because he had a nervous breakdown. This was formally refuted by McGinnity's long-standing personal physician.[citation needed]

The seminarians, who came to Maynooth as mature students, also sought the advice of Dr Brendan Comiskey, then auxiliary Bishop of Dublin and later Bishop of Ferns about what each of them saw, or believed, to be the lavish and worldly lifestyle of Ledwith and they were concerned about the information or rumours that might have suggested that Ledwith had a homosexual orientation. Comiskey suggested that they approach seven "key bishops" in order that their concerns would be adequately heard. These bishops included the then Primate of All Ireland Tomás Cardinal O'Fiaich, his successor Bishop Cahal Daly (later Cahal Cardinal Daly), Bishop Edward Daly, Bishop Lennon, Bishop Cassidy, Bishop C O'Reilly, Bishop Eamon Casey and Bishop Aherne.

Ledwith was appointed President of St Patrick's by the Trustees in 1984 on the 'enthusiastic nomination' of Dr Brendan Comiskey, then Bishop of Ferns - despite these concerns. Ledwith continued as president until 1994 when he resigned prematurely in 1994 as President, and agreed a financial settlement - without liability - with a man who alleged Ledwith had abused him as a minor. Ledwith was eventually laicised in 2005, several years after he abandoned Catholicism in favour of new-age religion. Ledwith was promoted to College President.

Comiskey resigned as Bishop of Ferns in April 2002 following a BBC television documentary the previous month that criticised how Comiskey handled the case of Fr Seán Fortune, a serial child sex abuser who committed suicide in 1999.

[edit] The McCullough and Ferns Reports

The Irish bishops published The McCullough Report in June 2005. The inquiry leading to this report was commissiond by the bishops following media reports that complaints of sexual harassment of junior seminarians at Maynooth in the early 1980's had not received a proper response. Dr. McGinnity did not contribute to this inquiry. The Report's author, Paul McCullough, SC found that "all parties to whom I spoke are agreed that there were no complaints made by the seminarians themselves to Bishops about sexual harassment by Monsignor Ledwith of seminarians in Maynooth College". The Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Seán Cardinal Brady stated following the publication of The McCullough Report that "those seminarians who expressed concern in the early eighties were acting in good faith. We regret any hurt felt by those involved and that the investigation in 1984 was not more thorough"

The concerns raised by Dr McGinnity were fully validated in the report of The Ferns Inquiry which was commissioned by the Irish Government in 2003 and published in October 2005. The Ferns Report achnowledged that Dr McGinnity's feelings of being victimised as a result of the concerns of the seminarians which he expressed. The Report states that "punitive actions of that nature could only deter bona fide complaints to church authorities which should be valued as providing information for the control of those having access to young people".

The matter was further debated in the Irish Senate in November 2005 and Dr Mary Henry commented: "With regard to Monsignor Ledwith, I was dismayed to read the response of the bishops to whom complaints were made by six senior seminarians, as they are described in the report, as well as the senior dean of Maynooth College, Fr. Gerard McGinnity. Cardinal Daly, one of the surviving bishops, indicated in his statement to the inquiry that it was entirely untrue that any seminarian had mentioned homosexuality to him in connection with Monsignor Ledwith."[1]


[edit] Publications

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Senate Debate report 2005

[edit] External links