Father Gerard McGinnity and a number of former seminarians say they view the McCullough inquiry set up by the trustees of St Patrick's College Maynooth to investigate their experiences there 18 years ago as "inappropriate and improper".
In a period over 1983 to 1984, six senior seminarians approached nine bishop-trustees at the college with complaints about the sexual harassment of junior colleagues by then college vice-president Mgr Micheál Ledwith. They met the bishops individually, with no fewer than two from the group of six attending each meeting.
One bishop advised them to "go home and say your prayers". Another dismissed their complaints with ". . . but he [Mgr Ledwith] is a distinguished international theologian."
Concerned about their own futures when they were ignored by the bishops, they went to the then senior dean, Father McGinnity, for protection and to have their concerns raised by him. Shortly afterwards, Father McGinnity went on sabbatical, due to pressure.
Before his sabbatical year ended, he was informed by a senior bishop that he would not be returning to Maynooth and was appointed a curate in Armagh diocese.
That same year, 1985, Mgr Ledwith was appointed president at Maynooth by the bishops.
In June 1994, Mgr Ledwith left the post prematurely having paid money to and concluded a confidential agreement with a seminarian who claimed he had been sexually abused by the monsignor when a minor. One of the six former seminarians, now a priest, last night expressed "serious reservations" about the McCullough inquiry.
He said he was "passionately committed to the truth being known" and was at pains to emphasise that "it is deeply regrettable that the ongoing discussion regarding Maynooth had to happen in the national media".
However, he asked: "How can it be credible for the church to investigate itself, especially after the past cover-ups?" Another of the six, now a layman, speaking for himself, felt the inquiry was "further manipulation of the situation".
"Perhaps it might best serve the church if the Birmingham inquiry were broadened to include our concerns," he said. For him, "the central issue is that concerns were expressed to bishops [in 1983/4] and some of them are now denying it. The one man who did respond to our concerns, Father McGinnity, had his reputation rubbished while some of us in the group felt we were victimised in our final year at Maynooth."
