THREE years ago, the former Bishop of Argyll and the Isles, Dr Roderick Wright, denied rumours he was having a relationship with a woman when confronted by Catholic Church authorities.
And a senior churchman in Scotland yesterday criticised Dr Wright's decision to accept the position of bishop knowing that he had fathered a child nine years previously.
The leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland, Cardinal [Thomas Winning, said the church felt "doubly abandoned" and "betrayed and let down" by the behaviour of Dr Wright. He gave an account of a 1993 discussion with Dr Wright in which it was put to him that he was involved in a relationship with a woman.
During the conversation, Dr Winning said, Dr Wright had given "a categorical denial" to him and another churchman, saying that the rumours were not only "untrue" but "scurrilous"
The cardinal said he could not remember the identity of the woman with whom Dr Wright was alleged to be having a relationship and that faced with his denials of an affair there was little the church authorities could do.
"You don't forget these things, all the same. You live in fear of a nightmare, perhaps, but that seemed to recede because we had these guarantees. But unfortunately the nightmare is on us now.
In the light of the revelations about his private life, Cardinal Winning suggested that Dr Wright may have been misguided in accepting the position of bishop.
"Given the background, I don't think anybody in their senses would have done it: But I know he had misgivings, very serious misgivings, even before his ordination," he said.
The cardinal also defended the church's decision not to reveal its knowledge of the existence of Ms Joanna Whibley and her son, Kevin, when it announced Dr Wright's resignation on Monday.
He said that while Dr Wright had made him aware of his relationship with Ms Kathleen Macphee and Ms Whibley - and their son - "we were not aware of whether the child knew who his father was", and in that case the church had considered "it would not have been right" to say anything about the child in public.
The leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, Cardinal Basil Hume, said he was "very stressed indeed" at the latest disclosures and he said his heart "went out" to Ms Whibley and her son, Kevin. He said, however, that he was not prepared to call for a revision of the rules on clerical celibacy, but that there was room for discussion on the issue of how the church prepared candidates for the priesthood.
The Archbishop of St Andrew's and Edinburgh, Dr Keith O'Brien said he thought revelations concerning the former bishop would be made public. "This Roddy Wright has had a weakness with regard to sexuality and there's always the possibility of other revelations.
. Women must share some of the blame for the erosion of celibacy among the clergy, to academic and former Catholic priest Prof James O'Connell.
Prof O'Connell, Emeritus Professor of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford, said? "feminine assaults", as well as modern technology and priests' own "inner decay", were partly responsible for the decline of celibacy. "Celibacy depends on women leaving priests alone, particularly Catholic women, but women no longer leave priests alone", he said. "Celibacy depends on priests being a kind of walled city but that is no longer, the case.