The former senior dean at St Patrick's College, Maynooth, Father Gerard McGinnity, is to meet Mr George Birmingham SC this week in connection with allegations made about the former president at the College, Mgr Micheál Ledwith.
On April 4th, Mr Birmingham was appointed by the Minister for Health and Children, Mr Martin, to examine the type of inquiry that should be held into how clerical child sex abuse complaints were handled in Ferns diocese.
It followed a meeting in Kilkenny city that evening between the Minister, victims of the late Father Seán Fortune, and the parents of a girl abused by Father Jim Grennan in Monageer, Co Wexford, in 1998.
The meeting with Father McGinnity is at Mr Birmingham's request and has been agreed to by Father McGinnity.
It is also known that Mr Birmingham is anxious to meet the six former senior seminarians at St Patrick's College who, in a period over 1983-4, attempted through meetings with nine bishops to have something done about Mgr Ledwith's behaviour towards their younger colleagues.
When this failed, they approached Father McGinnity, their senior dean, so he would make representations to relevant authorities about their concerns and because by then they also feared for their clerical futures.
On June 5th, Father McGinnity disclosed that he had been "demoted and humiliated" by church authorities after taking up the senior seminarians' concerns. He also said that "in the interests of truth and transparency and to clear my own good name I will make a statement to press, radio, and television giving the sequence of events and names involved in my efforts to protect the welfare of the seminarians . . ."
He hasn't yet done so.
It is understood that Mr Birmingham feels his remit covers at least some of Mgr Ledwith's activities, both as the former president remains a priest of the Ferns diocese and as, in their statement of May 31st last, the trustees of St Patrick's College said there had been allegations concerning the sexual abuse of a minor made against the monsignor before his premature departure from the college in June 1994.
It is understood the young man concerned was attending St Patrick's at the time. He was a member of a family Mgr Ledwith had befriended some years previously, and the allegation referred to an incident from those earlier years.
Mr Birmingham's investigation is due to be completed by mid-July, when he will report back to the Minister. It is understood that Mr Birmingham's office was in receipt of "thousands of documents" from the Ferns diocese last Friday and is in the process of sifting through them.
Sources there indicate Mr Birmingham is pleased with the co-operation his investigation has been receiving from the diocese.
He had "a very good meeting" with the former Bishop of Ferns, Dr Brendan Comiskey, early in the investigation and this will be followed by another, concluding discussion. Dr Comiskey is still in Wexford and not in at his order's retreat house in Hawaii, as previously reported. The report was based on information from clerical sources.
