The former president of St Patrick's College, Maynooth, and senior Catholic theologian, Mgr Micheál Ledwith, has become a guest lecturer with a New Age Movement school on the west coast of the United States.
Mgr Ledwith, who remains listed in the Irish Catholic Directory 2002 as a priest of the Ferns diocese, resigned suddenly from the presidency of Maynooth College in June 1994. The circumstances of his premature departure remain unexplained by the Catholic Church authorities in Ireland.
Mgr Ledwith is now a part-time lecturer at Ramtha's School of Enlightenment, founded in 1988 at Yelm in Washington state. On a web page, Where the Eagle meets the Condor - the name of a radio programme broadcast on the Internet from a station based at Monterey, California - Mgr Ledwith is described as Dr Miceal Ledwith.
It describes him as "one of the most fascinating speakers in the world today" and includes a short biography of his career in the Catholic Church in Ireland.
It says: "Dr Miceal Ledwith was Professor of Systematic Theology for 16 years at Maynooth College in Ireland and subsequently served for 10 years as president of the University.
"He was a member of the International Theological Commission, a small group of theologians of international standing, charged with advising the Holy See on theological matters. He also served as chairman of the Committee of Heads of the Irish Universities and as a member of the governing bureau of the Conference of European University Presidents.
"Dr Ledwith gives us ways to understand ourselves and our perceived environment. His lectures have such tremendous impact, clarity, and truth, that listening to him is bound to change your entire world view. It did ours. He clearly shows us how shackled we are by religions having gotten so far "off the mark", what we have not been told that is so important not only to our understanding, but to our mental and emotional well-being.
"He speaks of The Dark Night of the Soul, and beyond that - the beautiful possibilities if we just look, and manage to see what we really are. What prophets have told us time and again, and we have not heard because the voices of our conditioning are too loud to allow spiritual truth to be fully heard . . . except for those whispers that seep in and keep us restless in our waking sleep.
"Dr Ledwith's new book, The Message Whose Time has Come Again - Thomas, the Twin Brother of Jesus, will be out in late January or February. After that, we have yet another book to look forward to . . . Ascent to God: the Soul's Journey Within. Does anything about the religion, or beliefs that you were brought up with . . . or ran away from, trouble or confuse you?
"In Miceal Ledwith, we have a trusted source to go to for answers that your soul recognises as truth."
Mgr Ledwith was born in 1942 at Taghmon, Co Wexford. He attended St Peter's College in Wexford town before going to St Patrick's College, Maynooth, where he excelled academically.
He also studied in Paris, Salzburg, and at Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria, in Germany.
He later taught at St Peter's in Wexford, before becoming a lecturer at Maynooth in 1971.
He became Professor of Dogmatic Theology there in 1976, becoming head of the department in the following year.
He was appointed college vice-president in 1980, and the college's 25th president in 1985 at the age of 42.
