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Father Gerard McGinnity, born on 5 April 1947, [1] is an Irish Roman Catholic priest, currently[ when? ] serving as parish priest of Knockbridge, County Louth, Ireland, a parish of the Archdiocese of Armagh. He is best known for his role in denouncing the alleged homosexual orientation of the head of a Catholic seminary, and for his association with a group, the House of Prayer, Achill.
McGinnity 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.
In 1984, he raised concerns with bishops about the sexuality of the college's vice-president, Dr Micheál Ledwith. After his complaint was dismissed in the absence of any evidence, McGinnity was required to leave his position by Tomás Ó Fiaich, archbishop of his home diocese, acting on behalf of the trustees (17 bishops) of the college.
Several seminarians sought the advice of Brendan Comiskey, then auxiliary Bishop of Dublin and later Bishop of Ferns, about the lifestyle of Ledwith and their concerns that he might be gay. Comiskey suggested that they approach seven "key bishops" in order that their concerns be adequately heard. These bishops included the Cardinal Primate of All Ireland Tomás Ó Fiaich and Bishops Cahal Daly, Edward Daly, Lennon, Cassidy, C O'Reilly, Eamon Casey and Aherne.
Ledwith was appointed president of St Patrick's in 1984. In 1994, he resigned prematurely and agreed a financial settlement – without liability – with a man who alleged Ledwith had abused him as a minor, and later left the Church.
The Irish bishops published the McCullough Report in June 2005. It found that there were no complaints made by any seminarian about sexual harassment by Ledwith in Maynooth.
The concerns raised by 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 acknowledged 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. [2]
McGinnity has for many years been 'spiritual director' to Christina Gallagher, [3] the owner of the Our Lady Queen of Peace House of Prayer (Achill) Ltd, a group not linked to the structures of the Catholic Church. He co-authored Gallagher's biography published in 1996, in which he refers to her as "God's prophet". [4]
Christina Gallagher's 'House of Prayer' is based on Achill Island. On 29 February 2008, the Archbishop of Tuam, Michael Neary, issued a statement saying, in part: "In summary the 'House of Prayer' has no Church approval and the work does not enjoy the confidence of the diocesan authorities." [5]
Beginning in March 2008, Cardinal Seán Brady, Primate of All Ireland, began holding discussions with McGinnity about his association with Christina Gallagher. His inquiry into the matter was the result of some complaints from former followers of Christina Gallagher. [6]
Joseph Duffy was the Roman Catholic Bishop of Clogher in Ireland, a position he held from 1979 until his retirement on 6 May 2010. He resides in Monaghan Town, County Monaghan, Ireland.
The Primacy of Ireland belongs to the diocesan bishop of the Irish diocese with highest precedence. The Archbishop of Armagh is titled Primate of All Ireland and the Archbishop of Dublin Primate of Ireland, signifying that they are the senior clerics on the island of Ireland, the Primate of All Ireland being the more senior. The titles are used by both the Catholic Church in Ireland and Church of Ireland. Primate is a title of honour, and in the Middle Ages there was an intense rivalry between Armagh and Dublin as to seniority. The Archbishop of Armagh's leading status is based on the belief that his see was founded by St. Patrick, making Armagh the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland. On the other hand, Dublin is the political, cultural, social, economic and secular centre of Ireland, and has been for many centuries, thus making the Archbishop of Dublin someone of considerable influence, with a high national profile. The dispute between the two archbishoprics was settled by Pope Innocent VI in 1353, with occasional brief controversy since. The distinction mirrors that in the Church of England between the Primate of All England, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Primate of England, the Archbishop of York.
Brendan Comiskey, is the Roman Catholic Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Ferns. He was born in Clontibret, County Monaghan, Ireland.
Cahal Brendan Daly KGCHS was a Roman Catholic prelate, theologian and writer from Northern Ireland.
Tomás Séamus Ó Fiaich, KGCHS was an Irish cardinal of the Catholic Church. He served as the Catholic Primate of All Ireland and Archbishop of Armagh from 1977 until his death. He was created a Cardinal in 1979. Ó Fiaich was born in 1923 in Cullyhanna and raised in Camlough, County Armagh.
John MacHale was the Irish Roman Catholic Archbishop of Tuam, and Irish nationalist.
The Ferns Report (2005) was an official Irish government inquiry into the allegations of clerical sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ferns in County Wexford, Ireland.
The Archdiocese of Armagh is a Latin ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church located in the northern part of Ireland. The ordinary is the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Armagh who is also the Metropolitan of the ecclesiastical province of Armagh and the Primate of All Ireland. The mother church is St Patrick's Cathedral. The claim of the archdiocese to pre-eminence in Ireland as the primatial see rests upon its traditional establishment by Saint Patrick circa 445. It was recognised as a metropolitan province in 1152 by the Synod of Kells.
St Peter's College, Wexford is an Irish secondary school and former seminary located in Summerhill, overlooking Wexford town. It is a single-sex school for male pupils. Currently, the school has 785 students enrolled.
Micheál Ledwith is a former Catholic priest of the Diocese of Ferns in County Wexford from 1967 to 2005.
Paul McGennis, a priest of the Archdiocese of Dublin, pleaded guilty in 1997 to two charges of sexually assaulting a child, Marie Collins, at Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin, Dublin, when he was chaplain there in 1960. He also pleaded guilty in 1997 to two charges of assaulting a nine-year-old girl in County Wicklow between 1977-79. He continued to serve as a priest until 1997 in Edenmore, Dublin.
Séamus Hegarty, D.D. was an Irish Catholic prelate. He served as Bishop of Raphoe from 1982 to 1994, then as Bishop of Derry from 1994 to 2011.
The Archdiocese of Dublin is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church located in the eastern part of Ireland. Its archepiscopal see includes the republic's capital city – Dublin. The cathedral church of the archdiocese is St Mary's Pro-Cathedral. Dublin was formally recognised as a metropolitan province in 1152 by the Synod of Kells. Its second archbishop, Lorcán Ua Tuathail, is also its patron saint.
Dermot Clifford,, was the Catholic Archbishop of Cashel and Emly in Ireland from 1988 to 2014. From 7 March 2009 to 27 January 2013, he also served as the Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Cloyne. He was a founding board member of Bothar.
The Pontifical Irish College is a Catholic seminary in Rome for the training and education of priests. The college is located at #1, Via dei Santi Quattro, and serves as a residence for clerical students from all over the world. Designated a pontifical college in 1948, it is the last Irish College in continental Europe.
From the late 1980s, allegations of sexual abuse of children associated with Catholic institutions and clerics in several countries started to be the subject of sporadic, isolated reports. In Ireland, beginning in the 1990s, a series of criminal cases and Irish government enquiries established that hundreds of priests had abused thousands of children over decades. Six reports by the former National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church established that six Irish priests had been convicted between 1975 and 2011. This has contributed to the secularisation of Ireland and to the decline in influence of the Catholic Church. Ireland held referendums to legalise same-sex marriage in 2015 and abortion in 2018.
The House of Prayer is a limited company trading as Our Lady Queen of Peace House of Prayer (Achill) Ltd, created by an Irish woman, Christina Gallagher, in 1993. The business is based on Achill Island, County Mayo, in Ireland, with other centres in the United States. The venture has been described as "controversial" and as a "cult". It has no official status within the Catholic Church.
The McCullough Report is a report published by the Irish Roman Catholic bishops in June 2005 following allegations of homosexual sexual abuse between seminarians and staff at St Patrick's College, Maynooth in Ireland. The report looked at how the college responded to the allegations, and found that no specific allegations of sexual abuse had been made. Instead it found that the allegations were focused on the alleged lifestyle and possible "homosexual tendencies" of Micheál Ledwith, at the time vice-president of the college, and that the dean of the college, Gerard McGinnity, had expressed non-specific concerns about possible improprieties in Ledwith's relationship with some students. Although the report did not find that there were allegations of sexual harassment made against Ledwith, it did find that the concerns raised by McGinnity were not adequately investigated.
Monsignor Michael G. Olden BA, BD, DHistEccl. was an Irish priest, historian and educator who served as President of Maynooth College from 1977 to 1985 and hosted the visit of Pope John Paul II to the college in 1979.
Patrick Corish was a priest of the Diocese of Ferns, born in Ballycullane parish in County Wexford. He is best known as a distinguished Irish historian and a President of St. Patrick's College, Maynooth. For many years, he was Professor of Ecclesiastical History in Saint Patrick's College Maynooth, in succession to the late Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich.
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