McCullough Report

The McCullough Report is a report published by the Irish bishops in June 2005 following allegations of sexual abuse at St Patrick's College, Maynooth.

Media reports prompt inquiry

The inquiry leading to this report was commissiond by the bishops following media reports that complaints of sexual harassment of junior seminarians at Maynooth in the early 1980s had not received a proper response. Dr. Gerard McGinnity did not contribute to this inquiry.

Complaints made against Monsignor Ledwith

In June 2002, Denis McCullough was retained by the bishops to investigate the allegations that those complaints did not receive a proper response. Specifically it was alleged that complaints had been made by seminarians to the bishops and Trustees of Maynooth College that Monsignor Michael Ledwith who was then Vice President of the College had sexually harassed seminarians.

The report's author found that "all parties to whom I spoke are agreed that there were no complaints made by the seminarians themselves to Bishops about sexual harassment by Monsignor Ledwith of seminarians in Maynooth College".

Bishops slow to investigate allegations

McCullough's report, published on 16 June 2005, found that, while the seminarians had not complained about Ledwith's alleged sexual abuse to the bishops directly, “concerns of apparent propensities rather than accusations of actual crime or specific offences” had been communicated to a number of bishops by the senior dean of the college. McCullough concluded “that to have rejected the senior dean’s concerns so completely and so abruptly without any adequate investigation may have been too precipitate, although, of course, to investigate in any very full or substantial manner, a generic complaint regarding a person’s apparent propensities would have been difficult”.

Findings

"Fr. E does not remember ever discussing allegations about Monsignor Ledwith with Fr. McGinnity or hearing such allegations discussed with him in his presence. He did not hear Fr. McGinnity discussing allegations about Monsignor Ledwith’s extravagant lifestyle or about his being too friendly with some students."

"(Father G) had no concerns about sexual harassment by Monsignor Ledwith. He was not aware of any rumours that Monsignor Ledwith practised homosexuality with seminarians and had never heard of any predatory approaches by Monsignor Ledwith to students."

"Mr. D emphasised that there was no suggestion that there were sexual relations between Monsignor Ledwith and any student."

"Mr. C made it clear that they did not at any time suggest to any Bishop or or to any other person that Monsignor Ledwith had had improper sexual relations with any student."

"Bishop Casey visited Fr. McGinnity in his rooms at the College and told him that he had been made aware of the allegation which Fr. McGinnity had made concerning Monsignor Ledwith and he asked him if he could substantiate his allegation by bringing to Bishop Casey a student who would confirm that an inappropriate approach had been made to him by Monsignor Ledwith. Fr. McGinnity said he could not do so."

Reaction from the archbishop of Armagh

The Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Seán Cardinal Brady stated following the publication of The McCullough Report that "those seminarians who expressed concern in the early eighties were acting in good faith. We regret any hurt felt by those involved and that the investigation in 1984 was not more thorough".

Ferns Report

Later in 2005 the Ferns Report was published and dealt in part and more robustly with the allegations made again by the seminarians against Micheal Ledwith. Dr. Ginnity was interviewed this time, and at section 4.6 the report states that the seminarians made "no specific allegations" but "had an anxiety with regard to orientation and propensity rather than with specific sexual activity." Contradicting the McCullough Report, "One seminarian said that he was in no doubt that he expressed to the bishops he met his concern over Monsignor Ledwith's sexual behaviour.."

This still raised the question of who to believe, but the McCullough Report perhaps unfairly came to be considered as too much of an in-house pro-Church document.

In the November 2005 Irish Senate debate, Mary Henry considered that:

"One of the most serious aspects of the Ferns Report is the section dealing with former Monsignor Ledwith, who we learn later was involved in the sexual abuse of children. This is significant because for the ten years between 1985 and 1995, the then Monsignor Ledwith was president of Maynooth College, the most important Irish institution for the training of priests. This begs the question as to what type of training on sexual matters priests studying in Maynooth at the time received from this man. [page 1365] I listened with dismay to the Vincent Browne programme last night as a moral theologian from Maynooth appeared to suggest, as he did in an article in The Irish Times earlier in the week, that the bishops may not have understood that child sexual abuse was a crime. It is beyond belief that he should make this suggestion or suggest that Vatican II was somehow responsible for making sexual sins a form of emotional aberration. I query that anyone should teach theology of that nature nowadays. 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. He also stated it was not credible that he would have ignored allegations of homosexuality when he was already investigating the issue in Maynooth College. The Cardinal added that if the issue had been raised with him, Monsignor Ledwith would never have been appointed president of Maynooth College. Unfortunately, I have found that the Cardinal’s memory is not always clear.