A Catholic priest in Belfast has stood down as an active priest in the expectation that a Sunday tabloid newspaper was about to report that he was homosexual.
Father Joe McGuigan, who said yesterday that he "truly and deeply" loves his work as a priest, has taken time off from his duties as a curate at St Peter's Cathedral in west Belfast.
The dissident Catholic bishop, Pat Buckley, told The Irish Times that he notified the priest's bishop, Dr Patrick Walsh, in July that a picture of the priest attending a gay social night in Belfast was posted on the Internet. Bishop Buckley said that the News of the World in Belfast was working on a report about Father McGuigan, which was expected to be published on Sunday.
Bishop Buckley, who writes a column for the southern edition of the paper, said he was neither the author nor the instigator of the report but that he assisted the paper in compiling information about Father McGuigan.
"Last July I wrote to Bishop Walsh because a priest, who is also gay, had got in touch with me to say a picture of Father McGuigan was on the net," said Bishop Buckley. "I wrote to Bishop Walsh to get him to have the picture taken off the net and to give Father McGuigan whatever assistance he needed," said Bishop Buckley, who operates a ministry in Larne, Co Antrim, and who in 1999 disclosed that he was gay. The picture was removed.
Dr Walsh, the Bishop of Down and Connor, issued two statements yesterday where he stood by Father McGuigan. In the second statement he said the incident relating to the priest was "first reported to me quite some time ago. I immediately followed up the matter and saw no reason why Father McGuigan should not remain in pastoral ministry".
In the first statement he said the priest had fully explained the circumstances behind his decision to remove himself from active ministry. Father McGuigan was not available to speak to The Irish Times yesterday. However in a statement he said he accepted he had been "indiscreet in the past, and I am sorry that this situation has developed.
"For a considerable period of time I have struggled with the conflict between who I am and my life and duty inside the church," he said.
A church spokesman said that celibacy rule applied to heterosexual and homosexual priests. Bishop Buckley claimed that 40 per cent of priests are gay, and that the rules on celibacy must be changed.
The spokesman said he could not comment as he had no figures to back up or reject the claim.