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Bitter Legacy of the Lover Priests

A year ago, in the wake of the Bishop Eamonn Casey love scandal, controversial Larne priest Father Pat Buckley formed a support group for the lovers of 'celibate' Catholic clergy.

For the first time, a journalist has been allowed to attend a meeting of the group and experience at first hand the bitter legacy of the romeo priests.

Names have been changed to protect the women's identities.

The meeting is discussing the main item on the agenda - heartbreak.

Suddenly, tears flow down the cheeks of Sandra, an attractive, dark-haired girl in her late twenties. Soon, she is sobbing uncontrollably.

The scene is just one of many which encapsulate the way Ireland's priest romeos are leaving a terrible legacy of heartbreak and grief in the wake of illicit love affairs.

In a pattern played out time after time, they are shattering the lives of their lovers; frequently by accusing them of Eve-like, seducing them into breaking their celibacy vows.

Then they dump them without mercy, leaving them to pick up the wreckage of their lives.

Sandra's tears came during a secret meeting of an organisation established to give these casualties of Ireland "celibate" clerics some emotional support.

Set up by controversial priest Father Pat Buckley, it now has fifty-four members - a number which will astonish the many Catholics who believe that their priests are paragons of purity and virtue.

The meeting of the organisation, Bethany Revisited, named after a scene in the Bible, was held at a secret location in Ireland.

Among the heart-breaking stories which emerged were how one woman has had two babies after falling for a priest. Another priest has a nun as a lover, and yet another has six lovers - all at the one time!

'He said that I tried to trap him'

Before her flood of tears, Sandra had revealed that she was just seventeen when she met a handsome Catholic curate in her local parish.

"I went to see him about some problems I was having," she said.

"I never, ever dreamed that anything could happen. I respected him as a priest. That's the way I was brought up: very strictly."

Kiss
"He started it. He grabbed me one day out of the blue and kissed me. I don't mean a little peck. It was a full, passionate kiss.
He pinned me to the wall. He did this a few times, and he started something within me. I just fell in love with him.

To hide what we were doing, we had to do all this cloak and dagger stuff."

They stopped short of full intercourse. However eventually, after a lengthy period of time, the two made love when the priest had decided to leave his active ministry - while still technically remaining a priest.

Sandra says she has now had two children to him.

Her tears come from a broken heart because he considers her an Eve for leading him into temptation.

"After I became pregnant, he said I had tried to trap him," she explained.

"But I had only done so to prove to him that I loved him."

Sobbing, Sandra recalled the astounding answer the priest came up with to her pregnancy problem: "He told me I could have the baby adopted or have an abortion."

Blamed
"He wanted me to go to England to get rid of our baby to save himself embarrassment. I couldn't believe it.
As a Catholic priest, he was sworn to protect life. And he blamed me for all of it."
