Diocese considered promoting abuser

DESPITE the complaints mounting against Fr Ronat, the diocese considered promoting him in 1995, and again in 2005 — which the Commission described as “shocking”.

Bishop Magee told the Commission that they sought in 2005 to put him on restrictive ministry and that he would have no further contact with young people. But the Commission found no evidence of this move, believing any such efforts did not take place for another three years, after a third complaint was lodged. Even then Fr Ronat sought to fight the restriction in 1998 claiming that standing down as chairman of the board of management of a local school would be a “a matter for public comment and suspicion”.

The Commission report shows there was little supervision of this restricted ministry, with Fr Ronat acting as master of ceremonies at confirmations in the area. In April 2002, Mgr Denis O’Callaghan wrote to him warning that “it would seem best that you not be present” at a local confirmation.

In 2005, Bishop Magee wrote to Fr Ronat withdrawing fully his faculties for ministering in the diocese of Cloyne. This was after a fifth complaint was made against him.

He was told not to engage in any public or private ministry and he could only say Mass in his house privately. However, it was another three years before he was asked to stop wearing clerical dress. No public announcement was made in 2005 or 2008 about Father Ronat and the Commission said this allowed “Fr Ronat to continue to present himself to the general public as a priest in good standing”.

In 2006, when Donelle, the fourth complainant met Mgr O’Callaghan, she raised further questions about the supervision of Fr Ronat, pointing out that he was in the US at the time of the meeting.

Fr Ronat appeared repeatedly to challenge Bishop Magee and Mgr O’Callaghan. When the monsignor wrote to him asking that he did not accept a gift from a voluntary organisation to mark his retirement, he said it would be given privately and he could not stop them. Such was the lack of general awareness of his background that a local newsletter announced in Spring 2006 that “our beloved dedicated senior curate” had to retire for health reasons. The Commission describes the bishop’s control over Fr Ronat as “limited” and he “was not monitored in any meaningful way”.