Priests call for new inquiry into Reynolds case

The Association of Catholic Priests wants a statutory inquiry to be set up, in addition to the independent inquiry confirmed by Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte.

The Association of Catholic Priests wants a statutory inquiry to be set up into RTE's handling of a false allegation of rape against Fr Kevin Reynolds.

The statutory inquiry would be in addition to the independent inquiry confirmed yesterday by Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte.

The 'Prime Time Investigates' programme has been suspended after a libel case by Fr Kevin Reynolds was settled, for a figure believed to be around €1m.

Fr Reynolds was wrongly accused of raping a teenage girl in Kenya and making her pregnant.

Fr Sean McDonagh of the Association of Catholic Priests said more needed to be done to protect the good names of those wrongly accused.

"We are concerned that priests have got a very bad presentation, " he said.

"This (bad presentation) has been built up over a number of years by sections of the media, every single opportunity they get speaking ill of priests of the catholic Church."