STATEMENT ON FATHER XXXXXX XXXXX
23.9.2021
I am Xxxxxxx rom the USA. In February of this year, I met Father Xxxxxx Xxxxc on a social media chat platform called Wakie.
This is a social media place for adults wanting to make friends and more. We communicated on this site from February to April of this year.
At the beginning I did not know he was a priest. I am not a Catholic. Initially my friendship with Father Xxxxx was just that – friendship. It developed into more and Father Xxxxx indicated that he wanted more than friendship and that he wanted an online sexual relationship. He asked me to download Skype so that we could have face to face conversations. During these sessions we engaged in mutual masturbation.
Father Xxxxx told me that he was leaving the priesthood and coming to the USA for us to be together as a couple.
Before communicating on Skype I asked Xxxxxxx for a picture of himself and he told me that he was a priest and that if I wanted to see him to go to his parish website and watch him celebrating Mass. I did this. One of the ceremonies I watched was at Easter when he celebrated a ceremony that meant him going from station to station in his church.
Xxxxxxxx told he that he was addicted to cocaine and alcohol and he often used cocaine during our face to face meetings on Skype. He generally rang me very late at night for him when he had returned from the pub.
Sometimes he brought other men back from the pub with him and they drank and played darts until 4 am.
He told me that he had met a female parishioner in the pub, that they got on well and that after that the parishioner turned up at his presbytery door and they had sex.
He said that this had come to light and that his superiors gave him “a slap on the wrist”.
Xxxxxx also joined the Transgender / Transexual group on Wakie and I came to believe that he was bisexual or had other sexual issues.
He told me that he has been a drug user since he was a teenager and stopped using for a short while after joining the seminary but slipped back into drug use.
He seems to have no problem accessing cocaine where he lives?
Xxxxxx has indeed hurt me – but I am not a scorned woman. I am a mature woman with a lot of experience of the ups and downs of life, and I only want two things:
1. That Xxxxx Xxxxx be prevented from hurting unsuspecting or vulnerable women or men.
2. That Xxxxxxxx gets and accepts help with his cocaine and drug addictions and psychological problems.
PAT SAYS:
This matter is now in the hands of the Bishop of Galway and his safeguarding team.
The bishop will deal with it as a moral, canonical and disciplinary matter.
A serving RC priest cannot be having internet sex with another person without breaking his vows / promises.
If he continued this behaviour the bishop would have to suspend him and eventually laicise him.
THE CRIMINAL ASPECT.
This priest is committing very serious crimes by purchasing and using cocaine – a highly illegal substance.
This is a matter for the Gardai – and they are already involved.
In fact the massive drug problem in Galway is currently being addressed by the current Operation Tara initiative.
This priest is a small part of that problem.
THE HELPING ASPECT:
This priest has veen using drugs and alcohol abusively for decades. That is deep seated addiction.
He will need intensive treatment and follow up over a long period.
Lets hope he is offered and accepts that.
THE DRUG PROBLEM IN THE CLERGY AND SEMINARIES:
Currently, there is a major drug problem anong priests and seminarians.
Priests are purchasing Class A drugs from dealers, including paramilitaries.
Drugs are freely available in seminaries and played a role in the Maynooth Summer of Love scandal in 2016.
This is a big problem that the Church and its bishops must address.
BISHOP PAT BUCKLEY 