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He wrote: “I was passing him in the corridor on my way to my room when he stopped suddenly and then embraced me.

“It was not the usual guy-on-guy companionable embrace that I was accustomed to but something much more intimate.

“At first I thought his mother had died … But he moved as if to give me a kiss. I found this profoundly disturbing and put my hands on his shoulders and pushed him back.

“He was immediately furious, shouting and gesticulating. He said, ‘So it’s true about you! Well don’t worry, Despard, we’ll soon sort you out. We’ll get you. We’ll destroy you and your family.’

“I could see real anger in his eyes and I was dumbfounded.

“Homosexuality had been rampant in the seminary and I had suffered more than my fair share of isolation and disrespect because I refused to countenance any advances.

“Here were identical behaviours but in my parish priest. He backed away and stomped up the corridor to his own room, leaving me standing there shocked and confused.

“After my rejection of the crude advances, life for me became a misery.

“In retrospect, it now seems to me that the moment in the corridor signalled the initiation of a campaign which, if not significantly overt, was psychologically brutal.”

Fr Despard added he thought there would be no point in going to the authorities for support, because his attacker was part of an “inner circle” and would be protected.

In another chapel, he says, he was verbally and physically abused by the boyfriend of a priest.

JohnStOnge wrote:Well, I'm glad to see that you're acknowledging that homosexuality is a factor in the problem.