Father Tim Bartlett says too much attention paid to church's part in moving priest James Chesney out of Northern Ireland because of his role in 1972 atrocity

A leading Catholic figure in Northern Ireland has described criticism of the church's role in covering up the involvement of a priest in the Claudy bomb massacre as "dancing on the head of a pin".

Father Tim Bartlett claimed today that too much attention had been paid to the church's part in moving James Chesney out of Northern Ireland after the 1972 atrocity.

A report last week said the church, alongside the British government and the police, had agreed to keep secret Chesney's role in the IRA car bomb attack, which killed nine people. All feared there would be a violent backlash by Protestant loyalists against the Catholic clergy if Chesney's involvement had been revealed at the time.

Bartlett said those who knew the truth of what happened needed to come forward for the sake of the victims' families. The nationalist SDLP has challenged leading republicans, including senior figures in Sinn Féin, to reveal the truth about the IRA attack.

A report by the police ombudsman last week said that the then leader of Ireland's Catholics, Cardinal William Conway, met Willie Whitelaw, the secretary of state for Northern Ireland, in the wake of the bomb attacks. They agreed that Chesney, who was described in Al Hutchinson's report as the leader of the IRA in south Derry, should be moved across the border to the Irish Republic.

The ombudsman found that RUC officers who wanted to question Chesney were told by an assistant chief constable that "matters are in hand". Bartlett said that decision should be the subject of more scrutiny.

"We have had one of the special branch officers who was involved in the investigation tell us that he was 25 minutes away from searching Chesney's house," Bartlett said. "He told us that information came from sensitive sources. Who are those sources? Why are journalists not pursuing that for the sake of the families?"

Hutchinson, who has the powers to investigate the RUC's conduct, said police had been guilty of collusion with the church and the government.