FOR many years he championed the causes of the underdogs. He willingly took on the role of spokesperson for the voiceless and powerless people in society and spoke often about justice, fair play and due process.

Like him or not, and only a few didn’t, he commanded respect. There was a sense of virtue.

But suddenly, Ronnie Thwaites, Roman Catholic deacon, attorney-at-law, businessman, radio talk-show host, politician and social activist, is battling for his reputation. Embroiled in a controversy, he, a week ago, resigned his seat in Parliament. His business dealings and character are under the microscope and subject to public debate.

But for human rights activist, Flo O’Connor, whatever the allegations about Thwaites, they could hardly represent the sum total of the man. And in any event, she reminds, a person is innocent until proven otherwise.

“I have not worked closely with him since those early days (Legal Aid clinic),” says O’Connor, who was executive director of the Jamaica Council for Human Rights when it used to be an active organisation. “But I wish more of us in the society would remember one of the fundamental principles of human rights, which clearly states that a person is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law — not in the court of me say, you say, hearsay. And even if found guilty of an illegal activity, I do not think that should in any way detract from all the good he has done.”

A Cornell University graduate and Rhodes Scholar to Oxford, Thwaites is 57. He has been a Roman Catholic deacon for 17 years.

But Thwaites’ once prestine reputation has taken some hard knocks in recent years with the failure of the coffee-growing and processing venture of which he was a part, and claims of a government bail-out. Indeed, there have been whisperings that it was precisely to get this kind of help why Thwaites joined the governing People’s National Party (PNP) and became its candidate for the Central Kingston constituency in the 1997 general election.

But those were, by and large, only whispers or unsubstantiated gossip.

But his life, and career, began a sharp nose-dive almost two weeks ago when Thwaites voluntarily declared that an article by Daily Observer columnist Mark Wignall, which hinted at inappropriate business dealings and misuse of church property for personal gains by a certain member of the PNP, was directed at him.

Thwaites has rejected that he was involved in any fraud or misappropriation of funds, but in the face of the controversy over Thwaites’ action, the Post postmaster-general, Blossom O’Meally-Nelson last week invited the auditor general, Adrian Strachan to conduct a forensic audit of Thwaites’ past dealings with the government’s Post and Telegraph Department. Central to the issue is how a cheque made out to the postmaster-general could have been lodged to the account of Thwaites’ law firm and how it stayed there so long. There is also the question of conflict of interest in that Thwaites was hired to do work for the Post and Telegraph Department at a time when his son, Daniel, was already named chairman of the Postal Corporation of Jamaica, which was then being established.

That’s on the secular side.

The Ronnie Thwaites affair, insiders say, has split the Roman Catholic church almost down the middle, although few Catholics will speak publicly on the issue.

The issue in the church is that the retired archbishop of Kingston, Samuel Carter, had given Thwaites the go-ahead to use a property left to the church by a parishioner as collateral for a loan. Thwaites had been co-executor of the will and there were claims that it was probated without the knowledge of the other executor. She now recalls signing relevant documents.

The current archbishop, Edgerton Clarke, says that Carter was “ill-advised” in his 1995 decision. The rebuke, though mild, has not sat well with some Catholics. There are many who quietly agree that Carter was wrong.

Thwaites himself had agreed that the arrangement was “unusual, but not immoral”.

“Ronnie is one of our own, and we are not turning our backs on him,” accords Monsignor Richard Albert, the activist priest who pastors at the Stella Maris church that has a well-to-do congregation. “No matter how developments go, in Christian life you stand by people. You don’t turn your back when someone’s in trouble and you look for the opportunity and the moment for reconciliation and redemption. That’s our attitude here at Stella Maris Church.”

Alluding to the Biblical story in which Daniel was delivered from a den of lions, a parishioner at the St Peter and Paul’s church where Thwaites worshipped told the Observer that “prayer can produce wonders”.

“We know that Daniel’s God will deliver deacon Thwaites,” she says.

Archbishop Clarke believes that some of Thwaites’ troubles and allegations against him are politically motivated.

“Bear in mind that a lot of what is taking place out there is political and the main reason that this thing opened up was for political purposes,” he says.

He is aware of the division in the church over the issue, arguing that, in this regard, it mirrors the wider society. “It so happens that the church became involved. In the church you have people who are die-hard PNPs and you have people who are die-hard JLPs and there are people who will take a stance for or against Mr Thwaites depending on their political affiliation. It is just the nature of our Jamaican people.”

Thwaites has been very active in the church, providing a number of voluntary services, including free legal advise. Thwaites’ generosity towards the church was one of the main reasons why former archbishop Samuel Carter says he allowed the arrangement.

Indeed, it is this generosity and well-developed social conscience that Thwaites’ supporters often highlight.

“In the days when it wasn’t politically correct to care about the poor and underprivileged, Ronnie Thwaites was there for those people through his work at the fledging Legal Aid clinic,” O’conner says.

He has been involved in a raft of other causes, from helping squatters to regularise their situations to campaigning on behalf of fishermen against government agencies whose actions he believes have been detrimental. There have been questions about how the Thwaites issue will impact on the image of the Roman Catholic church in Jamaica.

Says Albert: “The issue of image has not been raised. You see, when you are a disciple, you treat things differently. I preach to my congregation all the time that: when one of us fails, we are there to help them get up. We are not going to abandon them.”

Archbishop Clarke last week said he had accepted Thwaites’, request for a leave of absence from his diaconate duties, but stressed that this was “a temporary thing”.

“He (Thwaites) has made significant contributions to the nation and to the church and I believe that in the future, he is going to be able to renew that contribution,” says Albert.