Ireland’s national seminary, St Patrick’s College in Maynooth, is at the centre of a growing controversy following the decision of Dublin’s Archbishop to relocate his diocese’s seminarians to Rome for their training.
Last week, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin revealed to The Tablet that he had decided not to send any seminarians to study in Maynooth this Autumn because of allegations of inappropriate behaviour and would instead send them to the Irish College in Rome.
Speaking to Irish broadcaster RTÉ this week, he said many allegations had been made against the Irish college, including accusations that students were using the gay dating app Grindr, and that authorities at the seminary were dismissing anyone who tried to make a complaint.
Archbishop Martin said if the allegations were true, "it would be inappropriate for seminarians, not just because they're training to be celibate priests, but because an app like that is something which is fostering promiscuous sexuality, which is certainly not in any way the mature vision of sexuality one would expect a priest to understand".
However in a sign of further tensions in the hierarchy over the issue, most of the country’s senior bishops expressed satisfaction with Maynooth and indicated that they will continue to send their students there.
The Association of Catholic Priests also raised concerns about the impact of Martin’s decision. Fr Brendan Hoban said the Archbishop's actions could "damage" the seminary.
“It seems extraordinary that attention is being given to moving deck chairs on the Titanic rather than getting to the issues that are important,” Fr Hoban told Irish radio, referring to the dearth of vocations to the priesthood in Ireland.
The President of St Patrick’s College Maynooth, Mgr Hugh Connolly, confirmed there was no investigation underway and defended the atmosphere in Maynooth as “quite a wholesome, healthy one because there are a lot of interplay between students of many, many disciplines, lay students and clerics, male and female, people who are engaged pastorally”.
In an interview with RTÉ Radio’s Drivetime he said he was interested in comments made by the Archbishop about the possibility of developing a new model of seminary “which I think would be very apt for an urban setting such as an Archdiocese of Dublin”.
He said the use of gay dating apps “certainly worries me as much as it worries the Archbishop”.
“First and foremost it has to be said that we expect all our seminarians to live celibately here. Celibately means preparing for celibate priesthood. There can’t be any compromise around that for seminarians. A seminarian has to know very clearly and honestly that he is preparing for a lifetime of celibacy, that’s part and parcel of what it means to be a priest.”
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