Down and Connor Seminarians to Use Maynooth Despite Boycott

By Suzanne Mcgonagle
The Irish News
August 3, 2016

http://www.irishnews.com/news/northernirelandnews/2016/08/03/news/down-and-connor-will-still-send-seminarians-to-maynooth-despite-dublin-boycott-634033/

A former trainee priest has alleged he was harassed by his "spiritual father" while studying at Maynooth

THE north's largest Catholic diocese has said it "plans to continue to send seminarians to Maynooth" despite a boycott by the Archbishop of Dublin.

Dr Diarmuid Martin said he is now sending trainee priests to the Irish College in Rome amid allegations students at St Patrick's College in Co Kildare are using the gay dating app Grindr.

He said he was "somewhat unhappy" about "an atmosphere that was growing in Maynooth" following a series of anonymous accusations in letters and blogs.

"There are allegations on different sides," he said.

"One is that there is a homosexual, a gay culture, that students have been using an app called Grindr, which is a gay dating app, which would be inappropriate for seminarians, not just because they are trained to be celibate priests but because an app like that is something which would be fostering promiscuous sexuality, which is certainly not in any way the mature vision of sexuality one would expect a priest to understand."

Dr Martin said there were further claims that whistleblowers trying to bring alleged wrongdoing to the attention of authorities were being dismissed.

"I thought a quarrelsome attitude of that kind was not the healthiest place for my students to be and I decided to send them to the Irish (Pontifical) College (in Rome)," he told RTE.

Founded in 1795, Maynooth College was once the largest seminary in the world.

It was built to train 500 Catholic priests every year but numbers have plummeted to around 60 in recent years.

In a statement last night, the diocese of Down and Connor - the second largest in Ireland after Dublin - said it would continue to send trainee priests to Maynooth.

"The diocese of Down and Connor already has a number of seminarians pursuing theological studies in Maynooth and plans to continue to send seminarians to Maynooth," a spokesman said.

Dr Martin insisted he was not telling other bishops to do follow his lead, but a "whole series of anonymous allegations" were being circulated about Maynooth.

While "some material has resulted to be true", he added that it was impossible to fairly investigate while those making claims remained anonymous.

Efforts by him to recruit an independent person who could deal with whistleblower complaints were met with "simply more anonymous letters", he said.

"A culture of anonymous letters is poisonous and until that is cleared up I would be happier sending my students elsewhere," he said.

The Catholic leader also criticised the "comfortable" regime at the seminary.

"The people have their breakfast, dinner and tea served up to them," he said.

His comments came as a former student priest who claims he was harassed by his "spiritual father" at Maynooth said he is to make a formal complaint to gardai.

The man, who did not want to be named, alleged that on a number of occasions the priest placed his hand on him inappropriately and also asked him intimate questions concerning his sexuality.

He told the Irish Independent he reported his experience but an internal complaints panel did not find any grounds on which to discipline the priest.