IRELAND
Irish Central
Dara Kelly @irishcentral June 21,2016
Ireland’s national seminary, St. Patrick’s College in Maynooth, has strongly denied its president’s just announced sabbatical is in any way connected to recent anonymous claims of a gay subculture in the Catholic seminary.
A statement published on the college’s website last week that said Monsignor Hugh Connolly “has advised the staff of his plans to take sabbatical leave for the academic year 2016-2017,” raised eyebrows because it coincides with the last year of his tenure as president of the national seminary, which currently has more than 60 men studying for the priesthood.
The statement continued, explaining that Connolly would remain as president until the completion of his term in the summer of 2017 and he would continue to exercise certain administrative duties throughout the year.
Connolly’s departure comes in the wake of controversial allegations made about life in the seminary. The Irish Catholic reported that an anonymous source had claimed in a letter to college authorities last year that some seminarians had been guilty of misconduct of a homosexual nature.
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