IRELAND
Irish Examiner
Thursday, August 18, 2016
A national synod that had the freedom to explore the many difficult issues it faces could help to renew the Catholic Church here, writes TP O’Mahony
In his book The Runaway Church, Peter Hebblethwaite recalled a crucial intervention at the 1971 Synod of Bishops in Rome during a discussion on the ordination of married men to the priesthood. The synod had been summoned to examine the crisis in the priesthood.
That was 45 years ago — the crisis is much greater and more urgent and more far-flung today. Indeed, in a small but significant way, the controversy in which St Patrick’s College, Maynooth — the national seminary — is presently mired is both an offshoot of that crisis and also indicative of far deeper problems.
A compelling case for change had been made at the 1971 synod by Bishop Anthony Galvin, speaking on behalf of the bishops of Singapore-Malaysia. He concluded with this comment: “We are of the opinion that the ordination to the priesthood of mature married men will provide for the future in a
The chief counter-argument was that the ordination of married men would constitute the thin edge of the wedge. The influential Cardinal Hoffner of Cologne claimed that “any exception from the norm of celibacy would have an explosive effect, so that celibacy would disappear in a short time”. …
The Maynooth controversy is both less than what has been made of it, and also more — less in the sense that there is nothing startlingly new about a gay culture in a seminary, and more in the sense that it is symptomatic of a much deeper malaise, a malaise affecting not just the Church in Ireland but the universal Church.
Since the Council of Trent in the 16th century decreed that every diocese should have a seminary, there has never been a time when seminaries, to a greater or lesser degree, didn’t spawn a “gay culture”.
The difference is that, in today’s digital age, with the growth of social media, it is far more difficult to disguise this culture or sub-culture, or to pretend that it doesn’t exist.
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