Priest Suspects There Is a ‘great Deal More’ to Maynooth Story

By Vivienne Clarke
Irish Times
August 4, 2016

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Fr Doyle: ‘If there is a subculture going on then it has to be addressed immediately and decisively. In the US seminarians who reported were not believed and the subcultures continued.’ Photograph: Getty Images

An American canon lawyer says he suspects there is a great deal more to the story of what is happening in Maynooth seminary.

Fr Tom Doyle told RTE’s Morning Ireland that he has great respect for Archbishop Diarmuid Martin and his judgement.

His comments come after the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin said earlier this week that he had decided to transfer three seminarians to Rome after concerns emerged about “strange goings on” and a gay subculture at St Patrick’s College in Maynooth.

Fr Doyle said he believed Dr Martin’s decision to withdraw seminarians from Maynooth was “an excellent decision.”

There is a toxic subculture in some American seminaries, he said, with a lot of backbiting. “If that’s the discord in Maynooth then he was right to take the steps he took and I respect him for that.

“If there is a subculture going on then it has to be addressed immediately and decisively. In the US seminarians who reported were not believed and the subcultures continued.”