IRELAND
Irish Independent
Sarah MacDonald
PUBLISHED
06/08/2016
A former Maynooth seminarian claims senior figures in the Catholic Church have been aware of allegations of a gay culture in Maynooth for decades.
The man, who is now married with children, studied in Maynooth in the 1990s. He said the existence of a gay culture within the seminary has been well known within church circles for decades and the trustees of Maynooth have long been aware of it.
‘Sean’ did not want to be named publicly, but he is known to the Irish Independent.
He said even back in the 1990s there were gay cliques operating within Maynooth and heterosexual students tended to be isolated or pressured into keeping their heads down and saying nothing about what they witnessed. Many left the seminary and married.
The former trainee priest questioned why Archbishop Diarmuid Martin was acting now on Maynooth.
The former seminarian also highlighted how the Murphy Report, which investigated the mishandling of allegations of clerical sexual abuse in the archdiocese of Dublin, reported on the death of a Dublin priest in a gay sauna.
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