IRELAND
Irish Independent
Nicola Anderson
PUBLISHED
06/08/2016
‘The dogs in the street know Maynooth in its current state is not fit for purpose… this is my experience of Maynooth. What have our bishops to fear in thoroughly reforming our national seminary?”
These words were those of a young student at the national seminary.
He loves the Church, he explains – but what he has met with in Maynooth is a formation structure that prefers him to be “worldly, to be just one of the lads, to be a ‘yes man’ who’ll not offer the challenge of the Gospel to the modern world”.
His words were spoken by an actor on RTÉ radio – but there can be little doubt that the authorities in Maynooth have already figured out the identity of the young seminarian behind the sentiment.
If the situation at the national seminary is as many claim it to be, it seems possible that he will soon be approached and advised that his vocation is not working out. But his removal will not quell a disquiet that has mounted to a deafening hum in the wake of Archbishop Diarmuid Martin’s announcement that he would be transferring three Dublin seminarians to Rome because of “strange goings-on” at Maynooth.
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