IRELAND
America
Rhona Tarrant | Aug 11 2016
In the tumultuous and often bewildering news cycle of 2016, the Archbishop of Dublin taking to the national airwaves to address “Grindr, which is a gay dating site,” still managed to jolt the listening public in Ireland.
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin was clarifying why he recently decided to withdraw three seminarians from St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth, because of “strange goings-on.” Archbishop Martin told listeners that Ireland’s national seminary had a “gay culture” and that “people are sexually active in the seminary. People are on an app or website called Grindr.”
Archbishop Martin expressed concern that investigations into sexual harassment and other misconduct were carried out by the college council rather than independent investigators. He added that a culture of “quarrelsome” anonymous accusations and “poisonous” anonymous letters was creating an unhealthy atmosphere for seminarians.
The archbishop’s intervention lent credibility to long-standing rumors surrounding the college. One former seminarian last week testified to its so-called gay culture, one that was widely known about but not addressed. Another former seminarian claims he was expelled from the college after he failed to report two colleagues for engaging in sexual activity. The reports revealed a deep disconnect between church authorities and the experience of some seminarians, along with the challenges the Irish church is struggling to address: homosexuality as a reality in the church, celibacy, accusations and secrecy and a formation process that is quickly becoming antiquated.
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