IRELAND
New Ross Standard
David Looby
PUBLISHED
13/08/2016
So the hallowed halls of the National Seminary Maynooth are, in fact, dens of hormonal young men seeking companionship and love.
Surprise, surprise. The Catholic Church has tried to shape the sexual mores of this country’s people for hundreds of years. I have clear recollections – as recent as the bank holiday weekend – of my father recalling the proselytising and pontificating of men of the cloth on the pulpit, getting all hot and bothered as they told the poor souls in the congregation about how they’ll go to hell for sins of the flesh.
Today we live in less prehistoric times and yet the church is still clinging to its dogma.
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin’s decision to transfer three seminarians to Rome smacks of other transfer decisions made by the Irish Catholic Church down through the years. For men of faith who avouch believing while not seeing, it seems strange that they so often believe that shunting the trouble makers out of sight will get rid of the ‘problem.’
From what I gather some seminarians were using the gay dating website Grindr and there was some homosexual activity in the college. I have friends who are gay and can clearly recall how difficult it was for them to come out. The country still treats gay people as second class citizens and that is wrong.
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