Priest suspects there is a ‘great deal more’ to Maynooth story

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.”

Fr Doyle said that one of the problems of seminary life is that it is very closed. “You’re bound to have subcultures with a different set of social values.”

On the issue of orthodoxy in Maynooth, Fr Doyle said that there was “a whole crop” of very conservative and controlling bishops who were appointed under Popes John Paul II and Benedict.

“These bishops have very little pastoral understanding and they attracted a whole new breed of kids who want to play at being 1950s priests. They wanted to recreate an ultra clerical priesthood.

“They are not part of the real world and shouldn’t be allowed in the real world. The result is a situation where clergy want control, which is nothing to do with following Christ.”