Maynooth Seminary may be closed

JBnaglfar

At least that was the headline of an RTE news story on my RSS reader. However, clicking on the link I found the page taken down from the RTE website. It seems to have been mirrored here but obviously the RTE source link does not work.

Ireland’s national Roman Catholic seminary may be closed in a reform package being considered by the Vatican.
Maynooth College has educated young men for the priesthood for over 200 years.
The Irish Catholic newspaper reports that closure is being considered after the recent Apostolic Visitation by New York’s Archbishop Dr Timothy M Dolan.
It is expected the report will recommend that Pope Benedict move all Irish seminarians to a reformed and restructured Irish College in Rome.
http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0323/maynooth.html

So, do you expect the RCC to go ahead with this? Was the RTE report plain incorrect, and taken down for this reason? Is this a sign of the decline of the Church in Ireland?

robindch

JBnaglfar wrote: »

So, do you expect the RCC to go ahead with this?

Given that Ratzinger is something of a control freak and that he partially blamed "secular influences on priests" for helping cause the child abuse scandal, well, it's certainly seems plausible that he'd be happier with a "Made in Rome" sticker on each of his organization's priests!

oldrnwisr

JBnaglfar wrote: »

So, do you expect the RCC to go ahead with this? Was the RTE report plain incorrect, and taken down for this reason? Is this a sign of the decline of the Church in Ireland?

This report seems to be legitimate even catholic sources are reporting it.

http://www.irishcatholic.ie/site/content/radical-shake-maynooth-michael-kelly

All I've got to say though is woohoo! The country is about to get that little bit safer saner.

MagicMarker

He'll probably sweep away current Irish priests and bring in some new blood to shake things up a bit, someone to appeal to the younger generation.

Like Fr. Romeo Sensini

Coriolanus

He looks like a ****ing hitman.

mehfesto

Nevore wrote: »

He looks like a ****ing hitman.

He's great at the end of a cross. Nails them home he does.

Heard he can get out of a chair with the assistance of only one nun too.

Nevore

Nevore wrote: »

He looks like a ****ing hitman.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yQNOYcQ18I

Plowman

This post has been deleted.

Peregrinus

Nevore wrote: »

He looks like a ****ing hitman.

He's supposed to.

You need to dig out your Fr. Ted DVDs and watch them again!

robindch

The top guy in Maynooth has denied the reports too:

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0323/maynooth.html

Peregrinus

Possibly somebody hopes that seminary applications will increase if training for the priesthood automatically gets you a four-year gig in a rather elegant Roman palazzo!

Coriolanus

I'd be tempted.

gman2k

Plowman wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Wow 72 seminarians spread out over 7 years....
How many will actually take the vows?
It's gas to walk the cloisters in Maynooth and look at all the pictures of the yearly graduates, and compare the numbers to the pictures of recent years. If anyone needs proof that the church is on it's way out it's this.

I've said it before to lots of people, it'll be a different story in 15 to 20 years when missionaries are saying mass here. Irish people won't like to be told how to run their lives when it's said to them from men of different colour.

Plowman

This post has been deleted.

Peregrinus

Plowman wrote: »

I'm not sure what you are suggesting by your final sentence - that Irish people harbour latent xenophobic feelings? Having attended Masses said by priests of many nationalities, including ones said by missionaries, I noticed no difference. As the universal (hence, Catholic) Church, Mass will be the same wherever you go regardless of the nationality or colour of the priest saying it.

If gman2k intended to suggest that religious people are, basically, racist bigots, then we can dismiss this as a self-reassuring fantasy motivated by holier-than-thouism, which serves to bolster self-esteem.

There is, however, an interpretation which is more charitable to gman2k. In so far as Irish Catholicism is a cultural artifact, which thrives because it reinforces a sometimes beleaguered communal identity, then the more truly catholic the Irish Catholic church becomes the less well it serves this particular end. And I think we can all agree that, at least in the past, and at least to some extent, Irish Catholicism did have this particular function.

That is to say, if you go to mass because it makes you feel connected with your Irish Catholic community, then the less your mass experience is an Irish Catholic one the less you will be inclined to keep going to mass.

Peregrinus

gman2k wrote: »

Wow 72 seminarians spread out over 7 years....
How many will actually take the vows?
It's gas to walk the cloisters in Maynooth and look at all the pictures of the yearly graduates, and compare the numbers to the pictures of recent years. If anyone needs proof that the church is on it's way out it's this.

As Plowman says, the dropout rate is high, but it was much higher back in the day when all those massive group photographs were taken. The decline in priests is great, but not so great as the photographs would suggest.

Maynooth, in its day, was the largest seminary in the world. It no longer is. (Trivial fact of the day: you want Bigard Memorial Seminary, in Enugu.) But a moment’s reflection will show that only one country can host the world’s largest seminary at any particular moment. It would be, um, rash to assume that the church in all other countries must be on the way out.

PeterIanStaker

http://www.irishcatholic.ie/site/content/radical-shake-maynooth-michael-kelly

The national seminary, which has educated Irishmen for the priesthood since 1795, may be set for closure after the recent Apostolic Visitation by New York's Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan. It is expected the report will recommend that Pope Benedict XVI move all Irish seminarians to a reformed and restructured Pontifical Irish College in Rome.
The historic shift would bring an end to concerns about falling academic standards at Maynooth and claims by some that the college in no longer 'fit for mission'. One senior academic told The Irish Catholic that the Apostolic Visitors were ''appalled'' by some of the standards in Maynooth. Rome would give access to heavyweight universities under direct scrutiny from the Vatican.
It is understood the plan would include the Irish College in Rome dramatically reducing the number of non-Irish students enrolled in the seminary to make way for the seminarians from Maynooth.
The Irish college would also have to be reformed to take account of an expected raft of recommendations from Archbishop Dolan's report.
During his visitation to Maynooth, Archbishop Dolan requested from moral theology lectures copies of class notes and presentations to students to assess the suitability of the content. A wholesale move to Rome would address concerns that some of the theology taught at Maynooth is not sufficiently orthodox for future priests.
On a practical level, Maynooth has been under pressure in recent years to fill vacancies left by the retirement of theology professors. In addition, the faculty of Canon Law has only one full-time member while the faculty of philosophy has no full-time staff relying instead on occasional lecturers from the neighbouring National University of Ireland, Maynooth.
It is understood that the Apostolic Visitors are of the view that the current low number of seminarians at Maynooth makes the college's future as a national seminary untenable with a concentration in Rome offering a better use of resources and seminary staff. Most seminarians would go to the Irish College while some others would join other Irish students at the Pontifical Beda College in Rome which specialises in training older men for the priesthood.
Meanwhile, in Rome, Rector of the Irish College Msgr Liam Bergin is due to step down at the end of this term. Msgr Bergin - a priest of the Ossory diocese - is expected to take up an appointment teaching theology at Boston College in the US. The new rector of the Irish College will require the approval of the Vatican before an announcement can be made.
There are currently 66 seminarians for Irish dioceses at Maynooth, 18 at the Irish College in Rome, seven at the Beda College in Rome and seven at St Joseph's Seminary in Belfast. Two Irishmen are also undergoing preparatory studies at the Royal English College in Valladolid, Spain.

Saw this over on p.ie, apoligies if its up already, if so, Mod please delete/merge.

Title messed up, sorry!