This article makes sobering reading, it says there is a push to stop the latest ordinations into the Irish Church because the candidates are "too conservative": http://irishcatholic.ie/article/bishops-rebel-over-maynooth-seminary-‘heave’ . No further details are really given but it does mention a similar stoppage in 2012 when the Maynooth seminarians did terrible things like kneeling during the consecration at mass! It'd make you wonder although to be fair it seems some of the bishops are standing up for the seminarians.
If they were "effeminate" seminarians they would get straight through, no bother. But Orthodox, no! The Church is so profoundly wounded by modernism it is in its death throes.
No time to say much, although I hope to soon. I will just paste in something relevant I found at Catholic Answers at this thread here. "One of the "problems" with the conservative students was that they insisted on kneeling at the consecration.This is not the first time the issue has provoked controversy. Some years ago, seminarians were reportedly suspended for wanting to kneel during the consecration at Mass. In 2012, Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin said “it is not just that the number of candidates is low; it is also that many of those who present are fragile and some are much more traditional than those who went before them”. - See more at: http://www.irishcatholic.ie/article/...ooth-seminary- What is going on with Archbishop Martin? I would really like to know more about this …
Archbishop Martin is very much from the liberal wing of the Church. So for example when he said after the referendum result that the Church should "get real" in it's attitude to gays he meant in fact that the Church should soften its opposition to gays. So these reports are not a surprise at all I'm afraid...
Alas, you are right, Scolaire … For those want more the Irish Catholic now has much more … Quote … " Ever since I began writing on Catholic issues in the mid-1990s, I have been approached with a certain amount of regularity by past and present students of St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, the national seminary, with complaints about the college. I have never known quite what to make of them. Are they the complaints of disgruntled individuals unhappy about the way they were treated but who were actually dealt with justly? Are the complaints justified? Are some justified and some not? A few years ago it came to light that some students at Maynooth were in trouble with the college authorities for wanting to kneel at the consecration during Mass. This is certain because it was uncovered by the Vatican-appointed visitors who came to the college a few years ago. They said that the students should be allowed to kneel. Why in the world would this ever have become an issue? At Mass here in Ireland, we kneel during the consecration. Why wouldn’t the college authorities want its seminarians to also kneel? What kind of theology was at work? One former student told me that kneeling was seen as a ‘penitential’ act whereas Christians are really a ‘risen’ people thanks to the Resurrection." More here … http://www.irishcatholic.ie/article/questions-raised-yet-again-about-maynooth
As a whole Roger ,do you see this as an Irish problem from the 90s? or does it run deeper? ''I am not a smart man'' so speak plainly please.
How deep it runs is hard to say. I do know that one of the most historic Irish abbeys which almost uniquely survived the Reformation and the Penal Laws, the Franciscan Abbey of Multyfarnham, was done up very modernistically and now has no kneelers. The congregation sits on individual chairs.
Mac, sorry I didn't see this earlier. I am no expert here at all. But for what very little it is worth, I think these kind of problems of liberal Catholicism like this are far wider than simply Ireland and date from the late 60s/early 70s rather than the 90s. That said, I've been hearing some truly disturbing rumours about Maynooth since I posted this - I'm not sure I should say more - which if true at all, make me think the rot has gone pretty deep here, which may be why the Benedict XVI set up the investigations he did of theological training etc in this country. But I'm hardly qualified to speak. I've only lived in Ireland four years or so in all.
Good Men have been driven out of Seminary for the past 50 years! A book was written about it: "Goodbye, Good Men" http://www.c-span.org/video/?172623-1/book-discussion-goodbye-good-men THE VORTEX—SEMINARY ‘TRAINING’ http://www.churchmilitant.com/video/episode/the-vortexseminary-training GOD SAVE ALL HERE!!
