Irish Seminarians Want to Be Orthodox Priests Despite Irish College Seminary

Cardinal Dolan is not a happy camper that his report on the Irish Church eminary has been leaked. Vatican Insider looks at it here at Cardinal Dolan‘s negative report on the Irish College in Rome .

This part caught my attention



Based on meetings with the students, he reported that “a disturbingly significant number of seminarians gave a negative assessment of the atmosphere of the house.” As corroborating evidence, he quoted one seminarian who said: “The house is tense and dysfunctional. The seminarians want to be priests as the church teaches. The staff works from approaches more characteristic of the 60s and 70s. Therefore, the level of trust between seminarian and staff is destroyed.”



Again based on what students said, the cardinal reported: “The staff is critical about any emphasis on Rome, tradition, the Magisterium, piety, or assertive orthodoxy, while the students are enthusiastic about these features.”


According to The Irish Times, however, there is no evidence in the report that the cardinal, who is known to be a champion of ‘affirmative orthodoxy”, ever confronted the staff with such criticisms. Instead, he recommended a change of staff.


The Cardinal criticized the way the seminarians dress, saying: “it borders on the sloppy and excessively informal.” He recommended that “a clear dress code be part of the rule of life”, with jacket and tie for those not yet near diaconate; jacket and clerical collar for those in candidacy and the deacons, on special occasions.

One wonders of course if it's occuring at the Irish College in Rome if this is likely happening at Seminaries in Ireland itself. It looks like the Church in Ireland might be stuck in 70 's .

The question arises how many potential Catholic Priests just gave up. Talking to Priests in the USA that went to Seminary in the 80's they often talked about the trial it was. Including having to give the "right answers" in class so not to raise red flags to the powers that be.

Again much the Priesthood shortage problem is at times self inflicted.

He criticized “some” of the graduate priests for being “less that positive examples of priestly life”, and said they “are not yet ready for the liberty given to a graduate priests” and “need a rule of life.”