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Just 20 seminarians now studying to become Catholic priests for Ireland’s 26 dioceses

Archbishop Rino Fisichella Pro-Prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Evangelisation. Photo: John McElroy
Archbishop Rino Fisichella Pro-Prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Evangelisation. Photo: John McElroy

Sarah Mac Donald IRISH INDEPENDENT

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/just-20-seminarians-now-studying-to-become-catholic-priests-for-irelands-26-dioceses/a442824989.html

There are just 20 seminarians studying to become Catholic priests for Ireland’s 26 dioceses at the national seminary in Maynooth.

The seminary, which was founded in 1795, at one time accommodated as many as 500 seminarians. But that number has been in steep decline since the 1970s.

Rector Fr Tomás Surlis revealed the figures at a conference on vocations today. Addressing more than 100 delegates, including bishops, priests, vocations directors and seminarians, Fr Surlis acknowledged that fixating on numbers when “we have so few” is “a human reaction” and “one of the dangers” associated with the work of priestly formation today in Ireland.

He described the 20 seminarians as “good men” who are “doing their very best” and expressed the hope that “many young men in this country today will hear that call” and “not be afraid” to become priests.

RESPONSE TO REPORT BY A HIGHLY PLACED IRISH PRIEST;

“There are vocations in Ireland but nobody wants to enter Fanny’s Poofter Paradise.

Church is finished in Ireland. Bishops are totally useless every single one of them. Some are malign. “

PAT SAYS

Of the 20 seminarians, there just now, somewhere between 6 and 11, might finish.

Six to eleven for 26 dioceses – and over six or seven years!

0.42 priest per diocese.

Why would any young man in his right mind want to become another Phonsie Cullinan? Lugs Monahan? Ger Fitzgerald? JP Lyttle? Rory Coyle etc, etc.

What normal young man would want to enter a college where e would become a sexual plaything for fellow students and older clerics?

The RC priesthood is now a gay job – and a gay job for men with little intelligence and no morals.

It is a place for effeminate and permanently immature men to hide from real life but still be “worshipped” by the blind and those addicted to idols.

The pedestal is still there , but it’s not made any more from granite. It’s now made from papier mache.

Apart from the homosexualisation of the priesthood being one of the main forces destroying it, there are other factors:

1. The medieval teachings of the RCC on scientific, social and sexual matters.

2. The inability to truly integrate over 50 % of the world’s population – women.

3. The RCC’c monarchical and hierarchical structure – facilitating and allowing all forms of corruption, abuse, and injustice – leading to its universal reputation as one of the most evil forces on earth.

4. The RCC’s failure to produce an authentic and robust theology and spirituality that fires the imagination of the men and women of the third millennium and beyond.

168 replies on “Just 20 seminarians now studying to become Catholic priests for Ireland’s 26 dioceses”

Lots of young Irishmen are studying for the Traddy orders and for orthodox orders such as the OPs, however Maynooth and the likes of the Reds, SJs and OFMs are absolutely kaput.

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The Irish College Rome hasn’t had seminarians for a good few years yet it still provides an agreeable sinecure for two Irish priests, with Paul Finnerty being the rector and Edmund Cullinan the vice-rector. Why are they there and what do they do all day?

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They must have stats on how many complete the process, reasons given for non completion, average stay in ministry on completion, recorded feedback on the various aspects.

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I found that post from the elderly priest today a bit shocking. Are things that bad? I am a bit cynical about you and your blog but I hope this story is not true.

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The priests child made its Confirmation and one of his colleagues did the deed. He didn’t even have the balls to show his face.

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Time will tell whether or not they’ll win a gong, so far not a very convincing performance. They might get into the role, having it all dug up again has taken them by surprise.

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20 seminarians for the whole of the island of Ireland? God is indeed good. Laying waste a bunch of scrounging, freeloading, sponging, parasites he NEVER intended. 😀

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there are . Des Hillery and Michael Collins ran the seminary side for years and decided who was in an out by their own warped criteria.

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Sean Corkery of Cloyne diocese is the Senior Dean. There are seven priests in the grandly titled “community of formators” in Maynooth. Seven formators for twenty students!

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When I was in Maynooth in the 1980s there were 350 resident seminarians and just three deans and three spiritual directors. There was no full-time rector and no “vocational growth counsellors (aka shrinks) then but now there are two vocational growth counsellors, two deans, two spiritual directors and a full-time rector. So, 7 formators for 20 seminarians. That’s partly where the vocations collection money is going.

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Missing in action clerics earn the place they keep on payroll by destroying evidence in the archive & currying up to civil servants on the phone.

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Fisichella thinks the internet and mobile phones are important in todays culture – no shit Sherlock!! Jesus they flew him in to tell them that.
Fisichella gets a mention in Martels book let’s just say he and Dorothy are thick as thieves and he’s been an Archbishop for ever and puts it out there that he wants a Red Hat.
Please note – this is a clerical trend – Eamon Martin focused on the child sexual abuse as rightly described them as sins and crimes BUT deflects it away from the clergy by referring to it being committed by ‘people in the church’ when the scandal is ‘clerical child abuse’ perpetrated by priests.
The trope that priests are special still persists when they are unworthy servants but it’s bollox honestly do you think God’s primary concern is calling inadequate homosexuals to be superannuated lard arses who indulge their peccadillos or might God have bigger fish to fry.

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‘calling inadequate homosexuals to be superannuated lard arses who indulge their peccadillos’
This is a direct quote from the catechism isn’t it? 🤣

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Rino was a nasty old Queen in the Gregorian back in the 1990s along with a camp SJ minion whose name escapes me now. They delighted in humiliating and bullying students particularly at exam time.

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Mr Kelly said given the wealth of information already before the court and a file on his worsening health condition, a pre-sentence report was not required and the case should proceed to sentencing.
Is it in the public interest to have this reviewed? You seem to have no health condition preventing your lies, dishonesty and anti-Catholic bigotry!

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“Fr Surlis acknowledged that fixating on numbers when “we have so few” is “a human reaction” and “one of the dangers” associated with the work of priestly formation today in Ireland.”
Can anyone outline the ‘other dangers’ associated with the work of priestly formation in contemporary Ireland.

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If they are careful about locking up at night they hopefully will be ok Moira. They are indeed very brave young men.

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3:11
It is always best to err on the side of caution. There is a thin line between bravery and stupidity.

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Pat. There are some truths in your analysis of declining numbers for priesthood. Apart from the horrendous abuse scandals which have shaken the faith of all of us along with the reckless, negligent and irresponsible responses from the Church leadership, we must also add other factors. We have a more educated population who can argue moral and social norms for themselves without a Church. There are more opportunities for people to serve within their communities. Young people are not too connected anymore to a religious/faith community or a faith perspective of life, though they may be very “spiritual”. Religious faith and Chritianity in the Western world is dying out, particularly the dogmatic, controlling and harsh moral chyrch we know. Also, you and I grew up in families which were very Catholic and religious. The society we lived in supported and affirmed our “calling”. Today’s society is hostile to religious belief and there is little support for any person considering a religious vocation or priesthood as a way of life.

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Reply to; Anonymoussays:
Apr 28, 2023 at 8:15 am.
As well as, homosexuality is accepted by many especially the younger Irish generation, no need to go into the Roman Catholic church to hide behind the facade of religiosity.
Presumably, if the Irish Roman Catholic church is a gay profession now, why would a heterosexual young man want to get involved, where he would be ostracised and, the odd man out, with the pressure that would bring either to conform or, get out.
The Mammy’s and Grand-Mammy’s are not encouraging their sons into the priesthood, for the very reasons you have outlined, and, many children are not brought up in profoundly religious home anymore.
The crimes of child sexual abuse worldwide by Roman Catholic clergy has had a huge impact on how the Roman Catholic priesthood is viewed, now as derisory, along with the exposé of other crimes, embezzlement murder, (Maskell and the priest’s killings in India) the loss of respect for the priesthood, it has become a laughing stock.
Including the sexual preying of Roman Catholic of nuns by Roman Catholic priests.
I mention before the dictatorial bullying position of Roman Catholic Bishops, with the position of either your face fits or, not, and stuck, the pressure on mental health must be enormous
The continued infantile position Roman Catholic priests find themselves in, with poor pay, no works’ union, they are fodder for the business institution know as the Roman Catholic church.
How on earth a reasonably intelligent person would want to find themselves in that position, I cannot understand.
Yes, they get many needs met for to sustain life including accommodation, which is used cleverly as a ploy to hook many priests to stay, because over the years they slowly lose their independence and, come to rely on the church to provide for them, and at the end of their days thrown on the scrap heap, continuing to rely on other to support them.
I would be very concerned to see any young man choose the Roman Catholic priesthood as a career.
Francis champions the secular role of labour unions, odd how only the canonical courts or lawyers are the only avenue open to a Roman Catholic priest in trouble or, deemed to be so, all inhouse, very unhealthy in my opinion
1)Anglican Priests can find salvation in union membership | Letters
The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com › politics › mar › priests…
4 Mar 2022 — .
2)Pope champions role of labor unions
Catholic Review
https://catholicreview.org › pope-champions-role-of-la…
19 Dec 2022 — VATICAN CITY (CNS) —

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“There are vocations in Ireland but nobody wants to enter. Church is finished in Ireland. Bishops are totally useless every single one of them. Some are malign.
That priest is on the money. The best example of a useless bishop is Bishop Ray in Kerry. He ordained Jones, one of the few graduates produced by Fanny’s Poofter Paradise.

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+ Pat, your explanation of what young men see about the Church and about the priesthood is spot on, and these are the reasons why a young man is disinclined to offer himself for priesthood. This does not mean that there are not young people who are generous and want to commit themselves to the life of the service of God and others, they just look elsewhere these days and find other ways of being of service. That is no less committed or worthwhile than being a priest, actually probably more committed and worthwhile. As well, these youngsters, both men and women, are more likely to be able to live a balanced, integrated, honest and healthy life, both for themselves and for those around them, than the crop of seminarians that are currently in seminaries, whom you accurately describe for the main part as (to begin with) self-denying, repressed, gay men, fleeing from a world where they would have to work hard into a world of presumed deference and unaccountability, where they can get away with stuff and not be called to account, where they can avoid having to develop mature ways of relating to people, especially to women, and where over time they hone their skills in leading a gay lifestyle while projecting a holier than though image to the world – a life of hypocrisy and duplicity. As well, you rightly identify the medieval and idiotic teaching and doctrine of the Church on a number of issues that patently are false and unsustainable knowing what we know about the world, universe, physics etc. And yet, we require people, including priests, to believe this stuff, which is an insult to anyone with a modicum of intelligence and inquiry. How do you expect people to take this stuff seriously if you dress it all up in nonsense ? Oh, and some seminarians, / young priests can have their desire to dress up to their hearts content and swan around the various clerical tat shops on their trips to Rome.

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Oscott / Gaycott is a study case for all of the motivations and reasons as to why a particular kind of young man decides to go to seminary. It is very incestuous, the staff being a dysfunctional role model for the kind of seminarian that is attracted to the place. You only have to look back over a few years to see the kinds of inappropriate and questionable behaviour of staff, especially in relation to seminarians to see that the place really does have some very serous problems. Take for example, the overfamiliarity and favouritism towards pleasing to the eye seminarians by Mervyn Towers (and his moving away from seminary involvement), or Mark Crisp, erstwhile rector, and his involvement with a seminarian, as well as just recently an openly gay member of staff who has now (perhaps to his credit) left seminary eduction and moved on to another role abroad which essentially takes him out of ministry. Not to mention the problems that still exist within its walls. And, lots, lots more. People are complaining about OFSTED these days, but what Oscott needs is a rigorous OFSTED style inspection to point out its deep flaws, rather than some anodyne benign marking of its own homework by + Longley, who couldn’t see the dog shit under his foot even if he tried. I predict that there will be a major, major scandal at Oscott in the future which will be catastrophic for all concerned. The warning signs are there, but nobody really wants to join up the dots and do the difficult work that is required to make the place healthy, safe and effective. And that’s before you deal with the more substantial issues about seminaries / seminarians and vocations which + Pat raises in the blog today.

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@12:24 Littletwink of Southwark is a perfect example of what these places turn out, especially in his regurgitation of patent nonsense and his oh so precious squeaking Mass celebration. That’s what you get when you teach people that who and what they are is so special and elevated. I doubt if there is much smell of the sheep stuff being taught in places like Oscott. Look what it is producing.

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Role abroad? Not a diplomatic / governmental / evangelisation related one I hope! Auditing now, would keep him wary.

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I would rather stack shelves in ASDA then be associated with the RC church and priesthood and all the nonces. At least it’s an honest job where you would not be looked at with suspicion.

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Good for you. I would rather be following the one true FAITH. The clergy may fail us (not all) but the FAITH remains.

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Hey, there’s many a MIA / furloughed priest stacking shelves at Asda. At least they are making a way for themselves, rather than ass twitching JPL and others who are just hanging on the the tit of Holy Mother The Church for sustenance.

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10:27 clergy & their gangs have truly earned the right to be looked at with the deepest of suspicion but it’s safer to cross the street when you see them coming.

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Yes there is serious problems with Vocations yet they keep having collections for vocations.
Ireland has 20 Diocesan vocations in total.
England and Wales 14
Scotland has 15 with Motherwell 5, Edinburgh 4, Paisley 2, Glasgow 2, Aberdeen 2 and with Argyll & Isles, Dunkeld and Galloway 0
Scots college Rome closes next month and an announcement where the seminarians there will go however some are at gay Oscott.
it is only in Europe the Holy Mother Church is struggling with vocations and membership just remember 1.6 billion catholic under the amazing Supreme Pontiff Francis.

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@ 10:29am

You know who still gibbering about her fantasy number of 1.6 billion Catholics under the disastrous Supreme Bollox Fanny. A number she has gleaned from her usual source Google, how many of that number actually practice? not many. The rest are all on Fanny’s synodal path to perdition.

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11.39: Sadly for you, you’re already in perdition and in a place called darkness of hatred with this hate speech and poison. People like you deserve karma to knock you down.

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11.30
It’s Pat’s contemporary who claims an interest in the language of latin but whose comments betray a lack of ability in his mother tongue.
Sumilarly, he claims to be devoted to the abrogated Tridentine rite of Mass but doesn’t shrink from vulgarities towards others.

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The vocations money is spent on permanent deacons, on lay students in Maynooth and to pay for the vast Maynooth campus. The so-called Pontifical University in Maynooth gets no state funding, has a small income from student fees and from rents paid by Maynooth University for the buildings it uses but it is also heavily subsidised from the vocations collections.

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Where Europe and North America are now, the rest of the Catholic world will be in 25 years time. Yes, you can shake the vocation tree in many countries in Africa and Asia, but what do you get – seminarians / priests who are imbued with the same sense of elevation, specialness, set apartness, and an overwhelming sense of entitlement, and the right to live hypocritical lives, especially when it comes to celibacy. Also, these churches are very authoritarian, misogynistic, homophobic and intolerant of any kind of diversity. It is only a question of time until those churches and clergy begin to unravel as the systemic hypocrisy and corruption within their ranks is revealed. So, do not hold forth these African and Asian churches and clergy as a model. They are as bad as the ones that we have already rumbled. The problem, therefore, still remains. Answers on a postcards, please….

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Interesting topic on vocations. I always wanted to be a priest but I was too old to join. The question today is do we really need priests? There are lots of fairies and freemasons around, the church of nice is gone.

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@ 11:37pm
Sadly you’ve given yourself away by the use of the word “Karma” which is a belief of Hindu’s, not Catholic always thought you were a pagan. We know you are Fanny’s Chief Ra! Ra! girl never done extolling the oul melt. Wise up, read Dictator Pope by Marcantonio Colonna and find out the truth about your foul mouthed hero!

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12:36
I never came across Marcantonio Colonna book, Dictator Pope. Do you highly recommend it?

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12:36
But didn’t Micheál Ledwith former member of ITC change spots
becoming a guru promoting the hamburger universe to the gullible.
I’m not clear if the universe is a big mac double whopper or emperor burger. Maybe he was before your time.

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@12:26pm
You’re probably right about yar man Ledwith it’s a pity he didn’t choke on the hamburger. He’s on a universe of his own and not right in the head.
Unfortunately he’s not before my time I remember the scandal he caused only too well. I don’t trust his cousin either.

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All that “ass twitching”, as JP Lyttle was accused of doing on yesterday’s blog, has left the church in this sorry state. So much for flirting and putting it about!

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@2:26pm Not my words! I’m just repeating what JP Lyttle aka ‘Power bottom’ was accused of doing on yesterday’s blog. Apparently he twitches his ass and bats his eyelids to attract the boys.

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I originally used the expression ‘ass twitching’, I’ll have you know. It’s under my copyright. Anyhow, I should know. I used to do it myself in my younger days to effect, and it always worked. Well, I was young then. Not now though, so no ass twitching works for me at my age. Oh, it’s an age old tactic used by the young and fit to get what they want from the old and knackered. Eye batting too.

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Concern about ‘vocations’ gives an interesting insight into the mindset of RCs and especially why they get so worried if there are perceived to be a ‘shortage’ of vocations. It is inconceivable that almighty God would leave his chosen people in the church he has ordained as the principal and indefectible means of his grace, to be short of the sacraments because short of priests.
It just can’t happen.
This is why a perceived shortage of priests is a problem for them: it calls into doubt the very existence of their faith and particularly their church, the highest point of belief for them.
It is also why praying for priestly vocations is such a contradictory thing: why would your god not provide you with enough priests?

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Fortunately, lay person (non animators / operatives / handlers / minders / hand tyers / elbow joggers or arm twisters), pew sitter and believer, supplicator and neighbour aren’t vocations (phew)

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The headline today is a little misleading in that it only refers to the numbers in Maynooth. Is it known what numbers are at the seminary’s in Rome and maybe elsewhere. It is slightly Ironic that Bishop Phonsie is head of Vocations and is promoting vocations with the past week or two but he is sending those coming forward to study for the Diocese of Waterford and Lismore to Rome.

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Irish College is closed for undergraduate students. Priests Irish & foreign use it as a base for post grad work and attending colleges in Rome. Bishops stay there when they visit Rome. still a wedding venue. It’s basically a B & B now. Surprised Phonsie sending anyone to Irish College under his former Limerick colleague Msgr. Paul Finnerty. Phonsie would have been well aware of Finnerty’s very colourful past life as a hairdresser in Limerick back in the day.. But then under Papa Francesco that’s all okay now…

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Bishop Phonsie sends new recruits to Rome. Bishop Monahan sends them to Spain. The Irish Bishops have thrown in the towel with regard to Maynooth Seminary.

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They need to close the Beda – and have all the seminarians for the United Kingdom (including Scotland) at the VEC and rename it. The Irish seminarians from the North could study there too.

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One of the reasons for the shortage of seminarians is because solid Catholics who genuinely seek to serve the Lord and hold true to the Catholic faith are bullied out of formations by liberal formators like Paul Farrer and Damian Cassidy who have their own agendas.

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@10:55
A liberal agenda which involves compromising the truth so as to appease the modern world. Many of these people will stop at nothing to achieve their goals, even if it means persecuting genuinely Catholic priests and seminarians.

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Already linked with the Daisy Chains prior to arrival in Maynooth.

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10.24am
Yes agreed Oscott is accident or catastrophe waiting to rear it’s ugly head.
Mervyn Towers – what’s the story with him – seems he likes eye candy – he was all over Andrew Robinson the seminarian or was he ordained before he died – must be others he had a liking for – why did he leave Oscott?
Crisp was falling in love all the time with seminarians and had crushes and dramas – was he suitable to be a Rector. Can anyone tell us more about him and the seminarian? What’s the true story?
Eddie Clare was Vocation Director based at Oscott and Director of Maryvale – now MIA what happened? What’s the story?
Who is the gay staff member who moved abroad and out of the priesthood?
Richard Walker was Vice Rector now VG – he’s a vulnerable and mentally fragile soul – and v effete – what’s the story – bezzies with former VG who probably played a part in his appointment. Very odd and feels favouritism and clerical nepotism at play.
How many seminarians on Grindr.
Oscott Educated and trained several high level sexual criminals:
Penny, Taylor, Robinson, Walsh, Quigley and Jollie.
What’s the story on current Rector?
Oakley and McKinney promoted after Oscott? Why? Doesn’t smell right?
Oscott is a den of thieves and vipers and its dark secrets and gay sub culture is going to bite them on the arse – but I suspect being bitten on the arse is just foreplay to them.

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Fr Michael Dolman, the Rector of Oscott, has just been made a Canon. Also, Fr Paul McNally ( gay ??? ) has been made a Canon by Nurse in Birmingham.

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Killaloe diocese received a very large bequest for the education of seminarians in the Diocese. I’m sure Fintan has it long siphoned off to all the mias by now..

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And

An sean madra don bother cruaidh

The old dog for the hard road

Thats me

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By Post Author

A group of gay priests in Ireland have formed a gay sex ring. They organise gay sex sessions for diocesan and religious order priests in various parts of the country.
The get-togethers nearly always involve alcohol and occasionally the sharing of narcotics.

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Priests in drugs related gay sex rings.
Class A drugs as well as “poppers” were available to Maynooth seminarians.
These are all very serious activities and developments in seminary or anywhere.

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5:27
3.25 never mentioned Killaloe!!
wtf is going on there now that’s creating renewed paranoia?

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Exactly @ 6:34.
Why such hypervigilance @ 5:27pm..? It’s a constant standard knee jerk reaction.

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The Boiler House Dublin

Most Irish people know very little about gay saunas.

But they are getting to know that a sizeable number of Irish priests and seminarians attend gay saunas at home and abroad..

The Boiler House was at the centre of the Maynooth gay scandal a couple of years ago as Maynooth seminarians went there to meet priests and other men.

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Phil Egan organised our studies and taught Sacramental Theology.

JPL was a student ‘under Egan’ at Oscott.

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*Fr. Eugene Boland* is appearing in public, performing tasks pertaining to ministry. He was at a vigil in Strabane tonight, aside his brother priest and one other priest. Is Fr. Eugene Boland not in restricted ministry?

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Thought that, Pat. He was up front and centre at a vigil in Strabane tonight. Terrible circumstances albeit but at the same time, one would have thought he would have been expected to adhere to the rules. It’s not the first time he’s been ministering in public.

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One wonders what’s going on there in Derry Diocese. Eugene Boland should be apprehended re: his public ministry. The MIAs are a concern too. Accountability?!

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Another prominent role for Eugene Boland today. In with the clergy of Derry at Diocesan Mass in Cathedral. Yes, let’s have an update on MIA too.

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Men entering priesthood now days is only for the benefits and freebies, that’s their motivation. Pat worked within the establishment years ago , he will tell you nuns were a million times worse than priests and they were bad. I find it ironic they are never mentioned. One sided agenda, if pat weren’t gay, the real truth would come out, not the one sided gender attack that’s filtered by the moderator, who happens to be gay. Ironic.

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I spent on hour talking to a SR of the United States who now resides in Ireland telling me that nuns were worse than priests. You would know this pat, you worked for them. There is no justice when your agenda is distorted and eliminates some of the real corruption that goes on. Your a fake.

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The word vocation being used by the RCC is completely wrong
Vocation: a strong calling to religious life
Aye right! Dead on. What a load of tosh
They really should be saying that there is a lack of calling to anti christ practices such as mysoginy, hedonism, abuse, cover up, clericalism, power etc. perhaps it is because light is now being shone on their activities and they no longer have carte Blanche to do whatever the hell they want. Perhaps it is because we won’t tolerate their abuses anymore. We are no longer afraid of them

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The word vocation being used by the RCC is completely wrong
Vocation: a strong calling to religious life
Aye right! Dead on. What a load of tosh
They really should be saying that there is a lack of calling to anti christ practices such as mysoginy, hedonism, abuse, cover up, clericalism, power etc. perhaps it is because light is now being shone on their activities and they no longer have carte Blanche to do whatever the hell they want. Perhaps it is because we won’t tolerate their abuses anymore. We are no longer afraid of them

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