Cardinal Timothy Dolan has been attacked by four Irish archbishops for a misleading report which had led to major changes at the Irish College in Rome.
The Irish Times reports that the four archbishops are heavily critical of Cardinal Dolan’s role in a visitation and review of the College ordered by the Pope.
The four archbishops, Cardinal Seán Brady, Archbishop of Armagh; the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin; the Archbishop of Tuam, Dr Michael Neary, and the Archbishop of Cashel, Dr Dermot Clifford, were sent a copy of the visitation report by the Vatican.
They say Cardinal Dolan’s report, which has resulted in the college hierarchy being sent back to Ireland and may see it close down, is riddled with errors.
Under orders from Pope Benedict, Cardinal Dolan led a root and branch review of all structures and processes at the famous Irish seminary in the Vatican.
His report expressed concern about ‘the atmosphere, structure, staffing and guiding philosophy of the Irish College in Rome’.
But now four of Ireland’s leading clerics have hit out at the report.
In a statement to the Irish Times, they said: “As part of the process involved in the visitation to the Irish College, Rome, the trustees were given an initial report by the Holy See.
“This initial report contained some serious errors of fact, including named individuals. Attentive to the importance of applying due process, and respecting the rights of those named in this initial report, the trustees made a detailed and considered response to the Holy See.”
Cardinal Dolan was still an Archbishop when he led the apostolic visitation to the Irish College in Rome last year.
He was assisted in the visitation report by the then Archbishop of Baltimore in the US and now Cardinal Edwin O’Brien, Msgr Francis Kelly of the Northern American College in Rome and others.
The Irish Times reports that it has seen a copy of the unpublished visitation report which was presented to the Congregation for Catholic Education in Rome.
The report calls for ‘substantial reform’ at the college.
The four Irish archbishops, the college’s trustees, were criticised in Cardinal Dolan’s report as ‘seeming to be disengaged from college governance, with meetings, minutes, agenda and direct supervision irregular. The general rule of governance is ‘Let’s keep doing what we have been for the last 35 years’.
In response, the Irish archbishops told the Irish Times that they made a ‘detailed and considered response’ to the Holy See.
The Irish College was founded in 1628 and educates students for the priesthood. It is also a popular wedding venue for Irish couples who wish to get married in Rome.
The visitation report said: “A disturbingly significant number of seminarians gave a negative assessment of the atmosphere of the house.
“Staff were critical about any emphasis on Rome, tradition, the magisterium, piety or assertive orthodoxy, while the students are enthusiastic about these features.”
The Dolan report recommended a change in the staff.
It also stated: “The apostolic visitor noted, and heard from students, an ‘anti-ecclesial bias’ in theological formation.”
Cardinal Dolan’s report also said: “The college suffers from the reputation of being ‘gay friendly’, however unjust such a reputation might be.
“I am eager to underline that I did not find any evidence of rampant immorality or a homosexual subculture, and that the overwhelming majority of the seminarians are committed to a faithful, chaste lifestyle.
“Likewise, we are convinced that the staff in no way condones such conduct.”
The report concludes: “If the college is to prepare men as leaders for the renewal of the church in Ireland, which the Holy Father is confident will come, the staff of the college must inspire trust and its programme of formation must engender a vibrant fidelity to Jesus and the teaching and tradition of His church with the fostering of a durable interior life, and a humble, confident sense of priestly identity and mission.
“Such is now lacking.”
Cardinal Dolan said he left the college: “Filled with affection and admiration for the students and, notwithstanding his criticisms, appreciation for the sincerity and hard work of the staff.”
A draft response prepared for the four Irish archbishops, seen by the Irish Times, said ‘a deep prejudice appears to have coloured the visitation and from the outset and it led to the hostile tone and content of the report’.
It said: “The visitation report would appear to prioritise its own view of orthodoxy, priestly identity, separation and devotion and its harsh judgments on staff members were unsupported by evidence.”
The paper says it is not clear how much of the draft response was included in the document the archbishops sent to the Holy See taking issue with the visitation report.
Since the report it has been confirmed that all four priests who were staff at the Irish College seminary in January 2011 are being replaced. Cardinal Dolan and Cardinal O’Brien received red hats last February.
Asked by The Irish Times to comment on questions arising from his visitation report, Cardinal Dolan responded: “While obviously others do not consider themselves bound by the promised confidentiality – so necessary and understandable to assure a fair and honest gathering of information [and] requested by the Apostolic See – I certainly do.”
The paper says he was therefore “unable to comment upon the report, other than to stand by the diligence of the six visitors and the accuracy of the data we found – both of positive and challenging nature – and presented to the Congregation for Catholic Education in Rome.”
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.jfoynyc | Jun 16, 2012, 11:04 PM EDT
Milfordmama, Pres. Obama is a socialist like all off us who participate in Medicare, Social Security and other taxpayer funded programs. A socialist like good Irish Catholics who are unwilling to turn their backs on the less fortunate, the unlucky or the sick and infirm. There are no government programs but rather taxpayer programs that take care of things greedy corporations and selfish people would not implement including, roads & bridges (unless toll ones), street & airport security, fire protection, education, national security, space exploration, food and drug policing, . . . Let's give this President a Congress that is willing to earn $174,00/year with extraordinary Benefits by doing things that help the country and the world. Call his objectives anything you wish and replace those you do not think are good with concrete ideas that are consistent with the image of America whether viewed from within or from across the Atlantic.
helmet365 | Jun 16, 2012, 08:15 PM EDT
In our more informed society the Church no longer guides or controls us. They make suggestions to justify their existence.We are always ahead now.Gay married clergy in now being accepted in many Christian churches including Anglican. Most people will see gay married Catholic Priests in their lifetime.
tombegs | Jun 16, 2012, 07:40 PM EDT
Reply to Nicoletta: "The Catholic priesthood is no place for homosexuals." Tell that to Cardinal "Bernie-Baby" Law and Cardinal Dodo Dolan.
helmet365 | Jun 16, 2012, 07:29 PM EDT
Very often the most vocal with negative opinions regarding homosexuality are the very ones who are supressing it in themselves.
dingle999 | Jun 16, 2012, 05:21 PM EDT
To milfordmama : "Most of the sex abuse by priests (at least in the US) was against young boys."Are you saying homosexuals are more prone to pedophilia than heterosexuals? If so you are dead wrong "As far as Obama's agenda, I do believe he wants to change America's traditional family values and that he is a socialist at heart." Hmm look at Ireland the so called traditional family value(s) is long gone. Lastly please define socialism i.e Is Ireland a socialist state ?
Nicoletta | Jun 16, 2012, 02:36 PM EDT
Plutiephan - just read your comment - you're absolutely right. Had I not witnessed it for myself, I wouldn't have believed the influence and extent of the Lavender Mafia in the Church. Thanks be to God for Pope Benedict!
Nicoletta | Jun 16, 2012, 02:33 PM EDT
Good for Cardinal Dolan! The Catholic priesthood is no place for homosexuals.
barneyjo | Jun 16, 2012, 12:44 PM EDT
The old saying of the "pot calling the kettle black" comes to mind!!
milfordmama | Jun 16, 2012, 09:25 AM EDT
The readers and responders here are mostly pro-gay, anti-Catholic, that is easy to see. I am 66 and a practicing Catholic and believe that priests should be allowed to be married and have families. I would also be okay with female priests and deacons. In my opinion after many years of church going and teaching in a Catholic elementary school, raising my kids Catholic, etc. by forcing the priests to be only unmarried, celibate (ha) men, DOES encourage more gay guys to join the priesthood. I have met many priests and I would bet at least half were gay. I am not passing judgement on "being gay", but if the church opened its eyes and really had a little common sense, it would see that gay men would find a comfortable home in the priesthood. Most of the sex abuse by priests (at least in the US) was against young boys. That was hardly ever mentioned in the news for fear of "offending" the gay community. Even the priest that married me was later found guilty of abusing boys, just awful. As far as Obama's agenda, I do believe he wants to change America's traditional family values and that he is a socialist at heart. Two of his top people, Janet Napolitano and Kathleen Sebelius are anti-family, anti-Catholic, and lesbians who at one time were raised Catholic.
dingle999 | Jun 16, 2012, 08:49 AM EDT
PhlutiePhan are you for real ? Your comment defies belief "The Obama Administration is riddled and rife with radical lesbian Catholic women in key positions and who are secretly working with this homosexual subculture within the Catholic Church in order to overthrow its influence on the road to world socialism." So I get it homosexuality and world socialism go hand in hand. Next minute you will be saying Oscar Wilde was a communist
Collette2 | Jun 15, 2012, 11:04 PM EDT
He looks worried doesn't he. Not a care in HIS world, tucked away under the wings of the Vatican.
eiriamach | Jun 15, 2012, 09:32 PM EDT
mayoman, you're a voice of reason and humanity! You brighten up Irish Central.
mayoman | Jun 15, 2012, 09:02 PM EDT
DrMcHugh: You make a wonderfully valid point. Are seminaries really needed anymore? Probably not, as they vet out everyone but the most ultra-conservative and narrow-minded.
mayoman | Jun 15, 2012, 07:56 PM EDT
PhultiePhan is absolutely obsessed with conspiray theories and homosexuals, particularly as it concerns the Catholic Church. Phan has consistently argued that the Roman Catholic Church would be just fine if it were not for all the gays and lesbians that are undermining his dear auld beloved medieval Church. And to heighten the absurdity Phan insists on linking President Obama to this or that fictive conspiracy against the Church with lesbians taking the nefarious lead. I'm quite sure that only the most out-of-orbit and mindless righties agree with him. (We all know who they are.) Phan particularly has a passion for gay women, whom he particularly hates, and he uses any convenient opportunity whatsoever to trash them without offering any persuasive argument as to why any rational person should agree with him. Phan should be read as the bizarre reactionary clod he is, with nothing to add to mature discussion.
GregShox | Jun 15, 2012, 05:15 PM EDT
Irish Central has always been a great place for entertaining lunacy, but hats off for creating PhlutiePhan. Its ideas on "homosexual abortion rights advocates" are wonderful. Bringing paranoia to a whole new level of nuttiness.
eiriamach | Jun 15, 2012, 05:00 PM EDT
Another of Phan's "simplistic" phantasies, like the one he left on Cahir's blog "The Rich Get Rich..."
montour | Jun 15, 2012, 04:49 PM EDT
what is a homosexual aristocracy, you phan should go bsck to vietnam where your people and the viet cong almost killed my brother. you sir are a litlle bigot
PhlutiePhan | Jun 15, 2012, 04:24 PM EDT
Dolan gave a report on what he saw. This report would be used in context. As "eiriamach" states, the report leaked the fact of a significant homosexual subculture. This is no surprise. David Rose in the U.S. wrote that entire seminaries and religious orders have been overthrown by a gay subculture. Many religious orders, both male and female, have been taken over by a homosexual aristocracy. They are well within line of a significant number of homosexual bishops in key positions. Dolan is trying to overcome the "lavender mafia" which is now aided and abetted by homosexual abortion rights advocates within the LCWR leadership. The Obama Administration is riddled and rife with radical lesbian Catholic women in key positions and who are secretly working with this homosexual subculture within the Catholic Church in order to overthrow its influence on the road to world socialism. Malachi Brendan Martin wrote of its embryonic stages. It is now flowering under the influence of the "devil and the deep blue sea".
Bythebay | Jun 15, 2012, 03:58 PM EDT
the seminaries are redundant as are Dolan and the Irish bishops. Their day is gone.
kilgara | Jun 15, 2012, 03:15 PM EDT
Rugbyplayer,Cardinal Dolan declared war on Obamacare because Obama declared war on the freedom of religious institutions not to be subject to government fiats that threaten their fundamental beliefs and their right to practice the tenents of their faith.Perhaps you should start wearing a helmet in that very rough sport of yours.
eiriamach | Jun 15, 2012, 01:52 PM EDT
An excellent question raised by Dr. McHugh: "Are seminaries really needed anymore?" The one reasonable answer I've heard, from a female Episcopal pastor, is that people training for the priesthood who value piety and the spiritual life are more likely to find others like them in church-run seminaries than in the academic theology programs. Still, like Dr. McHugh, I think they all need at least some exposure to objective church history, theological debate, and the diversity of personalities and faith traditions that the academic settings offer.
rugbyplayer | Jun 15, 2012, 01:38 PM EDT
Dolan has always been a favorite of the Vatican. He is pompous, arrogant and fawning. Just the kind of guy Benedict XVI warms up to. He and his too-scared-to-object episcopal henchmen in the US Conference of Bishops have openly and mendaciously declared war on Obamacare, the President and anyone who dares disagree with these far right satraps. Little wonder that Dolan made his stripes with the Vatican by slandering the Irish College in Rome.
eiriamach | Jun 15, 2012, 12:30 PM EDT
Wake up, Cardinal Dolan. At this point in the sex abuse scandals, most of the world has "an anti-ecclesial bias." Of course seminarians noticed it in their "theological formation.” But put the seminarians' complaints into focus: None but the most ultra-conservative young men choose careers in the Church in such times as these, when freedom of speech to question Vatican policy is suspended and those who question anyway are silenced or driven out, pedophiles protected, reform movements ignored, and nuns and female theologians slapped down. It takes a mindless worship of absolute male human authority figures to enroll in a Catholic seminary these days! Good for the Irish College faculty if they did not provide such figures for seminarians! If you consider these signs of the times alongside Card. Dolan's obviously obsessive, prurient interests in gay and female sexualities, then you'll file Dolan's worries about a homosexual subculture at the college-- while finding "no evidence" of any homosexual activity at the college-- under "Visitors' Pathology Report."
CitizenWhy | Jun 15, 2012, 11:53 AM EDT
Could a wee bit of wheeling and dealing be going on here. Rome telling the Irish harmonious quartet of archbishops to pressure the Irish government to reopen the Vatican Embassy or we shut down the Irish college? On the other hand perhaps on their own initiative the Irish archbishops should fly in to New York for a weekend or two and issue a report on the New York Archdiocese.
DrMcHugh | Jun 15, 2012, 11:27 AM EDT
I wonder if it would be better for the health and growth of the church, if there were either coed seminaries, where both women and men could train and learn to work together, or no seminaries at all? If we believe that all of the faithful are called to service in the church for the greater glory of God, as was determined at the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, then where is the need for seminaries anymore, now that we have universities that give degrees in theology and in pastoral ministry? I believe that the best way to end clericalism in the priesthood is to have women and men train together, both married and single. The focus of Jesus was servanthood, not clericalism, not legalism, not triumphalism. Are seminaries really needed anymore??? Sincerely, Dr Rosemary Eileen McHugh, Chicago, Illinois
hermitTalker | Jun 15, 2012, 10:01 AM EDT
I recall being slammed by US observers when I described the reports from the four archbishops that supposedly leaked as coming from fly-in weekend visits. One reportedly said the Church here had ten years, others were totally pessimistic about the whole Church in Ireland. I see the four archbishops on the same page about the Irish College report. Just because they had Irish names Dolan for the seminaries, O'Malley and the others, they cannot possibly gauge the health of the Church in Ireland any more than they can be visiting one of their own parishes on a one-day visit. Humans are not robots,subject to a mechanic's computer analysis. We are complex creatures, not subject to a pop-psychological-spiritual analysis.