Fourteen of the 26 Catholic diocesan bishops in Ireland have said they will continue to send seminarians to the national seminary, despite the decision by the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin to cease sending trainee priests there.
The move by Martin came because of what he described as "strange goings-on" at Maynooth, in north County Kildare, amid reports of a "gay sub-culture" and claims that some of the 60 resident seminarians were using the gay dating app Grindr.
Martin this week told The Irish Times: "I wasn't happy with Maynooth...There seems to be an atmosphere of strange goings-on there, it seems like a quarrelsome place with anonymous letters being sent around. I don't think this is a good place for students".
Following the archbishop's comments, The Irish Times emailed bishops asking if they were planning to continue to send their seminarians to Maynooth. Fourteen said they would.
Of the others, the Bishop of Elphin, Kevin Doran said he would be guided "by the particular formation needs and personal aptitudes of the individual concerned".
Bishop Leo O'Reilly of Kilmore and Bishop Brendan Kelly of Achonry are away, and the Bishop of Killala John Fleming said he had no seminarians currently.
It is known that along with Martin, Bishop Alphonsus Cullinan of Waterford and Lismore has decided to send his seminarians to the Irish College in Rome.
Six diocesan bishops had not responded to the email by today.
Meanwhile, Maynooth received support from the Association of Catholic Priests, who said, "the damage this controversy will do to Maynooth is not in the best interest of the Irish church".
The association added that "the response to whatever the crisis is – real or imaginary – demands more than moving a few students to Rome and offering a few unconvincing reasons for the decision".
One of the association's spokesmen, Father Brendan Hoban, told Morning Ireland that Maynooth always had a "strange hot-house kind of atmosphere, seminaries are that kind of thing".
But a new group – Voices Against Maynooth Abuse – has been established by a former seminarian who alleges that he was sexually harassed there between 2007 and 2009.
