Dissident Irish priests' group raps Cardinal Dolan's report on seminary life

June 18, 2012

The Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) has described a report on the Pontifical Irish College, submitted by Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, as “incompetent,” and demanded that Ireland’s archbishops “publicly repudiate this report in the strongest possible terms.”

Cardinal Dolan sent his report to the Vatican after leading an apostolic visitation of the Irish seminaries, ordered by the Holy See. Although his report was confidential, a copy was obtained by the Irish Times and has been made public. The ACP—a group that has consistently supported dissident priests and criticized the Vatican—found fault with Cardinal Dolan’s conclusions, which called for a greater emphasis on orthodoxy in instruction.

The ACP said that it is “disturbing, indeed frightening,” that Cardinal Dolan’s report was characterized by what Irish archbishops had already called a “deep prejudice” against the faculty of the Pontifical Irish College. Denouncing the American cardinal for suggesting that some faculty members should be replaced, the ACP asked whether his suggestions of misconduct were prompted by “just incompetence or perhaps homophobia?”

 

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Further information:

• Irish Association of Catholic Priests protest Cardinal Timothy Dolan's report (Irish Central)
• Irish archbishops fault critical report on Pontifical Irish College (CWN, 6/15)