Ireland's Future Priests Allegedly Can't Keep Off Grindr

Archbishop wants them to mingle with more women instead
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 25, 2016 1:07 PM CDT
Archbishop to Would-Be Priests: Get Off Grindr
Call him old fashioned, but Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin doesn't think students training to be priests should be on Grindr.   (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, file)

There are "strange going-ons"—in the words of the Archbishop of Dublin—at Ireland's major seminary, where trainee priests are being accused of using Grindr, the Telegraph reports. "An app like that is something which would be fostering promiscuous sexuality, which is certainly not in any way the mature vision of sexuality one would expect a priest to understand," the BBC quotes Archbishop Diarmuid Martin as saying. But priests-to-be using a gay hookup app is just one of the accusations being leveled at St. Patrick's College. According to the Irish Times, there are also reports of students at the seminary using the straight hookup app Tinder, former seminarians allege bullying and harassment, and college trustees say there is an "unhealthy atmosphere there."

St. Patrick's has been tasked with reviewing its social media policies for trainee priests and figuring out ways to get its students to mingle with more women and families, something suggested by Pope Francis. In the meantime, Martin is sending prospective priests in Dublin to study in Rome instead of at St. Patrick's because of its alleged "atmosphere" and "gay culture." (More Grindr stories.)

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