A former philosophy lecturer from the seminary in Maynooth has claimed that there has a high level of promiscuous behaviour in the air at the North Kildare priest training college that was more or less accepted by both students and staff.
Mark Dooley, who published articles about the behaviour of the trainee priests at the college and subsequently had his contract terminated, has claimed that the culture in the college was being representative of students as well as staff.
A drinking culture was accepted by almost everyone at the seminary, which left a number of students quite dismayed with life in Maynooth.
"One was almost expected to conform to this culture and if one expressed any desire to be faithful to one's vocation, one was made to feel like a pariah," he said.
"They were upset because they went in with a vision of the priesthood and the life they were going to lead and the life they wanted to lead but there was no resemblance to it (in Maynooth)," he said.
"Their desire to transcend the worldly life was shattered."
After writing a number of newspaper articles in 2010 that revealed the extent of the drinking and sexual practices in the seminaries, Mr Dooley said that a number of people who attended Maynooth got in touch to air their grievances, and many of them were then intimidated by staff members who were disgruntled about the idea of the revelations being aired in the media.
"An air of intimidation broke out and the seminarians were petrified," he said.
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