Former Irish president: Catholic seminaries should be more ‘welcoming’ on LGBT issues
Former Irish President Mary McAleese has responded to the recent scandal over homosexuality at the country's national seminary by saying she wishes the seminary would be more welcoming” to homosexuals. Why not welcome adulterers, murderers, atheists and pedophiles? McAleese, who considers herself “a staunch Catholic,” regrets the decision of two Irish prelates to remove their seminarians from St. Patrick’s College, the national seminary at Maynooth, and send them to Rome instead. “I am just worried that the Maynooth controversy seems to be concentrating on the wrong things,” she told the Irish Times . “A seminary should be a place where people feel welcomed ... not somewhere where they feel policed — after all, these are young people who haven't yet taken a vow of celibacy.” McAleese’s comments follow closely those of Senator Jerry Buttimer, a former Maynooth seminarian who later declared his homosexuality. Buttimer called on the Church to openly recruit