I HAVE HEARD SOME NEW SAD STORIES IN THE PAST FEW DAYS ABOUT MY OLD SEMINARY - ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, WATERFORD.
I was in St. John's from 1973 to 1976 and I must say my personal experience was very positive.
Monsignor John Shine was vice president and president in mytime. He was extremely kind to me and gave me all the support and encouragement I needed.
He maintained discipline, but with a light hand.
He was an old fashioned church man and a canon lawyer and would have been the "sort it out" man in Waterford.
That would have involved not reporting some matters to the civil authorities that he should have. It was how they all did it then.
Other staff members were:
Father Martin Slattery.
Father Michael O Connor.
Father Conor Ryan (Cashel diocese)
Father Tom Marsh.
Father Michael Mullins.
Father Tony Hayes (Rosminian)
Father Brendan Crowley - Spiritual Director and Bishop's Secretary.
Martin Slattery - a little reserved and cold.
Michael O'Connor - very odd and went on to have a big problem - now residing in Phonsie's garden.
Tom Marsh - on another planet - chain smoker and a heavy drinker. Big GAA man.
Conor Ryan - young, reserved and now a cantankerous PP.
Michael Mullins - very friendly and totally disorganized.
Tony Hayes - deeply spiritual man and a great lecturer/preacher.
Brendan Crowley - lots of curly hair - no great depth.
I only had one troublesome experience in Waterford when another seminarian took too much interest in me and I found it hard to cope. I was greatly helped by talking to Father Tony Hayes about the matter.
SEMINARIAN ONE:
One ex-seminarian of Waterford recently complained to Phonsie about his rough treatment by a staff priest who put him out on the street without a place to stay or his bus fare.
SEMINARIAN TWO:
Another ex-seminarian has also complained to Phonsie about things that happened in his time in the college. There are very serious allegations and have no so far been resolved.
HOMOSEXUALITY:
In my three years in Waterford, I was only aware of one seminarian who was active and attempted to seduce other seminarians.
He was later ordained and is now ministering in England.
Apparently in - two years after I left - four seminarians were involved in strange goings on.
Two were expelled.
Two were allowed to continue.
I imagine that all seminarians, past and present have stories to tell.
However, some seminarians, especially heterosexual ones, have suffered great injustices in the past - and right up until the present.
These injustices must be put right.
CONTACT:
bishopbuckley1@outlook.com
07488 374364
Monsignor John Shine was vice president and president in mytime. He was extremely kind to me and gave me all the support and encouragement I needed.
 |
| JOHN SHINE SHORTLY BEFORE HE DIED. |
He maintained discipline, but with a light hand.
He was an old fashioned church man and a canon lawyer and would have been the "sort it out" man in Waterford.
That would have involved not reporting some matters to the civil authorities that he should have. It was how they all did it then.
Other staff members were:
Father Martin Slattery.
Father Michael O Connor.
 |
| MICHEAL O' CONNOR |
Father Conor Ryan (Cashel diocese)
Father Tom Marsh.
Father Michael Mullins.
 |
| MICHAEL MULLINS |
Father Tony Hayes (Rosminian)
Father Brendan Crowley - Spiritual Director and Bishop's Secretary.
 |
| BRENDAN CROWLEY |
Martin Slattery - a little reserved and cold.
Michael O'Connor - very odd and went on to have a big problem - now residing in Phonsie's garden.
Tom Marsh - on another planet - chain smoker and a heavy drinker. Big GAA man.
Conor Ryan - young, reserved and now a cantankerous PP.
Michael Mullins - very friendly and totally disorganized.
Tony Hayes - deeply spiritual man and a great lecturer/preacher.
Brendan Crowley - lots of curly hair - no great depth.
I only had one troublesome experience in Waterford when another seminarian took too much interest in me and I found it hard to cope. I was greatly helped by talking to Father Tony Hayes about the matter.
 |
| PHONSIE THE HAPPY |
SEMINARIAN ONE:
One ex-seminarian of Waterford recently complained to Phonsie about his rough treatment by a staff priest who put him out on the street without a place to stay or his bus fare.
SEMINARIAN TWO:
Another ex-seminarian has also complained to Phonsie about things that happened in his time in the college. There are very serious allegations and have no so far been resolved.
HOMOSEXUALITY:
In my three years in Waterford, I was only aware of one seminarian who was active and attempted to seduce other seminarians.
He was later ordained and is now ministering in England.
Apparently in - two years after I left - four seminarians were involved in strange goings on.
Two were expelled.
Two were allowed to continue.
I imagine that all seminarians, past and present have stories to tell.
However, some seminarians, especially heterosexual ones, have suffered great injustices in the past - and right up until the present.
These injustices must be put right.
CONTACT:
bishopbuckley1@outlook.com
07488 374364
Shut the goddam place down - If it ordained Buckley it merits closure without delay.
ReplyDeleteIt closed many years ago.
DeleteSo did Wexford, Carlow, Thurles, Kilkenny, All Hallows, Dublin, etc.
Only Maynooth is left.
It will close too.
The Trustees of seminaries have no interest in putting right any injustices. They whitewash all injustices by saying complainants are upset due to their departure. Bishops just think it's sour grapes.
ReplyDeleteTrue.
Delete@01:47; Whitewashing all injustices makes no sense, whatsoever. All cases are different and merit individual attention and if necessary investigation. Its just another defensive rationalisation, denial and excuse for inaction.
DeleteWhen the hierarchy world wide covered up the rape of little innocent defenceless children, what would you expect!
All that matters is protecting the institution, protecting the clerical fraternity and their positions.
Ex-seminarians who weren't ordained ought to consider themselves blessed!
Who'd want to be party to or associated with the Rc institutional, shameful tsunami of scandal, abuse and hypocrisy.
Hi are all these clergy types sexually challenged in wan way or tother
ReplyDeleteNo. But they sure do challenge others sexually, whether they invite ot or not (and especially if they're really young).
DeleteHi but. The church seems to have more than the average of those with wonky Willie syndrome. What about other groups like police medical people etc. How do they compare with the male and female clergy stats but
ReplyDelete@06:58;
DeleteFly; the church hasn't more than the average of those with wonky willie syndrome, as in men having a wonky or dysfunctional willie. The church has more of those with bonky willie syndrome, as in men having an obsessive, compulsive, hyperactive desire to bonk!
If the church had more of the former and less of the latter there wouldn't be the current crisis in the church!
12.54. On the ball hi
Delete@13:44:
DeleteHi Fly; less of the...'on the ball'...!
There's been far too much of that carry on...!
When did justice become a priority for the Rc institution ? They don’t ‘do’ justice.
ReplyDeleteThey’ll ‘talk the talk’ but won’t ‘walk the talk.’
Pat, you conveniently forget your own moves against certain Clonliffe students and letter left under doorways!! We who were with you remember. You weren't condemned or judged by anyone. We noticed but were fearful. You also subsequently sought a partner through sites, which is fair but don't now smash others who seek a similar intimacy. It may be totally against a vow of celibacy and chastity but we are all human at the end of the day. We are not strong always in resisting human temptation - you more than any of us know that. So, spare us your faux moral judgments. And there is a huge difference between serious sexual abuse and someone searching for intimacy. Pat, you don't ever seem to acknowledge your double, hypocritical standards.
ReplyDeleteWhat you say about Clonliffe is absolutely untrue.
DeleteOf course, as an immature eighteem year old I had crushes on people but never acted on them as I strongly believed, at the tinme, it would have neen a serious sin.
I had absolutely no sexual encounters in either of my two seminaries.
The Clonliffe thing is a total fabrication by sexually active priests and seminarians because of this blog.
There is also a difference between a card carrying member of the RC clergy who takes all the perks, who professes celibacy and chastity in public and is more sexually active than many poor rabbits - and a priest/bishop like me who has not been part of the RC cabal for thirty two years and is not bound by its hupocritical restriction.
In any event, you are so sure of your ground that you post as anonymous.
I have always put my name to everthing I have said and done.
So - Foxtrot Oscar :-
10.31: Pat, you have an inability to recognise the truths of your past. Nothing wrong in admitting your infidelity in so many ways. Just don't always be in denial. Didn't you take a vow of celibacy too? Or, are you still fabricating your own self serving theology? Just because you have decided to out yourself doesn't give you a moral superiority over others. Incidentally, you were/are a beneficiary from other people's financial generosity. Why deny this truth?
DeleteBuckley, why are you picking on John Gates?
ReplyDeleteJohn Gates is the one who PICKS on people.
DeleteIf this is the same John Gates who was in charge of the Maynooth sacristy years ago then nothing much has changed with him from what I read on here. He was always a cocky little shitbag who bullied people even way back then. He made a religious sister who assisted in the sacristy's life a misery. There was blazing rows between them on a regular basis. It was said at the time that John suffered from small man syndrome. Bullying is often attributed to this affliction. Aggressive, angry little nobody. Becoming Cahal Daly's private secretary totally went to his bap.
DeleteJohn Gates picked,Bullied and mentally and physically scarred people of Magherafelt. This parish is not just enough for him. Cookstown Parish he does Masses at as well. How may Churches does the wee dwarf need. The people of Magherafelt are sick to the back teeth of him. Pat what can be done of this waster bully.
DeleteJohn Gates is a controlled Freak. You wouldn't get a Priest in any other Parish like him. But Nothing surprises me about John while we studied at Maynooth. He made a nun,s life hell. He learned all from his master at Armagh at the time Daly. Another selfish old Maid. I'm sure thr rest of our year in Maynooth could tell you more about John Boy.
Delete@13:03; There seems to be an increasing number of syndromes among members of the clergy!
DeleteIs small man syndrome, wonky willie syndrome and bonky willie syndrome, the only known clerical syndromes to date, or can we expect more clerical syndromes to emerge?
13.03 There'sonly one small wonky,wanky and Bonky man syndrome. That's our wee John Gates of Magherafelt Parish. A bad mannered spoilt little bully brat.
DeleteI wonder is it a Coalisland thing where Gates hails from. Is there something in the water there because Fr Joe Quinn etc all came from there
Delete@14:33; Another clerical syndrome; is that wanky man sydrome or wanky willie sydrome?
Delete@13.56 Small man syndrome is not associated with anatomy. It's ascribed to people who have a complex with their smallness of height. Somehow they try to cope with bullying others to make up for being small in stature.
DeleteGates likes to think he hails the country. Plenty of travellers from coalisland had their weddings in Magherafelt by Fr.Gates. Must be money rolling in Gates eyes. Good place to shift Gates back up to. As they say nothing good ever came out off Tyrone. Only bullies.
Delete15.03. Coalisland seems to have a lot of priests ordained in that part of the country. But Fr.Joe Quinn is no longer a priest.I wonder why. Would be a good Parish for John Gates to look after instead of Controlling Magherafelt. Let s hope he gets the next move there were he came from. Wake up Bishop E.Martin. Shift him ASAP.
Delete@15:32; Small man syndrome is a form of psychological compensation due to smallness in stature, so it’s indirectly related to anatomy. i.e. i... a little man wanting to be a big man by being a bully.
DeleteI suspect the ineffective
DeleteBishop in Armagh is part of the problem.
Fr Gates was indeed the Senior Sacristan of Maynooth. He had rows daily with Sr Regis, who officially was in charge of the college chapel altar linen but she thought that she and not he should be the Senior Sacristan. Always of a theatrical bent, Fr Gates inveigled his way on to the Aula Maxima committee, which had long been the preserve of Clogher seminarians.
DeletePat @10.32 You are spot on in that one. The man is a bully and once a bully always a bully. In fact he is known in Magherafelt by many as bully boy Gates. He uses his own Mother as a spy to attend bingo and the parish knitting group to gleam information and take it back to him. A total power and control freak.
ReplyDeleteRancid trip down memory lane.
ReplyDeleteSorry for upsetting you, Father.
DeleteIn 2010, Pope Benedict xvi remarked that the sexual abuse crisis, sweeping the catholic church 'was truly terrifying', a very strong term. He also said that the problem was sin inside the church, and by implication, not accusations from victims or the media. 'Forgiveness is not a substitute for justice',he said. Pope Benedict xvi also said, 'we see in a really terrifying way that the greatest persecution of the church does not come from the enemies outside, but is from the sin in the church. The church, according to Pope Benedict xvi, has a profound need to relearn penance, to accept purification, to learn on the one hand forgiveness but also the necessity of justice.
ReplyDeleteSounds like Bennie was onda ball but what happens after da talking is done. Not lot. If church was a Kar tid b scrapped years ago
DeleteWell, if relearning penance is the way to go for the Church, it should start with Benedict himself. In his 24 years as prefect of the CDF, he knew more than anyone else in the Vatican (even the Polish fathead pope) about rape of minors by RC priests...and did absolutely SFA.
DeleteAnd when this odious little hypocrite became pope, he, er, sentenced (😅) Fr Marciel Maciel to the terrifying vista of...a life of 'prayer and penitence'.
(Er again, isn't this what Roman Catholic priests are sypposed to be doing anyway? Now we know why so many of them abuse, and others conveniently cover it up: they don't have God in their lives. Figures.😕)
There are plenty of clergy from the Waterford and Lismore diocese among 'the disappeared' over the last 20 years;
ReplyDeletegone missing in action, but still above ground.
Can you name them?
DeleteI know of a few who left ministry
Deleteto marry, which is fair enough, honest and honorable, while others disappeared under a cloud.
I could but won’t name them on this blog, but lots of people in Waterford and Lismore with their finger on the diocesan pulse would know of them.
@15:35; I suspect Waterford and Lismore is probably no different to most Irish dioceses re ‘disappeared’ clergy. In the 2013 review of safeguarding practice in Waterford and Lismore, 7 priests of the diocese were out of ministry, reasons not outlined.
DeleteOf the Maynooth ordination classes from the 1980s onwards about a quarter are MIA. Few are married as most were not of the marrying kind.
Delete@ 13:33;
ReplyDeleteMagna, you are right; the problem is clerical moral evil.
Even the former Pope agrees with you!
Pat, have you heard that caca was put into the holy water stoop in St Michael's church, Enniskillen? One of the theories is that it is in response to the PP (wannabe bishop Peter O'Reilly) wearing a poppy on his stole during the WWI centenary event in the church. Beer was also put into the big barrel of holy water though the parishoners were not told.
ReplyDeleteNot very nice things to be doing to the people.
DeleteThose who o jected to the PPs poppy should have tackled him personally.
Sadly, in the eyes of many, the poppy represents British imperialism.
O'Reilly may as well be a Protestant Minister. Dresses like one, looks like one, sounds like one, gives a sermon like one. Never met such a drip and boring old fart.
DeleteWell deserved! Poppy day is a Masonic tradition, the very antithesis of Catholicism. Poppy symbolism is, ultimately, part of Freemasonic thinking, and deserves every ounce of opprobrium and has zero place near Catholicism, yet alone at the sacrifice of the Mass. Those of us who descend from folk who shivered at Mass Rocks rather than take the Protestant soup will never kowtow.
Deletehttps://youtu.be/2uUgdtge60Y
DeleteNovember: Catholics pray Psalm 129 at bedtime, for the suffering souls of Purgatory.
15:28, was it you who put caca in the holy water stoop?
DeleteJust wonderin', like, given your self-expressed bitterness against the man.
By the way, I wear the poppy with pride and reverence.
Both actions were disgusting.
DeleteI wasn't referring to anyone at all, I was pointing out the wickedness and folly of Catholics sporting what is ab initio a Masonic symbol. There is no bitterness in my post, and everything all posters write here is "self-expressed". Your reasoning skills are weak.
Deletehttps://youtu.be/2uUgdtge60Y
DeleteNovember: Catholics pray Psalm 129 at bedtime, for the suffering souls of Purgatory
It's a well known fact in Magherafelt that John Gates has bullied the retired PP, his predecessor. He also bullied Fr David Moore the former curate also. Nobody wants to work with this horrible little man, Armagh finds it difficult to get anyone to go there as curate. The present curate is an older man but has returned from missionary work, he is a pleasant sort. Gates had also had rows with the local undertaker by bossing them around. His groundsman walked out after many years service to the Church. What many people are so frustrated with us that the powers that be turn a blind eye time and time again to this abuse and bullying of people. When will this end? There is a petition going around which I hope many will sign. We want this horrible priest - OUT.
ReplyDeleteCouldn't agree more with a petition to be signed to get rid of John Gates. Pat! is there anything you could do for us in this suffering in our Parish with this nasty mannered Priest.
DeleteThe people of this parish should stop donating funds to this Priest @17.34. Hit him where it hurts and withdraw all financial support. I hear he is fond of second collections. Why support this person financially if he is abusing people in this way?
DeleteSeems the 'men' of Magerafelt have no testicles.
DeleteImagine allowing an ugly clerical dwarf to bully everyone there.
Yes, the 'men' of Magherafelt are a consummate model of heroic masculinity to every adolescent boy in the area. 😆
It's not a question of masculinity you buffoon @ 21.57. I suppose you are an example of masculinity yourself you big girls blouse. Anyone who has stood up to Fr Gates in the past has found the PSNI involved because he hides behind them. Then again you wouldn't know about that Carta because you know sweet FA about any of it. Why should anyone suffer having a police record over a jumped up little squirt like bully boy Gates. If you think you can do better then feel free to travel to Magherafelt and try confronting him. Then again you're just all mouth.
Delete@16.22 If Armagh is turning a blind eye to this abuse of power then write to the Papal Nuncio in Dublin and the Congregation for Clergy in Rome. This should not be tolerated any longer.
ReplyDeleteMy family would be happy to sign this petition. Can you let us know where it can be signed. I know a number of other families and individuals who would also be wiling to sign. This individual has no contrition in him and has shown no willingness to change his bullying behaviour.
ReplyDeleteHow he is a priest is truly unbelievable. He is bereft of any decent values and simply gives the Church and the priesthood a bad name.
@21.40 Yes, our family too want to sign this petition. If anyone knows how we can go about it then we too would be grateful for any info. Pat do you know how we can do this? This man is truly abhorrent, rude and nasty. He has shown no contrition or humility and continues to upset and hurt people. I know a newspaper will be running a story soon about this vile priest. His mask has slipped off yet again.
ReplyDeleteDavid Moore is a nice man.......wee bit effeminate perhaps, but a great priest.
ReplyDeleteThe difference is Gates, through his arrogance thinks he's a good priest. David Moore in contrast is head and shoulders above him.
Delete@08.54. Head & shoulders both metaphorically and literally.
Delete