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A former head of Maynooth, Ireland's scandal-ridden national seminary, is being rewarded with a promotion.The Vatican announced Wednesday that Msgr. Dermot Farrell will be the new bishop of Ossory, one of six suffragan dioceses in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan archdiocese of Dublin.Faithful Irish Catholics are regarding the appointment as one to watch, owing to Bishop-Elect Farrell's particular relationship with St. Patrick's College, Maynooth — a seminary infested with homosexuality and heterodoxy. Monsignor Farrell was awarded a licentiate in theology at Maynooth in 1981. Eight years later, he was named lecturer in moral theology at the national seminary. While continuing to instruct seminarians, in 1990, he was appointed executive...

Ireland's future, with the legalization of same-sex marriage already passed, and abortion up for a referendum next year, doesn't look bright. An inside source at Ireland's national seminary gave an update that produces more concerns than hope. On Wednesday, Church Militant spoke to an inside source at St. Patrick's College, Ireland's national seminary in Maynooth. The seminary, founded in 1795 and built to house 500 seminarians, has produced 11,000 priests. Once the largest seminary in the world, the now scandal-ridden seedbed of priests is but a shadow of its former greatness. With currently only 30 seminarians, half of them...

A mere six men will be starting the classes required to become a priest at the National Seminary at St. Patrick's College Maynooth in County Kildare this fall – the lowest number in the seminary’s more than two centuries of existence. Fifteen men, the Irish Catholic reports, are currently undergoing preparatory work that will allow them to become seminarians in the fall of 2018. Maynooth, which opened in 1795, was once the largest seminary in the world with space for 500 men to train to become priests. Last year there were only 80 men undergoing the necessary studies at the...

Dublin's archbishop has said he will stop sending trainee priests to the Republic of Ireland's main Catholic college after allegations emerged of a gay culture at the seminary. St Patrick's College in Maynooth is not the right place for men to study to become priests, Diarmuid Martin said. He is "unhappy about an atmosphere that was growing" the seminary. He added that he would prefer to send priests from his Dublin diocese to Italy to study at Rome's Irish College.

A 13-year-old boy has been charged with murder after the stabbing death of a student at a Brisbane bayside school. Elliot Fletcher, 12, was stabbed in the chest at St Patrick's College at Shorncliffe about 8:00am AEST yesterday. He was taken to Brisbane's Royal Children's Hospital in a serious condition but later died. Police allege the boy was stabbed with a knife by a 13-year-old fellow student. The 13-year-old was found nearby with minor wounds and has been charged with murder. The accused boy is due to appear in the Brisbane Children's Court today. It is not clear what sparked...