Oh dear, someone's skimped on his research! That's 100 lines for you, my boy... "I must check the blogs more carefully before making rash statements..."Mr Thompson has been having an unkind chortle at the expense of the seminaries in England and Wales... he points out that they are over-staffed, and probably having kittens at the thought of Pope Benedict's latest pronouncement that all seminaries have to teach students how to celebrate the Extraordinary Form...
Yes, the student-staff ratio quoted does seem a little ridiculous. But I doubt that they are all full-time staff. At least one of the four seminaries employs parish priests as lecturers: Fr. Tim Finigan, Fr. John Boyle and Fr. Dominic Rolls being three I can name off the top of my head...
...the first two of whom actually celebrate the Extraordinary Form in their own parishes... I doubt that they are opposed to passing on this knowledge to anyone else.
(Of course, I don't know what they get up to in the other three seminaries...)
Yes, Mac, but according to many your visiting lectures are sadly the exception. Still, I think journalism should base itself on fact not anecdote, so point well made.
ReplyDeleteHope you're doing well.
God bless,
Mark.
What Damien says may not necessarily be far off. Wonersh may be the more "conservative" out of all the seminaries in the UK, but Allen Hall and Ushaw are certainly in a dire state. I have heard the seminaries in Scotland aren't bastion of spiritual acumen either.
ReplyDeleteThere's Fr Sean Finnegan at Wonersh as well as Fr Tim and Fr John. But they are all external lecturers rather than full time staff, and I suspect that there aren't many of these who celebrate the EF or who would be prepared to learn. I wouldn't mind betting too that their advice to students would be not to advertise their attachment to the EF too openly.
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