Dolan the rector (circa 1997)
-
- February
- 23
In 1997, an AP reporter named Brian Murphy wrote a book called “The New Men,” about life at the Pontifical North American College—the elite seminary in Rome for Americans.
The rector of the seminary was Monsignor Timothy Dolan.
Here is one of several interesting snippets from the book:
*****
Dolan disdains abortion as well—just as he derides most deviations from Catholic teaching. But become militant or malicious—or just focused on one issue no matter how personally distressing—can be just as distasteful, he says.
He’s seen those kinds of attitudes trickle into the seminary: guys whose identity as priests and Catholics are staked so closely to pushing one point of view or objective. That’s their right. “But if it starts to overwhelm them—if it makes them unable to see whether or not they should be priests in the first place—then it becomes my business,” Dolan said.
“Part of our job here is to challenge guys to make sure they are not floating into the priesthood, to make sure they are asking the tough questions. So sometimes we say—as much as we hate to see a guy leave—when a guy leaves the seminary thoughtfully and prayerfully, you rejoice. If the seminarian has decided it’s right to leave, we say, ‘Bravo. Thanks for letting us help you make the right choice.’
“That’s not happening now and that could be because the New Men are indeed called and thinking about it and probing and are at peace with their vocations. But I’m always thinking, ‘I hope there is no malaise here. I hope there are no zealots disguising themselves as prayerful and compassionate seminarians.’
“If anyone said to me, ‘Yes, I’ve heard the voice of Christ directly telling me to be a priest,’ well, he might as well not even unpack. I’d put him on the next plane home.”
This entry was posted
on Monday, February 23rd, 2009 at 8:51 am by Gary Stern.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Print
| 
Email
The world of religion, we don't have to tell you, is vast. The purpose of this blog is for Stern to note, flag and comment on some of the more interesting religious developments on the scene – weighty and quirky, somber and laughable, far away and just down the road. He won't interpret Scripture, take sides in conflicts or judge anyone. But he will take advantage of the journalist's license to observe.
