Irish church review over Grindr claims By Callum May

BBC News Published duration 25 August 2016

image copyright AFP

Catholic church authorities in Ireland have ordered a review of social media access for trainee priests after allegations some of them used the gay dating app Grindr.

The allegations centre on the Irish national seminary, St Patrick's college at Maynooth in Co Kildare.

Its trustees said they were concerned about an "unhealthy atmosphere created by anonymous accusations".

The seminary has now been asked to review its social media policy.

'Mature vision'

In its statement, the college's trustees also highlighted "some social media comments which can be speculative or even malicious" about its trainee priests.

And the trustees said trainee priests should pay attention to the Pope's recent recommendation that spending time with women and families can benefit their studies.

They have also asked the seminary authorities "to evaluate and review the policy regarding the appropriate use of the internet and social media".

Earlier this month the Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Rev Diarmuid Martin, moved some seminarians to the Irish College in Rome to continue training.

At the time he told RTE that he was not satisfied Maynooth was an appropriate place to train priests.

Archbishop Martin said Grindr would not be appropriate for men training to be celibate priests.

"An app like that is something which would be fostering promiscuous sexuality, which is certainly not in any way the mature vision of sexuality one would expect a priest to understand," he said.