At the moment becoming a priest generally requires living in an exclusive, male-dominated residential college, and undertaking a seven-year training program with four dimensions: spiritual, pastoral, human and academic. But an investigation by The Age and Sydney Morning Herald has thrown fresh light on the role seminaries played in the abuse crisis. Church leaders accept that past practices – such as poor vetting, inadequate lessons in celibacy and ministry and a clerical culture that shunned women – contributed to the church’s abuse problem. Evidence to the royal commission and subsequent legal cases showed a number of seminaries had become places where repressed young men would experiment sexually with one another with little consequence, before some of them turned their attention to children in their parish. Convicted pedophile priests: Russell Vears, Terrence Pidoto, Gerald Ridsdale, Ronald Pickering and Paul David Ryan. Credit:The Age The church has made some changes and will require Catholic institutions, including seminaries, to meet new child protection standards and be identified in public reports by the Catholic Professional Standards agency if they do not comply.

But Australian Catholics Bishops Conference chair Mark Coleridge has conceded that there would still need to be a “radical revision of how we recruit and prepare candidates for ordination” if the church was to learn from its past. “Much has changed in our seminaries but one has to wonder whether seminaries are the place or way to train men for the priesthood now,” the Brisbane Archbishop told the Catholic online publication Crux Now in August last year. Loading Archbishop Coleridge, who graduated from Melbourne’s Corpus Christi in 1974, declined requests through his spokesman to expand on those comments this week, or answer questions about the system should be reformed. But he has previously stated he is open to a priest “apprenticeship model” whereby men could receive broader training at universities and parishes while still being appropriately “formed” spiritually, intellectually and pastorally.

Francis Sullivan, former head of the church’s Truth, Justice and Healing Council, said that despite major improvements in screening and training methods, there were "quite a lot of conversations about whether the seminary model is fit for purpose any more – that a revamp of the system is long overdue". "I think people like Archbishop Mark Coleridge are seriously considering whether the system works or whether there should be more of a focus on seminarians being integrated into academic and parish life," he said. A spokesman for the Melbourne Archdiocese, Shane Healy, said there was "no intention" to close Corpus Christi, and that the bishops of Victoria and Tasmania and the leaders of the college were "committed to Corpus Christi College being a place of excellence in the formation of our future priests". The number of seminaries has dropped significantly since 1971 when there were about 58 across Australia. Today, only 15 remain – including Good Shepherd in Sydney and Holy Spirit Seminary in Queensland – with just 292 seminarians nationwide.

Seminary training practices came under the spotlight last week after an Age investigation revealed that some priests shared victims, passed on information about vulnerable children, or worked together to conceal their crimes as part of historic “networks” of abuse throughout the state. Much of that abuse emerged from Corpus Christi, which had produced at least 75 alleged or convicted sex offenders by 2017, including jailed sex offenders George Pell, Gerard Ridsdale and Paul David Ryan, according to a conservative royal commission snapshot. Pell is seeking to appeal his conviction to the High Court. As revealed by The Age and Herald last week, the seminary was regularly used as a place to groom and molest children. One former altar boy is suing the Melbourne Archdiocese after he was taken to the seminary by Father Terry Pidoto in 1972, paraded before a group of near-naked seminarians, and then raped by the priest in the dining hall. Further reform is now under way. Screening protocols have been agreed to by the Bishops' Conference and a review into the selection and training of clergy is also taking place, which will form the basis of a new National Program of Priestly Formation. The revamped program will be considered by the Bishops in November.

Every church institution in Australia has also signed up to a series of protocols and an audit system to monitor compliance – the National Catholic Safeguarding Standards – which arose out of the recommendations of the royal commission. Loading “Formation used to mean that as soon as someone came out the seminary they were ready to be a priest for life. They didn’t require support or supervision, they had everything they needed. Now we’re saying there must be ongoing formation, support and supervision,” said Sheree Limbrick, chief executive of Catholic Professional Standards Limited. “The church is also now required to have a system of support that operates throughout the life of a cleric. The audit process is the transparency piece that holds the church to account.” Catholics for Renewal president Peter Wilkinson welcomed the changes, but also called on bishops to set new rules requiring seminary candidates to be at least 24 years old, demonstrate financial independence, and also have prior experience in another field or trade.

Kevin Peoples, whose book Trapped In A Closed World documents the “poisonous” culture he experienced training to be a priest in NSW in the 1960s, said “the traditional seminary system should be scrapped” altogether. “The seminary training of young men is one of the important causes of clerical sexual abuse,” he said. Loading Many priests also began offending soon after they graduated. An Age snapshot of 34 Corpus Christi graduates who were accused or convicted of committing acts of child abuse, and for whom reliable records exist, found that 17 priests had offended within three years of being ordained. Four began offending even before they were ordained. One former altar boy from St Peter’s in Clayton claims he was taken to the seminary by his assistant priest Russell Vears, where he was “selected” by Paul David Ryan, within months of his ordination. The man is now filing a civil lawsuit through Melbourne firm Arnold Thomas & Becker.