Eye over Ireland. (News in Brief: Ireland).

Dublin--Irish seminaries once exported their "surplus" priests to all parts of the English-speaking world and numerous mission territories. The summer of 2002, however, saw the closure of St. Patrick's seminary, Thurles, Co. Tipperary, and the enrolment of only fifteen new students at the country's sole remaining seminary at Maynooth, Dublin in August.

Weekly Mass attendance in the Republic has dropped from 90% in 1972 to less than 50% According to some developments, these are the results of a changed cultural climate and public anger at mishandling of abuse cases by Church authorities.

Also in August, Bishop Willie Walsh of Killaloe, Co. Clare, was obviously paying heed to the Pontifical Council for Migrants' recent admonition to care for nomadic people! Before leaving for his diocesan pilgrimage to Rome this year, he granted "sanctuary" on his lawn to a dozen travelling people (Irish for gypsies), who had been ejected from their sites by the local authority.

In the British territory of Northern Ireland, demographic changes, including emigration and a "brain-drain," have resulted in a decline in the Protestant population. Where once there was a two-thirds majority, the population is now almost equally divided between Protestants and Catholics (50% to 46%). This decline has caused an "embattled" mindset within elements of the Protestant community, one of the least pleasant aspects of which has been a resurgence of sectarian street violence. Leaders of the three principal Protestant denominations have joined Catholic Archbishop Sean Brady of Armagh in calling for an end to the violence, and encouraging the efforts of groups and individuals who work for peace.

Finally, early in the summer, one of Ireland's top theologians, Msgr. Michael Ledwith, who taught systematic theology at St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, and who served ten years as president of the Maynooth University, resigned suddenly from his post to lecture at Ramtha's School of Enlightenment at Yelm, Washington, U.S.A. The reincarnated Ramtha teaches that the human race must free itself from traditional religion. Ledwith used to be a member of the Vatican's International Theological Commission (Various files).