tvc.dsj.org | May 7, 2019
THANK YOU BISHOP MCGRATH
47
From Youth in Ireland to Coadjutor Bishop - Recalling Seminary Life
Continued from page 46
Bishop McGrath thinks he takes
after his mother. “I don’t suppose most
people think I’m shy,” he smiled, “al-
though there is a bit of that, too.”
“PJ” was “little brother” to Sean, now
60, and Thomas, now 57. “The age span
was not such a big deal,” Bishop Mc-
Grath said, “but I was still a young kid
when Sean and Tom were in their teens.
We were quite happy growing up
and my brothers always included me
in things. They were very supportive
when I went to the seminary, in fact,
they sent me ‘pocket money.’
“They used to keep me theologically
on my toes – you know, it was the late
sixties and just after the Vatican Coun-
cil – and I was the one in seminary
and they challenged me on things, you
know, why the church teaches what it
teaches.
“Come to think of it,” he laughed,
“they still challenge me and so do their
children.”
Bishop McGrath recalls his semi-
nary years fondly, liking his classmates
Class of 1970 Saint John Seminary in Waterford.
and enjoying his philosophy and theol-
ogy studies along with specific subjects
such as canon law, something he would
later study and practice in depth.
“I had great professors,” he said, of
the Sulpician priests who ran St. John
Seminary, naming Dr. James Mackey,
Msgr. John Shine and Dr. Thomas
Marsh. “They were all cutting edge
theologians.”
He remembers the excitement, even
turmoil, of seminary life in those im-
mediate post-counciliar years. Vatican
II closed with its fourth session at the
end of 1965 and that year the “new”
liturgy was implemented.
“I suppose the most obvious thing
following t he Council,” he said,
“was the change in liturgy. The Mass
changed. It was in the vernacular lan-
guage, not Latin, and the priest was
facing you!
“Now, we seminarians just em-
braced all this. It was very exciting. Our
class (‘70) was probably the last to learn
the Mass in both Latin and English.
You know, I think it was harder for our
professors to deal with the new liturgy.
We had training sessions, but I think it
was as much for them as it was for the
students.”
Seminary life changed drastically,
too.
“When I entered, it was very rigid,
heavy on discipline,” Bishop McGrath
recalled. “In the old regime, students
didn’t get out of the place for anything
everything was brought indoctors,
barbers. Going to the dentist was about
the only excuse to go out and then, I
suppose, you’d have had to have had a
pretty bad toothache.”
As a seminarian he was involved
with liturgy planning and also, as a
head student in his last year of forma-
tion, he lead a group of students do-
ing outreach in the greater Waterford
community.
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