Ex-Wonersh, students petition bishops on reform

By a Staff Reporter EIGHT ex-Wonersh seminarians petitioned the bishops this week for an inquiry into the seminary systern of this countrY. They claimed that of 106 students at Wonersh 18 months ago there were now 62. Mr, Peter Brown, spokesman for the eight petitioners, and now a working solicitor, left Wonersh some months ago. He told the CATHOLIC HERALD that the recent departures were a hopeful sign because they had arisen from radical self-questioning prompted by Wonersh's own halfeffort to break out of the traditional, closed system.
"Nobody really knows why people leave seminaries," he said, "because it's treated as a personal affair, but the training is inadequate, theologically and practically.
"Students see that lay professionals are better trained than they are, and they cannot decide what the priest is supposed to be in the modern world.
"The seminarian's theological inadequacy probably leads to a loss of faith in many cases, and his over-dependence on institutional protection deprives him of initiative."
PRINCIPAL'S COMMENT The principal of Wonersh, Fr. James McConnon, said this week that he thought students left because they felt that the efforts now being made to encourage self-reliance and responsibility were not wholehearted enough.
He thought the number of students leaving was not as high as the "petitioners" asserted. There was still a solid body of students at Wonersh who wanted to carry on.
There had been some relaxation of rules, time-tables, and dress regulations. and new activities had been introduced. But, said Fr. McConnon. "we felt that in making the change too rapidly some people were losing their sense of personal responsibility."