Wednesday, December 21, 2005

The incredible shrinking seminary

After banishing gays from the sem, a seminary in Spain has decided also to get rid of Web surfers and couch potatoes. The rector of the seminary in Granada, Spain has forbidden seminarians from using the Internet and restricted hours during which they can watch TV. Internet connections to seminary buildings will be terminated; no word on how TV restrictions will work--electromagnetic shield?

Can't imagine how that would go over here in the U.S. Mundelein Seminary (Chicago archdiocese) has both cable and high-speed Internet in students' rooms; Americans, of course, see both as fundamental rights, if not marks of true civilization.

I can see some applauding the rector's move, but let's be honest: If you're worried about seminarians abusing TV and Internet, is forbidding or restricting them really the right answer? What will happen when they're back "in the world"--surrounded by the fruit forbidden them? Sounds like trouble to me.

Of course, one could rightly ask if isolating seminarians at all--Mundelein in Chicago is surrounded by acres of forest--is really all that great of an idea.

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