One of the negatives I would have about Greenmeadows is there is no old boys association. The relationship between it and its alumni was bizarre. There were hangovers of the Irish ‘spoiled priest’ routine – that there was something bad about opting out along the way. In the early days people just disappeared. There’s be informal farewells; actually underground farewells, in the champagne shed and places like that, but in its public life the seminary didn’t advert to it.
Then, and now, that strikes me as wrong. Given how good the group of people in the place was, it seemed to me that there was a massive reservoir of goodwill and great talent around the country.
I’ve been told that the seminary was the best ‘finishing school’ in the country. One woman I know says that every prospective husband should be sent through it, if only to learn how to clean toilets. James K Baxter said, “We’re called to be a servant church and a servant’s job is to clean lavatories, actual and metaphorical.”
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Dennis Farrelly
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