The understanding and acceptance of children’s rights amongst those in formation (or recently ordained) to become Catholic priests in Ireland: an exploratory study

The Holy See, a State which has ratified the UNCRC, is unique in terms of its status as both a State and the administration of a global religion. This study seeks to understand how this dual relationship affects the understanding and acceptance of children’s rights of those training to be Catholic priests.<br><br>Given the concurrent focus on the individual seminarian or ordained priest and the influence of the wider contexts in which they are situated, two theoretical frameworks have been chosen to reflect this dual nature of the Holy See.

The first, ‘Sociological Institutionalism’, examines the impact of institutions on ideas and perceptions and the second, ‘Models of the Church’, is theological and constructs the Catholic Church as a series of coexisting models, each influencing the individual members. These combined frameworks will be used as a lens to explore the data from thirty qualitative interviews with fifteen seminarians (or those recently ordained).<br><br>This study demonstrates that there are clear inconsistencies between rhetoric and reality in relation to seminarians’ understanding and implementation of children’s rights.