While Ireland braces for what some say will be a devastating report on sexual abuse by priests on Wednesday, Catholics in neighboring Scotland are confronting a different crisis.

The country’s last seminary is about to close its doors.

And members of what could be the last generation of priests in Scotland are offering their thoughts:

They are the last priests training in Scotland. Scotus College in Bearsden, the only remaining seminary for Catholic priests in the country, is due to close in a matter of weeks.

It will bring to an end a history that dates back almost 300 years. Scotland’s first official seminary, Scanlan, was founded in 1714, and at a peak in the nineteenth-century the country was home to five Catholic seminaries.

Now the church says the Bearsden college must close because of falling numbers. So, who are the last generation of priests to be trained in Scotland?

Peter Morris, 24
2nd year, from Aberdeen.

He studied divinity at university before applying for the priesthood.

“I’ve always been very much into my faith so I suppose it’s always been there, but for a while I thought that it wouldn’t be for me and I was probably going to get married, but I came to a better understanding of myself.

“After school I went to university and graduated with a degree in divinity. Several of my classmates went on to become ministers in the Church of Scotland and that probably did influence me to apply to the Diocese in my third year. After that I worked as a barman in a hotel up north for a year which was great; I met some very friendly people.

“I went on a pilgrimage to Lourdes and that had a profound effect on me; I realised that these guys were normal human beings.

“Recently I made a decision to move on to a different call to religious life. I’m joining the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer a missionary society with an emphasis on preaching. I’m going to Liverpool for a year then Toronto for two years.

“Scotus College is a haven for discernment. To some extent you are taken away from the hustle and bustle of the experiences outside. It is a very different life here, we get so many opportunities to pray and you’re always learning here; both academically and about yourself.

“It has its challenges certainly; if you don’t get on well with someone, you can’t hide from them. Living in a community like this, you really have to learn to exercise the whole forgiveness thing because that’s what we believe – that we should love one another.

“That’s not always the easiest thing to do and it involves sacrifice. If you clash with somebody you can’t just brush over it, you have to sort it out.”

“I’m incredibly sad about the closure. Not only is it the end of us, but the end of the seminary in Scotland after more than 300 years.”

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