However, the cardinal trusted Moroney to resolve the problems, the report said.
The vice rector, Fr. Christopher O'Connor, who was in charge of seminary student discipline, was found to be at times "bullying or intimidating" in carrying out his duties.
Another faculty member was respected as a "world-class theologian" but "is unquestionably a 'divisive' and a 'toxic' presence in the Seminary," the report said. He reportedly used "gratuitous and offensive" language when discussing sexual morality in classes and some Hispanic seminarians claimed he "is biased against them and disparages them."
The seminary's alcohol policies, while in need of reform, did not create a culture of drunkenness, the report found.
A "bachelor party" detailed in the allegations by the former seminarians "was not the bacchanalian affair" as commonly perceived but was still "ill-advised" and featured immoderate drinking by seminarians and by a faculty member.
However, since "the use of alcohol is connected directly or indirectly to most misconduct that takes place at the Seminary" and some seminarians did "have an unhealthy relationship with alcohol," the firm recommended a change in alcohol policy to aid the "human formation" of seminarians.
Other recommendations of the report include the establishment of a confidential reporting hotline for abuse or misconduct allegations, training to enable seminarians to recognize instances of "grooming," and a review of alcohol policies.
The firm said its investigation was comprised of interviews with around 80 people, "including current and former seminarians, current and former faculty members, current and former staff, priests in the Boston diocese as well as a number in other dioceses, Msgr. James Moroney, Cardinal Sean O'Malley, and many others who reached out to us."
The firm also noted the cooperation of the seminary and the archdiocese in the investigation, and that it was able to freely access seminary records.
The reported did record what it termed "isolated" incidents of misconduct.
The seminary respond in a "timely" fashion to allegations of grooming made by a seminarian against a faculty member in 2014, the report said.
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In another case, the seminary learned in 2015 that a professor at its Theological Institute for the New Evangelization "engaged in inappropriate conduct with an adult female student in 2011 and 2012," and cut ties with that professor.
In two separate instances, in 2016 and 2018, seminarians were dismissed for using dating apps.
Two seminarians were found to have engaged in an e-mail and texting relationship with a 15 year-old female student at a Catholic high school, a relationship which continued with one of the seminarians despite the girl's parents bringing up the matter to the seminarian and then to a seminary faculty member, who informed the seminary's rector.
The seminarian was eventually ordained, but claimed that his texts were not romantic but supportive, while conceding that communicating with a teenager via e-mail and texting was overall "misguided."
The seminary was made aware of a seminarian sending texts to a woman outside the seminary requesting she send him pictures of herself; after consultations the seminarian stayed at the seminary but received formation on chastity, and subsequently left before the year was over.
One of the former seminarians who made the social media posts that instigated the investigation claimed to have observed two seminarians cuddling together in the common room, but the report found that he was the only person interviewed to have made that claim.