NEW YORK BOSTON |#Popular: Irish Celebrity Gossip Irish in US Politics Irish Festivals Irish Roots Irish Entertainment Offbeat Irish

Home Page > News > Irish priest launches new iPhone vocations app to boost recruitment

Irish priest launches new iPhone vocations app to boost recruitment

CATHAL DERVAN,

IrishCentral.com Intern

Published Monday, October 17, 2011, 7:57 AM

Updated Monday, October 17, 2011, 10:26 AM

Larger Text

E-mail

3 Comments

Vocations App for the iPhone

Photo by Google Images

A Catholic clergyman has come up with the perfect modern day way to attract new priests – a vocations App for the iPhone.

Fr Paddy Rushe has unveiled the new Vocations app, billed as the first in the world, in a bid to attract new priests to his church.

The App is now available to download for free from iTunes App store.
The Vocations App was developed by the Magic Time Apps company in Dublin.

It has been described as: “An original approach to assist current and future generations seeking to investigate and find information on vocations to the diocesan priesthood in Ireland”.

Features of the new App include connections to Twitter and Facebook as well as contact details and statistics on the 26 Catholic dioceses of Ireland.

One section of the new App deals with frequently asked questions from those interested in pursuing a vocation.

--------------------------------

Defamed Galway priest returns home to standing ovations at Mass

What Homer Simpson can teach the Catholic Church in Ireland about truth

Enda Kenny demands Catholic Church’s cooperation when it comes to child safety plans

--------------------------------

The App also features a news feed from the national vocations’ website, as well as ‘novel and cursory’ tests relating to the user’s vocation potential.

“These tests explore lifestyle issues and are intended to help a candidate assess his overall aptitude for the priesthood,” said Fr Rushe.

“The candidate is rated on a scale when it came to thinking of others, a desire to provide a service, and his abilities in relating to the marginalised.”

A celibacy test is also featured involving ‘questions on discipline in a candidate’s life, what he believed about relationships, as well as balance where alcohol and food were concerned’. Details on life in a seminary are also included.

The App is a direct response to the alarming fall in vocations in Ireland.

Future plans to improve the App include a prayer counter to allow people pledge prayer for vocations, and a picture gallery which will include images from the life of a seminarian.

“I am a bit of a techie and I am on Twitter and Facebook,” added Fr Rushe. “The Church needs to be there, accessible to all.”

The Vocations App was launched in Naas by Bishop Donal McKeown, auxiliary bishop of Down and Connor and chairman of the vocations commission of the Irish Bishops’ Conference.

Fr Rushe has also handed over the role of national co-ordinator for diocesan vocations to Fr Willie Purcell after five years in the job.

Nster.com

E-mail

3 Comments

See all comments

Toronthab | Oct 18, 2011, 10:53 AM EDT

As the John Jay College of Criminal Justice concluded, the sex scandal had very little to do with the church in particular, but afflicted every element in the western world. It appeared from the mid-sixties and peaked in the mid eigties. No one, including the Boy Scouts of America or public school systems where the problem was and remains much worse, knew how to deal with it effectively. Most of us who are catholic are catholic because we can see who Christ is, and we don't think he set up a church without authority to at least deliver a true message. It would be a very odd god who acted otherwise. Christ and His church are simply the best thing in human histroy and will continue to be so. Bad priests or incompetent adminsitrators may come and go as surely they will. Audited results show that the safest place on earth for sixty three million school children in the US in 2009 is in a Catholic school. The media don't even report the wild abuse figures for the public system.

Report abuse

Springfield9 | Oct 17, 2011, 12:19 PM EDT

Cool - dumb but cool

Report abuse

Fintanoflaois | Oct 17, 2011, 09:22 AM EDT

"The App is a direct response to the alarming fall in vocations in Ireland." What's alarming about fewer and fewer people wanting to be part of that utterly discredited organisation? Surely it ought to be described as a very encouraging trend?

Report abuse