The number of young Irish men being ordinated to the priesthood in Ireland has dropped below competing figures in England and Wales for the first time in living memory.
The plummeting number of vocations are a dramatic departure for a country that once used to export Catholic missionaries globally and provided Britain with a significant proportion of its priests.
New figures released by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Ireland this week show that just 16 men are due to start training for the priesthood this autumn, less than half the 39 that signed up for the priesthood last year.
In contrast, back in the 1980's Ireland would regularly draw more than 150 new recruits to the priesthood every year.
Ireland’s newfound recruitment problems will be a cause for concern in Rome since it has always been seen by the Vatican as a stronghold of Catholic faith in secular Europe.
Over the last two decades, the Irish Catholic church’s reputation has been damaged by a series of widespread child sex abuse scandals and by the revelations that senior church officials deliberately covered up the crimes of paedophiles priests.
This year there are a total of 99 men training for priesthood in Irish seminaries compared with 150 in England and Wales.
"The recent difficulties with Church scandals mean that those thinking tentatively about priesthood, are not going to be launching themselves forward," Father Patrick Rushe, National Coordinator of Diocesan Vocations Directors in Ireland he told the Irish press. "This has been a difficult year for the Church and is bound to have an effect on numbers."
But Father Rushe suggested that the numbers this year were a "blip" and should return to a more steady level of 25 or 26 new vocations in the years to come.
The true extent of the crisis was revealed in 2008 when the Irish church admitted that 160 priests had died that year with only nine new ordinations.
Figures for Irish nuns were even more dramatic, with the deaths of 228 nuns and only two taking final vows for service in religious life last year.
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.eiriamach | Jan 07, 2011, 03:32 PM EST
There was a time when Catholic mothers would encourage one of their sons to study for the priesthood, especially if he did not seem interested in women, or he was bookish, liked to pray, had no head for business, or just wasn't much fun to be with. The mothers thought that having a priest in the family would help the rest of the family meet up some day in heaven. But what mother today could encourage a son to join the Church? Knowing that her daughters would be excommunicated for attempting the same vocation, how could a self-respecting mother do anything but try to talk a son out of wanting to be a priest? And now there's also the fear that the son might find himself alone with an altar boy someday and discover that the "good son" is not as free from sexual impulses as he thought.
Aliciarose | Aug 30, 2010, 07:05 PM EDT
What do you expect? This is the 21st century. Let them get married and you will probably get more priests and nuns joining the church. It is not normal for men and women not to get married.
Cathryn | Aug 29, 2010, 03:07 PM EDT
In the USA the very orthodox seminaries are full. Poland, India, and Africa are also sending good holy priests to us.
FlynnMcCool | Aug 29, 2010, 02:30 PM EDT
What I believe of the CC,Roman or other rite, I see that The Church is falling on it's own sword, and heading for ultimate crash & burn. Pay back is a B$%^h! Since The Holy See will not correct his priests, or will not take "Real" responsibility for his "underlings" His Church is doomed to destruction. Say Good Bye to The Catholic Church as you know it, or all of it, as you will.
Monsoonman | Aug 29, 2010, 01:35 PM EDT
I need my eyes checked I thought it said there was concern because the priests weren't taking enough vacays. Didn't realize it was something else until I actually read the article. I had been ruminating all along about the dearth of priests seen the last few of my trips, unless they weren't wearing their collars....I saw none that I recognized the last couple of trips to Vegas, none in Cancun, or Monte Carlo...Although I did spy a Coptic priest when I was in Egypt at the Taba Hilton on the Red Sea, but he didn't seem to be in vacation mode, he was in full outfit with hassock, strings of beads and it seemed like he was surrounded by bodyguards.
Portia777 | Aug 29, 2010, 12:28 PM EDT
jacersisityourself - if you have not worked it out that you are bonded at birth with your birth cert, then you really ought to begin some serious research. The Roman church worships a sky god- all male supreme- white of course- just like Christ is painted white, when in fact he was black. There is no Satan- that is just the divide and conuer mentality used by the Roman empire to split the minds of humans from early age and control through fear and guilt etc
Portia777 | Aug 29, 2010, 12:25 PM EDT
the irish sheeple are finally waking up to the truth re the Holy Roman church with its cross of death logo. Christ never built any churches because he knew the church was within each human being. Neither did he ask for money. Neither did he charge for Sin forgiveness because no one in a dress can forgive anyone else. The true history is Dermot McMurragh invited the Norman/Roman empire into Eire to help him get this throne back and the Norman Romans never left.
jacersisityourself | Aug 28, 2010, 11:22 PM EDT
I really hate it when people like Ulster1 spray a scent on a tree that's so divertently untrue that I would find great pleasure in gacking on it (not that I like gacking, in any directon - e.g. towards Ulster1's dinner plate or his dinner guests' or dog's dinner plate). Christ never held anyone in bondage, nor did He, ever, not ever once, utter words of hatred such as Ulster1 has posted here against the Church that He founded out of His Father's will. But Satan constantly does... and has obviously found Ulster1's mind, and hands to use on a keyboard, against Christ.
Ulster1 | Aug 28, 2010, 10:09 PM EDT
Finally,could it be that the Holy Spirit is saving Ireland from the evils of the Church of Rome--which has held the Irish people in bondage for centuries.
jacersisityourself | Aug 28, 2010, 04:51 PM EDT
May I postulate that the fall-off in priest numbers started when I and many other Irish youths declined invitations to the Irish priesthood donkeys’ years ago? Although I later fell away from the RCC, I returned after I realised through my own search for the Truth (probably, unknowingly back then, guided by the Holy Spirit) that the Roman Catholic Church is really the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church of Christ. I feel much more able to contribute to debate about, of and within, my Church as a layman, mercifully and thankfully in humility of surrender, through Jesus Christ. My Church’s leaders, with notable exceptions, need to find a way back to the same humility as Christ’s chosen Apostles found when they met Him and did what he asked of them without a shadow of the doubt I once had.