The Church is ‘dying on its feet’ in this country
Just nine men starting to study for priesthood in 2021
JUST nine men are beginning their studies this year to serve as priests in Irish dioceses, leading one cleric to say the Catholic Church is ‘dying on its feet’.
The number of men interested in becoming priests in Ireland is dwindling year on year, with 13 starting on the path to priesthood in 2020, 15 in 2019 and 17 in 2018.
Fr Brendan Hoban, a priest in the Killala diocese, who began his training in St Patrick’s College, Maynooth in 1968 and who is a spokesman for the Association of Catholic Priests, told the Irish Daily Mail: ‘The men’s Church is coming to an end very quickly. It is dying on its feet. The overall shift at the moment is from the clerical model of the Church to the lay and the people of God.
‘And that is happening fast enough, but although that is a mighty shift, many people don’t see what is going on. They are just keeping the system going. In fact, it requires our system to be entirely reinvented.’
Archbishop of Dublin Dermot Farrell acknowledged in an address earlier this year that the ‘current shortage of vocations to the priesthood and religious life could be discerned as God calling
‘The model can no longer function’
for change in the Church’.
He said: ‘The way we are, the Church in Dublin needs to evolve as the resources available no longer allow me to appoint priests, deacons and other pastoral ministers to meet the pastoral needs of every faith community.’
The ban on female priests, the continued requirement of celibacy and the loneliness of the profession have all been cited as reasons for the declining interest in taking holy orders, along with a societal shift away from the current model of organised Catholic religion.
Also, priests must continue working to the age of 75 before they can retire, with many very elderly priests attempting to run a cluster of parishes with no one to take over the reins.
Fr Hoban believes every parish needed to train up seven or eight lay people, men or women, who could run the parish in the future and lead the services. He believes those people could bring energy and enthusiasm into the Church.
However, he said the Vatican was not making any plans for the future. Fr Paddy Byrne, of Portlaoise, commented: ‘I imagine that currently more bishops are ordained than priests annually in Ireland. This model of a male clerical Church no longer can function, nor should it.’
The Catholic Communications Office said the nine new seminarians are undertaking the propaedeutic programme in the Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Dundalk, the Royal English College in Spain and the Royal Scots College, also in Spain.
It said this brought to 64 the total number studying for the priesthood, including others who began their studies in earlier years at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth and in two colleges in Rome.
There are four stages of what is called initial priestly formation, three of which take place in a major seminary.
These three stages include studies in philosophy, theology and pastoral ministry.
Upon completing a programme known as the propaedeutic stage, the seminarian, with the nomination of his bishop, then applies to a seminary to continue his formation for an Irish diocese.
Commenting on the latest intake of seminarians, Bishop Alphonsus Cullinan, chair of the Bishops’ Council for Vocations, said: ‘While we are all aware of the great challenges facing the Church and society at this time, we know also that God the all-powerful is always with us. These formation figures released today offer us a sign of hope.’
Father Willie Purcell, national diocesan vocations coordinator for the Bishops’ Conference, said: ‘Across the island of Ireland, the role we have as vocations directors is to help young people realise that each one of them has a unique calling from Christ, and we aim to support them in answering that call, particularly in the case of those who are discerning vocations to the priesthood or religious life.’
In his homily in April for Vocations Sunday, Archbishop Farrell paid tribute to the voluntary lay workers in parish councils, finance committees and liturgy groups, as well as the ministers of Word and Sacrament.
The Archbishop of Dublin also said that as a priest, ‘the challenge is to live out our Baptism, to appeal to younger generations, rather than exhausting ourselves in the attempt to preserve structures inherited from another time, which no longer meet the needs of faith communities today’.
In an apparent reference to the number of priests actually beginning their studies in Ireland as opposed to abroad, he said: ‘While it is not only a question of numbers, the fact that we currently have only two students studying for priesthood brings home the gravity of the situation.’
In June, at the Feast of St Kevin, the archbishop said that the Church was moving from being ‘clergy-owned’ to a church truly ‘owned’ by the people.
Archbishop Farrell said: ‘Among the raindrops falling on the Church’s path today are those that make it clear that the current parish system is not sustainable.’
He concluded: ‘The current shortage of vocations to the priesthood and religious life could be discerned as God calling for change in the Church.
‘Perhaps the Lord is indicating that it is time to make the necessary choices to build new models of ministry… We do know that a radical renewal is required. We need to look to the future with creativity and imagination.’
‘A radical renewal is required’