Mortgage repayments and negative equity as well as family opposition
are making the choice of priesthood a more radical choice than before.
While some imagine the abuse scandals might be affecting vocation
numbers, it appears that finances and family are the bigger
considerations.
“It was felt that when the recession set into Ireland that the numbers presenting themselves for priesthood would rise as unemployment set in” said Fr Eamonn Burke, Vocational Director of Dublin.
“However this has
not happened. Those presenting for priesthood are more likely to be
still working. Leaving a job to enter the seminary is for some too great
a risk. They might prefer to wait until the economy improves and there
are more opportunities,” he said.
This is a view echoed by Monsignor Hugh Connolly President of
Maynooth, where 20 men have joined the seminary this year.
“There is
nobody coming from unemployment – they are coming from employment. Some
are still engaged with employers, some are on a release for a number of
years. A real issue today is financial commitments. Mortgages are an
issue – they might have to get a friend or a lodger but that’s not
simple either. No doubt this year we got guys who would have come last
year. It is a whole new dimension. There is no wage, there might be a
modest allowance.”
Fr Michael O’Shea, Vocational Director of Limerick, gave up a
business to enter the seminary and believes there is a way around most
obstacles to priesthood.
“There are situations like paying mortgages and
being self employed, but there is ways around everything. Some might
rent the house out when they have a mortgage to pay. If someone has a
business they would have to work things out. I had a business myself,
but I gave up my business first and I have never been as happy as I am
now,” he said.
Other issues such as family concern and in some cases opposition are
making the decision to join even more radical.
“There is an increasing
number who feel that for their son to be joining the priesthood that it
would be a mistake. They would look on it as their son throwing away his
life. I have stood talking to parents outside churches around Dublin
where the parents have literally cried with tears of sadness because
their son was contemplating joining the priesthood,” said Fr Eamonn
Burke.
“People are coming from real life’s, priests don’t just appear, they
come from real families and real situations, ,” said Fr Paddy Rushe, the
National Coordinator for Diocesan Vocation Directors.
Fr Diarmuid Hogan, Vocational Director of Galway, also expressed similar thoughts on family influence.
“I think there is always going to
be some ambivalence among family and friends about a son choosing
priesthood. Family wants the best for their own. They worry primarily
about the perceived loneliness of the life and they are aware that
priests, while not impoverished, will never be wealthy. I think they
also in some ways are bereaved for potential grandchildren,” said Fr
Hogan.
However young seminarians are not impoverished when they join up. St
Joseph’s Young Priests Society President Marie Hogan says that they help
every seminarian.
“We take on every seminarian, once recommended by
their bishop, until they are ordained, so we look after them for seven
years. We wouldn’t pay a mortgage. People are generous and we have a
great society. The funding increases when they reach theology, so their
needs are met and they can apply if they have other funding needs.”
So where are these radical vocations coming from? Msgr Hugh
Connnollly: “They do tend to share an engagement with the church on a
local level or in terms of some kind of ministry, youth ministry, choir
ministry, music ministry something that has given them a very positive
experience of church and has also perhaps helped to nurture the notion
of a call or sense of a call that they would now like to bring to a real
discernment process information.”