Msgr Hugh Connolly was speaking as figures show that the number of priests serving in parishes is set to shrink to less than a quarter of the current figure in just 30 years unless the current dramatic decline in vocations is arrested.
Bishop Donal McKeown, chair of the bishops’ vocations council, admitted that the statistics are “very worrying”.
Figures based on the number of priests who will retire in coming years and the low number of ordinations indicate that by 2042, approximately just 450 priests will serve in Irish parishes as opposed to the 1,965 currently working in the country’s 26 dioceses.
As a result, hundreds of parishes will be left without a priest.
Just 12 men entered the national seminary in Maynooth last month to begin priestly formation – the lowest number ever.
On average, just 50per cent of these men would be expected to complete the programme and be ordained.
If this trend continues, and if anything the decline appears to be getting worse, approximately 180 Irishmen will be ordained diocesan priests in the next 30 years.
At the same time, it is estimated based on current age profiles that 1,684 priests will have either died or retired from active ministry.
These estimates do not take into account the number of men who may leave the priesthood or become incapacitated before the usual retirement age of 75.
There are currently just 32 priests working in Irish parishes aged 34 or younger.
That equates to 1.6pc of the total number of priests active in parish ministry.
In stark contrast, almost two thirds (62.4pc) or 1,227 of priests are over the age of 55.
All of these men would be expected to retire with the next 20 years, almost 700 of them in the next decade alone.
Msgr Connolly, told The Irish Catholic that he was “not surprised” by the low numbers entering seminary. “When you look at where we have been as a Church in Ireland in recent years, I’m certainly not that surprised that the number of those coming forward is very much reduced."
He said, the number of ordinations “are very modest, they are not sufficient for the future, there will have to be massive changes”.
Since Mass attendance has fallen dramatically in recent years, conventional wisdom would dictate that there would be less demand on fewer priests.
However, figures indicate that demand for the sacraments remains high and is, in fact, increasing.
In the Archdiocese of Dublin, for example, 16,235 children were baptised Catholic in 2000. By 2010, that figure had reached 17,753.
Figures from the Archdiocese of Tuam tell a similar story.
In 1991, there were 1,730 children baptised.
By 2001, there was an extremely modest rise to just 1,732.
However, by 2011, 2,294 children were baptised into the Catholic Church in Tuam.
While Bishop McKeown acknowledged how worrying the figures are, he said he has “no fear for the future”.
“I think what we are trying to do is to discern God’s way forward for the Church in Ireland...it is a time of grace, this is where we are and the Lord will show us the way forward - the Lord continues to be with us”.