Speaking about this year’s intake of first year seminarians, Mgr Hugh Connolly acknowledged that the number cited in the press release as due to begin the year is not always the final number when late deferrals and early departures are taken into consideration.
Last year, 13 men were due to begin first year studies but in fact only 11 new seminarians actually commenced the year.
This year’s figure of 12 may yet turn out to be less than the expected starting number.
Mgr Connolly’s call on vocations promotion has been backed by the Vocations Director for the Irish Dominicans, Fr Gerard Dunne, who said he would like to see, “a realistic debate on how best to promote a national vocations strategy.”
The Dominicans are one of a handful of religious orders or dioceses to secure new members with any consistency.
In the past six years, 25 men have entered the Dominican novitiate and another batch is due later this month.
The new cohort of seminarians is beginning studies at Maynooth as the fallout from a public exchange between Archbishop Diarmuid Martin and psychiatrist Professor Patricia Casey over the quality of candidates continues to be debated.
Responding to the Archbishop’s categorisation of some candidates as fragile, Fr Dunne said it was, “unhelpful,” and added that it was his experience that those who might be considered ‘traditional’ composed a minority of vocations.
He said that the classification of candidates as, fragile or traditional did not bear any resemblance to his knowledge of new members or that of other vocations personnel he knew.
“There is a growing trend of ‘returnees’ to the faith presenting for consideration.”
He acknowledged that there is also a new category he described as, “strongly evangelical Catholics,” who, “are often wrongly labelled by those who do not know them as, traditional.”
Meanwhile, Mgr Hugh Connolly said there may already be some sharing of ideas and experiences between the two Associations of Vocations Directors in Ireland and referred to a, "very useful seminar on selection and admission which drew on the experience of overseas representatives.”
The seminaries in Ireland do not have a direct role in recruitment.
He paid tribute to the bishops’ special Year of Vocation from 2008 to 2009, and said that dioceses are continuing to look for ways to promote vocations, especially in the social media context.
Mgr Connolly, who was re-elected as President of St Patrick's College by Maynooth's trustees at their summer meeting on May 29 this year, said among the objectives for his second term would be the implementation of all recommendations from the recent Apostolic Visitation.
Other objectives include a closer working relationship with dioceses to tailor formation to their specific pastoral needs and further building of the recent upswing in seminarians from religious congregations attending Maynooth for their academic formation.