For a week last June, the International Eucharistic Congress, held in
Dublin, was a beacon of light and vibrancy that Irish Catholicism has been
sadly lacking in recent years.
Almost two decades of clerical abuse scandals,
bishops resigning for failing to protect children, and an often-hostile media
reveling in the Church’s misfortune have taken their toll.
The Eucharistic Congress afforded Irish Catholics the opportunity to come
together and celebrate their common faith. Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin
said “the extraordinary interest that was shown for the workshops and
catecheses of the Congress tells us just how much thirst there is in our
Catholic community to deepen the understanding of our faith.”
The Dublin Eucharistic Congress provided a striking counterbalance to a
creeping narrative that sees Irish Catholicism in terminal decline.
Irish Catholics have shown a resilience in the face of aggressive
secularism and Church failings that has surprised many.
“More than one-third of Irish Catholics attend Mass every week,” says
David Quinn, director of the Iona Institute, a pro-religion think-tank. “Of
course, we’d like it to be higher, but that is a large base to build on.”
However, at the same time, a recent survey found that 75 percent of Irish
Catholics say the Church’s teaching on human sexuality has no relevance to
them. This, Quinn believes, points to the need for the Church to work harder to
get its message across.
“Priests need support so that they can preach what the
Church teaches,” he believes.
But priests in Ireland are becoming few and far between.
And as hundreds
of priests die or retire in coming years, who will take their place?
Who will
be there to quench the thirst that Archbishop Martin speaks of or celebrate the
Eucharist?
In Ireland, vocations to the priesthood have remained stubbornly low and
continue to drop at a time when decline has been largely halted in the United
States and other parts of the western world.
This year, the number of Irishmen
entering seminary to train for the priesthood hit an all-time low.
While Irish
bishops have spoken of a vocations crisis for almost two decades, the stark
situation came into sharp focus this autumn when just 12 men began studies for
Ireland’s 26 dioceses.
It is the lowest number of new seminarians on record,
almost half of last year’s class of 22 men.
On average, just 50 percent of men who enter Irish seminaries go on to be
ordained.
Based on this year’s entry of 12 men remaining steady—if not
declining further, as certainly seems possible—approximately 180 Irishmen will
be ordained diocesan priests in the next 30 years.
At the same time, it is estimated that 1,684 priests will
have either died or retired from active ministry in that time-frame.
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.
This means that by 2042, approximately 450 priests will serve in Irish
parishes, as opposed to the 1,965 currently working in the country’s 26
dioceses.
The number of priests serving in parishes in Ireland is set to shrink
to less than a quarter of the current number in just 30 years, unless the
current dramatic decline in vocations is arrested.
Father Gerard Dunne, OP, vocations director with the Irish Dominican
Friars, says, “There is little that can be done to put a positive spin on what
should be a good news story for the Irish Church. The small number of entrants
is quite worrying and follows a downward trend for the past few years.”
Dublin’s Archbishop Diarmuid Martin provoked controversy earlier this
year when he appeared to criticize current seminarians. In the course of a
wide-ranging speech, the archbishop turned to the vocations crisis.
“It is not
just that the number of candidates is low; it is also that many of those who
present are fragile and some are much more traditional than those who went
before them,” Archbishop Martin said.
Professor Patricia Casey, a clinical psychiatrist who has worked
extensively within Church settings, rejects Archbishop Martin’s claims. She
accuses him of making a “sweeping statement that was insulting to current
seminarians.”
“If the statement is true, Archbishop Martin should have had the courage
to say where he got the information from,” said Casey. “If it was a
supposition, the archbishop should consider apologizing to current seminarians
and to the people in the pews who would be worried if his statements were true.”
Casey also thinks the archbishop’s remarks raise more fundamental
questions about his leadership. “His approach and style need to change. He
needs to be more positive and offer more encouragement,” she insists.
“Based on my own experience of meeting with recently ordained priests, I
have been highly impressed by their commitment to the faith and their
understanding of it,” Casey adds. “I have no reason to believe that these
priests are fragile.”
Father Dunne says he believes that rather than critique those already in
formation, bishops would “be better served in trying to understand and remedy
those elements that appear to discourage candidates for priesthood.”
Nonetheless, he believes the archbishop has kicked off a discussion about
a crisis few people are willing to name. “It was a source of encouragement for
vocations directors, particularly since it is rare in Ireland to hear a bishop
speak about priestly vocations,” he said.
“What will have disheartened many people, including priests, religious,
vocations personnel, and particularly candidates for the priesthood, is the
categorization of candidates by Archbishop Martin,” said Father Dunne. “Simplistic
categorization of potential candidates to priesthood is not very helpful.”
The Dominican Friars are the only part of the Church in Ireland bucking
the downward trend in vocations.
The Order currently has more than 20 men in
formation and accepted five new novices this year. Father Dunne has been
working as a vocations director for the past 12 years. Statistics for the
vocations office of the Dominican friars in Ireland over the past decade shows
that more than 40 percent of enquirers (of which there are approximately 60 each
year) are what Fr Dunne describes as “returnees” to their faith.
“These are men who in general were born and raised as Catholics but
turned away from the practice of their faith for many years and then return to
practice through their contact with new ecclesial religious movements and the
influence of holy individuals,” Father Dunne explains.
“Rarely is their return
through the traditional parish route. Essentially, these men have to go out of
their way to be reinserted into the life of the church. Their re-engagement,
when it is authentic, often expresses itself in enquiry about vocation.”
Father Dunne says that a significant number of enquirers come from
traditional Catholic families and backgrounds.
“These candidates have only ever known the Church in Ireland to be one
that is almost constantly in crisis,” he says. “My experience is that they have
a deep desire to serve the Church despite the frailties and crisis and want to
make a significant contribution to its renewal.”
Is it possible for Irish dioceses to replicate the success of the
Dominicans when it comes to vocations?
Father Dunne is encouraging dioceses to
take four major steps.
First, dioceses need to begin to think about having priests whose primary
task is promoting vocations in that diocese. “There is enough evidence from
various parts of the world to demonstrate that having full-time vocations
directors is an important contributor to increasing vocations,” he says.
Second, dioceses need to create a “culture of vocations.”
“This means
that a diocese takes every opportunity to seriously ask the question of men
that they come into contact with whether they have thought of priesthood as a
way of serving the Lord.”
This approach, Father Dunne says, has proved to be
very effective, particularly in some dioceses in the United States and
Australia.
Third, dioceses need to pray for vocations.
“If we are not on our knees
praying for vocations, then we can be sure that there will be no vocations,” Father
Dunne says.
Fourth, the priesthood is a unique calling and should be promoted
vigorously.
Fr Dunne believes that “a new culture within the Church has emerged
where the vocation of the permanent deacon is often highlighted more vigorously
than that of priesthood, where parish pastoral workers are presented as a new
form of ministry to point where they are regarded as almost as important as
considering vocation to the priesthood.”
“These two examples demonstrate that the call to priesthood is being drowned
out while the promotion of other forms of ministry is encouraged. Why are
dioceses afraid to promote the vocation to priesthood?” he asks.
Andrew O’Connell, a layman who works with the Presentation Brothers,
agrees that the Church in Ireland needs to work harder to create a culture of
vocations. He points to a recent example in Cork where parishioners from across
the diocese attended a vocations resource evening.
Resource material was made
available by different groups, including religious congregations, for use in
parishes.
“It’s one of the first signs I’ve seen of lay people taking serious
ownership of the promotion of religious and priestly vocations,” says O’Connell.
He believes that it can be something of a quiet revolution.
“Lay people
are at last confident enough in their own vocation and their own identity in
the Church to promote vocations to priesthood and religious life. And
thankfully priests and religious are secure enough in theirs to allow them to
do so,” he says.
O’Connell believes that many priests and religious have been reluctant to
promote vocations in recent years. “This has happened largely out of fear that
it might be seen as promoting clericalism or in some way threatening lay
involvement in the Church,” he says.
“Consequently, a generation of Catholics
has grown up without ever having priesthood or religious life presented to them
as a realistic option.”
He believes that the real challenge now is for pastoral councils to build
a vocations culture in their parishes. “This means that the parish, as a
community of faith, should be actively nurturing, supporting, and encouraging
religious vocations,” O’Connell says.
There is increasing evidence that the hierarchy is starting to take the
issue more seriously; it was discussed at the recently concluded Synod of
Bishops on the New Evangelization in Rome.
Following their recent general
meeting, the Irish bishops’ conference released a statement noting that “of
particular focus for the Synod [of Bishops] will be the lack of vocations to
the priesthood and consecrated life at the present time, an issue discussed at
length by the bishops at their meeting.”
Bishop Donal McKeown, auxiliary bishop of Down and Connor, admitted that
the current situation is “certainly very worrying, particularly for those
dioceses that have not had a vocation in many years.
Bishop McKeown said he believes future vocations will come from youth
movements that are “growing in passion for the faith” rather than from “a
generalized appeal for more vocations.”
He said he had been struck “by the great energy in many youth groups and
movements within the Church. There are little communities of young people
growing up with a passion for the faith, this is where vocations will come from.”
Despite the stark future awaiting the Church in Ireland unless the
current trend is arrested, Bishop McKeown 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,” he said. “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.”