Once upon a time, when an American bishop wanted to establish a religious congregation (say, of teaching sisters), he got on a boat to Ireland, recruited some generous-hearted, faithful, and energetic Irish girls, and brought them back, donning them in habits and sending them somewhere for formation. As far as priests go, the delightful brogue of Erin has been heard on pulpits around the world, both in the missions and in regular parochial assignments abroad.I can think of numerous clerics from the Old Sod — including strict traditionalists — who have administered the sacraments to me. But now, the vocations market to the world is shriveling up, according to this report from the UK’s Times Online:
Ireland, a country that used to export its Catholic clergy around the world, is running out of priests at such a rate that their numbers will have dropped by two thirds in the next 20 years, leaving parishes up and down the land vacant.
The decline of Catholic Ireland, for decades the Pope’s favourite bastion of faith in Europe, has been regularly predicted, as the economic successes of the Celtic Tiger brought growing secularisation. But new figures have starkly set out the fate of the Irish priesthood if action is not taken by the Church to reverse the trend.
One-hundred and sixty priests died last year but only nine were ordained. Figures for nuns were even more dramatic, with the deaths of 228 nuns and only two taking final vows for service in religious life.
Based upon these figures The Irish Catholic newspaper predicts that the number of priests will drop from the current 4,752 to about 1,500 by 2028. [Full story]
