- Feb 5, 2002
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The maxim that the sins of the fathers are visited on the sons is true in a particularly grim sense in Ireland where, in the archdiocese of Dublin, there is only one man training for the priesthood, with another entering seminary formation in September.
Others are in the process of discernment but it is a dispiriting prospect for a capital where there are a million Catholics and almost 200 parishes. The vocations director for the archdiocese, Fr Seamus McEntee, observed that the situation was indicative of a broader “crisis of faith”.
By way of illustration of what this means, the historic parish of St Francis Xavier, run by Jesuits, has merged with the Pro-Cathedral. Its parish priest Fr Niall Leahy said, “you can give all the reasons why it makes sense for us no longer to function as a city centre parish, but the hard part is that it’s a community and an identity”. There will be other similar losses in the future.
It is not difficult to identify the reasons for the decline. It would take considerable strength of character to enter the priesthood in contemporary Ireland where a succession of clerical sex abuse scandals has tainted the reputation of the Church to the point where it is reflexively associated with abuse and cruelty, even though this obviously was not the lived experience of most Irish Catholics.
Continued below.
catholicherald.co.uk
Others are in the process of discernment but it is a dispiriting prospect for a capital where there are a million Catholics and almost 200 parishes. The vocations director for the archdiocese, Fr Seamus McEntee, observed that the situation was indicative of a broader “crisis of faith”.
By way of illustration of what this means, the historic parish of St Francis Xavier, run by Jesuits, has merged with the Pro-Cathedral. Its parish priest Fr Niall Leahy said, “you can give all the reasons why it makes sense for us no longer to function as a city centre parish, but the hard part is that it’s a community and an identity”. There will be other similar losses in the future.
It is not difficult to identify the reasons for the decline. It would take considerable strength of character to enter the priesthood in contemporary Ireland where a succession of clerical sex abuse scandals has tainted the reputation of the Church to the point where it is reflexively associated with abuse and cruelty, even though this obviously was not the lived experience of most Irish Catholics.
Continued below.
EDITORIAL: It's a reckoning when there is only one seminarian for the whole of Dublin - Catholic Herald
EDITORIAL: One seminarian for the whole of Dublin.
catholicherald.co.uk
