Parishes may face collapse as seminarian numbers plummet

FALLING NUMBERS of vocations could see ancient parishes wiped out, according to the co-founder of the Association of Catholic Priests this week.

“Faith communities sustained over centuries will collapse,” Fr Brendan Hoban told The Tablet, as Ireland’s national seminary at Maynooth reported a new low in this year’s intake of candidates for the diocesan priesthood.

Just 13 men from seven dio­ceses will join the seminary, down from 20 last year. Dominican vocations director Fr Gerard Dunne described the continuing decline as “disheartening” and blamed the hierarchy for the lack of active leadership in promoting vocations.

Bishops and religious superiors have failed to offer vocations directors adequate support in encouraging those considering the call of the Lord, he added.

“I have long advocated the need for dioceses and religious orders to appoint full-time vocation directors,” said Fr Gerard, pointing out that the level of return (that is candidates for both dioceses and orders) inevitably rises when this is done.

However, Fr Hoban is less optimistic about the effect of vocations directors, saying that the latest figures show the crisis in Ireland is “deep-seated” and apparently “permanent”. He has argued for the more radical solution of the ordination of married men, which he says would “stem the tide as worthy candidates – viri probati – are available to sustain faith communities and arrest the present decline”.

Inviting priests who left to get married back to ministry is another option that the Association of Catholic Priests, which has more than 1,000 members, advocates.

Asked about the need for ­bishops, priests and people to be less apathetic in promoting vocations, Fr Hoban said: “This is not a temporary blip in figures that can be undone by simply recommitting ourselves to encouraging male celibate vocations.”

He said the policy had failed over the last three decades and warned that the success of ­individual dioceses that have attracted greater numbers of ­seminarians “seems to be related to less stringent acceptance criteria and a greater subsequent fallout before and after ordination”.

Fr Hoban claims the underlying problem is that the Catholic community has lost confidence in an exclusively celibate priesthood.