Seventeen new seminarians for Maynooth

SEVENTEEN MEN from 12 Irish dioceses began their formation for the priesthood at Ireland’s national seminary in Maynooth this week, a small increase on last year’s cohort of 14.

This latest intake of seminarians brings the total number of those in residential training at Maynooth to 60.

Four of the 17 – three from Down and Connor and one from Derry – will continue their studies at St Malachy’s College in Belfast after a month.

Meanwhile, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin has said that his recent call for a “robust laity” is not a substitute for the challenge of having fewer priests. Dedicating a room in St Peter’s parish in Phibsborough to the founder of the Legion of Mary, Frank Duff, the archbishop called for parishes to become centres of formation in the faith.