A glance at priests and seminarians in Ireland today

Tom Norris

I teach theology at the Pontifical University of Maynooth which shares the campus with a lay university. Twenty years ago we had eight major seminaries in Ireland and 350 seminarians: today we have one seminary and 70 seminarians. Recently, the Archbishop of Dublin spoke of Pope Benedict’s surprise when he learned of the rapid decrease of practicing Catholics in the city of Dublin : in some parishes it has been reduced to only two percent.

Then there is the phenomenon of scandals, like paedophilia, which have involved some priests, with endless coverage in the media. At times the media assume that there is a connection between the state of celibacy and paedophilia. Also, the scandals have sometimes caused tensions between priests and their bishops.

The result of all this is a great crisis of credibility for the Church. Due to the negative image of priests in public opinion, a part of the priests are very discouraged or disheartened. A small but constant number of young priests continue to leave the ministry with the result that the value of priestly celibacy is being questioned.

All of this led us to focus on the essential: living the Gospel. A Christian philosopher of the State University of Dublin recently commented that outside of this, nothing else can offer a solution.

One positive development is the attention given to the human formation of seminarians which is now followed in a more coherent way. Each seminarian is personally accompanied in his vocational journey. There is greater awareness today that priests need a home: a “family atmosphere” which is possible only with a spirituality of communion. In living this spirituality together – priests, seminarians and lay people – we have seen the re-blossoming of life in us and around us.

Once the Catholic Church in Ireland had great successes and was rich with missionaries and religious priests. Now we are discovering the way of the cross, that of Jesus, who seemed to be a loser; we are rediscovering that the way we live is more important that what we do. Perhaps it is the beginning of a blessed time because we are at the beginning of something new, of a resurrection.