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Does anyone join the priesthood anymore?

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    #62
    Ecce_Agnus_Dei
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 70 ✭✭Ecce_Agnus_Dei


    chughes wrote: »
    How do you work against something that doesn't exist?

    Do you have proof that God doesn't exist? (no, you don't)

    Would staring into the heavens via a telescope convince you?

    How do you explain that you were born in the first place? Does atheism have the answers to the these questions? Because, for all I can see, if Christianity never existed, atheism wouldn't exist. It's as if atheism is an off-shoot of Christianity in a very perverted way! The obsession about what Christians believe in is unreal.


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    #63
    ShooterSF
    Registered Users Posts: 8,824 ✭✭✭ShooterSF


    Friend of mine is in the seminary, think he's 4 or 5 year in now and there was something like 7 people in his year. It has greatly reduced but what will probably happen is the church will be importing people from regions in Africa which are producing more priests than here. Like reverse missions :)


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    #64
    GarIT
    Registered Users Posts: 8,671 ✭✭✭GarIT


    1st year priests have gone from 36, to 11, to 6, to 3, to 1. The evil organisation will die out soon. We don't need to worry about their kind anymore. That's what stopped me from trying to save people from the crimes of the RCC.


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    #65
    Ecce_Agnus_Dei
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 70 ✭✭Ecce_Agnus_Dei


    Rayne Wooney wrote: »
    Have you got evidence to back up these claims for a change?

    Ha! http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/number-of-priests-growing-worldwide-vatican-reports/

    From the horse's mouth (i.e. the Vatican). Next you'll be telling me that they're making up the figures.

    "410,593 priests in the world in 2009 compared to 405,009 in 1999. The number of diocesan priests among these increased by over 10,000 while the number of those belonging to religious orders fell by nearly 5,000."


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    #66
    Ecce_Agnus_Dei
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 70 ✭✭Ecce_Agnus_Dei


    GarIT wrote: »
    1st year priests have gone from 36, to 11, to 6, to 3, to 1. The evil organisation will die out soon. We don't need to worry about their kind anymore. That's what stopped me from trying to save people from the crimes of the RCC.

    The Church is a global organisation. It isn't restricted to the backwaters of Ireland.


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    #67
    DEFTLEFTHAND
    Registered Users Posts: 16,500 ✭✭✭✭DEFTLEFTHAND


    Ecce_Agnus_Dei wrote: »
    The only person who does the judging is God. Atheists, by their own admission, work against God, so how is it "judging" someone to point out this reality?

    Atheists, particularly those who once knew God but now choose to reject Him (by the use of their God-given free will), are probably going to end up in a very nasty predicament (I can only advise, not judge on this matter).

    I suggest you visit a hospice -- you'll find that even the most brazen of non-believers change their ways once they're staring death and judgement right in the face.

    I think sometimes at the end people become desperate, the finality of their impending departure becomes too much for them, Anton Lavey (founder of the Church Of Satan) is an interesting example. It's said that he became very distressed in his final minutes and appeared to be talking to an unknown presence in the room. He final words were, oh help me God, let me repent.

    Was he hallucinating from the effects of drugs given to him by the hospital or was he actually seeing of vision of where he was going?


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    #68
    Rayne Wooney
    Registered Users Posts: 14,136 ✭✭✭✭Rayne Wooney


    Ecce_Agnus_Dei wrote: »
    Do you have proof that God doesn't exist? (no, you don't)

    Would staring into the heavens via a telescope convince you?

    How do you explain that you were born in the first place? Does atheism have the answers to the these questions? Because, for all I can see, if Christianity never existed, atheism wouldn't exist. It's as if atheism is an off-shoot of Christianity in a very perverted way! The obsession about what Christians believe in is unreal.


    How to explain how he was born? Are you questioning human reproduction?


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    #69
    Custardpi
    Registered Users Posts: 2,807 ✭✭✭Custardpi


    ShooterSF wrote: »
    Friend of mine is in the seminary, think he's 4 or 5 year in now and there was something like 7 people in his year. It has greatly reduced but what will probably happen is the church will be importing people from regions in Africa which are producing more priests than here. Like reverse missions :)

    I wonder somewhere in Africa is there a classroom with a box that children can put their pennies into - "to help the white babies" :D


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    #70
    1ZRed
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,293 ✭✭✭1ZRed


    Ecce_Agnus_Dei wrote: »
    Ha! http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/number-of-priests-growing-worldwide-vatican-reports/

    From the horse's mouth (i.e. the Vatican). Next you'll be telling me that they're making up the figures.

    "410,593 priests in the world in 2009 compared to 405,009 in 1999. The number of diocesan priests among these increased by over 10,000 while the number of those belonging to religious orders fell by nearly 5,000."

    Must be ordaining online for a mates' weddings ;)


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    #71
    hfallada
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,180 ✭✭✭hfallada


    I was in the Sligo and priest was only about 23/24 and was in his final year in maynooth. It was nice to see a priest was wooden and could about something other than the bible.

    He also didn't in anyway seem like a closet case like the priest in my local parish who is about 30( creeps everyone out). I love in gran Torino when the old guys tell the young priest that he is a 30 year old virgin and get pleasure holding the hands of old women


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    #72
    D1stant
    Registered Users Posts: 1,806 ✭✭✭D1stant


    Ecce_Agnus_Dei wrote: »
    The only person who does the judging is God. Atheists, by their own admission, work against God, so how is it "judging" someone to point out this reality?

    Atheists, particularly those who once knew God but now choose to reject Him (by the use of their God-given free will), are probably going to end up in a very nasty predicament (I can only advise, not judge on this matter).

    I suggest you visit a hospice -- you'll find that even the most brazen of non-believers change their ways once they're staring death and judgement right in the face.

    Ah I see. In the absence of any reasonable argument, lets resort to fear and threat. How pathetic


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    #73
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 26,052 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Ecce_Agnus_Dei wrote: »
    The only person who does the judging is God. Atheists, by their own admission, work against God, so how is it "judging" someone to point out this reality?

    You are wrong. Atheists admit to nothing other than a lack of belief in god(s).

    I suggest you visit a hospice -- you'll find that even the most brazen of non-believers change their ways once they're staring death and judgement right in the face.


    You are wrong. There are many 'atheists in foxholes' and this insistence that we'll see the error of our ways when its crunch time is utter fantasy. Have a read of this, alhough you'll probably arrogantly insist you know better:

    http://militaryatheists.org/atheists-in-foxholes/

    For your own education perhaps you could investigate now many secular funerals the Humanist Society of Ireland has presided over in the last number of years. I'm sure those are only a fraction of the true number though, since people like you who know better would probably deny a person the funeral they would want over a bloated church ceremony.


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    #74
    GarIT
    Registered Users Posts: 8,671 ✭✭✭GarIT


    Ecce_Agnus_Dei wrote: »
    Do you have proof that God doesn't exist? (no, you don't)

    Would staring into the heavens via a telescope convince you?

    How do you explain that you were born in the first place? Does atheism have the answers to the these questions? Because, for all I can see, if Christianity never existed, atheism wouldn't exist. It's as if atheism is an off-shoot of Christianity in a very perverted way! The obsession about what Christians believe in is unreal.

    I'm a billionaire and the ruler of the world, I've been with every girl on the planet. You can worship me or prove I'm not by your logic.


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    #75
    SmilingLurker
    Registered Users Posts: 222 ✭✭SmilingLurker


    Ecce_Agnus_Dei wrote: »
    How hip and cool it is to be an atheist these days.

    Hip     and cool are two terms that are neither.
    Ecce_Agnus_Dei wrote: »
    I see this New Atheism as nothing but a fad the way roller-blading was in the 1990s.
    I missed the "New Atheism" thing, whatever that was. Most non believers just don't believe in god. Are you getting a bit tetchy because your particular lack of evidence based grouping is loosing support and power?
    Ecce_Agnus_Dei wrote: »
    Atheism is a shallow ideology
    Ideology? I think it is just lack of a belief in a supernatural deity. There is no common ideology. Usually non belief comes for questioning and asking for evidence.
    Ecce_Agnus_Dei wrote: »
    and is a distinctly Western, middle-class affair dabbled in by a debonair, privileged minority who see themselves as being above death, judgement, heaven and hell.
    I always wanted to be distinctly western, debonair and privileged. I might be in a minority, hopefully not for long. As for above death, I will die and cease to exist. I believe that you think you are above death and go onto an afterlife? Any evidence? You are doing a find job on the judgement aspect yourself.

    As for heaven and hell, evidence please. I don't believe in them, so as far as I am aware I have no spatial relationship to either location.

    As for the original question, I think there are some genuine people who are believers, who no longer feel the church organisations in this country are an effective way of living their belief systems.


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    #76
    GarIT
    Registered Users Posts: 8,671 ✭✭✭GarIT


    Ecce_Agnus_Dei wrote: »
    The Church is a global organisation. It isn't restricted to the backwaters of Ireland.

    Well my children will be safe away from their sort anyway.


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    #77
    Benny_Cake
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,205 ✭✭✭Benny_Cake


    I've spotted the occassional younger priest here amd there.Not many,but a few.The reason's why there aren't more are probably what most people would expect - the decline of the Catholic Church's influence on Irish society,the scandals,celibacy,greater opportunities in terms of education.There is little to be served by comparing numbers today with what they were in the 1950s as the number of priests here was unusually high then,by any standards.Added to that is the fact that a young guy wanting to be a priest now would be more likely to have his family try to talk him out of it rather than offer encouragement!


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    #78
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 26,052 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    D1stant wrote: »
    Ah I see. In the absence of any reasonable argument, lets resort to fear and threat. How pathetic

    But familiar, no?


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    #79
    MurdyWurdy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,043 ✭✭✭MurdyWurdy


    I had to go to the American embassy last summer and there was an American priest there who must have been in his early twenties in sorting his passport out. It was definitely unusual to see a priest so young. Looks like we are now importing priests from the States instead of sending them out there!


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    #80
    D1stant
    Registered Users Posts: 1,806 ✭✭✭D1stant


    Ecce_Agnus_Dei wrote: »
    The Church is a global organisation. It isn't restricted to the backwaters of Ireland.

    Yes the church is indeed a very wealthy multinational. Probably worth more than Apple. Whats your point again?


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    #81
    GarIT
    Registered Users Posts: 8,671 ✭✭✭GarIT


    With the level of racism in Ireland, especially in the west where religion is strongest does anyone actually believe that Irish Catholics would go to a mass said by a non Irish priest?


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    #82
    Ecce_Agnus_Dei
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 70 ✭✭Ecce_Agnus_Dei


    Candie wrote: »
    For your own education perhaps you could investigate now many secular funerals the Humanist Society of Ireland has presided over in the last number of years. I'm sure those are only a fraction of the true number though, since people like you who know better would probably deny a person the funeral they would want over a bloated church ceremony.

    Lol. "The Humanist Society of Ireland" -- I'd rather not go to one of their self-serving "funerals" thanks: A ceremony designed to accentuate the very worst of a human grieving, ignore God and ignore the passage of the soul. A humanist "funeral" exists to fulfill the needs of the congregation; not the deceased.


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    #83
    DarkJager
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,960 ✭✭✭DarkJager


    Ecce_Agnus_Dei wrote: »
    Lol. "The Humanist Society of Ireland" -- I'd rather not go to one of their self-serving "funerals" thanks: A ceremony designed to accentuate the very worst of a human grieving, ignore God and ignore the passage of the soul. A humanist "funeral" exists to fulfill the needs of the congregation; not the deceased.


    You should fulfil all our needs for a quiet night and shut up with your ludicrous self absorbed Christian ****e.


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    #84
    SilverScreen
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,113 ✭✭✭SilverScreen


    Ecce_Agnus_Dei wrote: »
    I'm a Christian. The souls of atheists are in mortal danger. It's my duty to inform them of this danger. Now Christianity has other priorities aside from trying to reach out to those who think they know better (such as helping the poor), but evangelising to non-believers is still important. The Good News is a message that everyone should hear, regardless of race, colour, country or creed.

    That you would prefer not to hear the message Christ is irrelevant.
    I'm a cat worshipper. When the great cat God Felix rises from the land of Gieshi he will judge us all by the length of our toenails and make us eat the sacred fish. Oh ye non-believers, ye will toil in the land of Fornochii and eat rotten fish until the great army of dogs come to great you.


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    #85
    dark crystal
    Registered Users Posts: 10,962 ✭✭✭✭dark crystal


    Ecce_Agnus_Dei wrote: »
    I'm a Christian. The souls of atheists are in mortal danger. It's my duty to inform them of this danger. Now Christianity has other priorities aside from trying to reach out to those who think they know better (such as helping the poor), but evangelising to non-believers is still important. The Good News is a message that everyone should hear, regardless of race, colour, country or creed.

    That you would prefer not to hear the message Christ is irrelevant.

    I don't hear much good news in your message.

    Those fallen young girls in the Magdalene laundries sure were lucky they had people just like you teach them the true meaning of Christianity.


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    #86
    Rayne Wooney
    Registered Users Posts: 14,136 ✭✭✭✭Rayne Wooney


    Ecce_Agnus_Dei wrote: »
    Ha! http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/number-of-priests-growing-worldwide-vatican-reports/

    From the horse's mouth (i.e. the Vatican). Next you'll be telling me that they're making up the figures.

    "410,593 priests in the world in 2009 compared to 405,009 in 1999. The number of diocesan priests among these increased by over 10,000 while the number of those belonging to religious orders fell by nearly 5,000."


    So there was 5,584 new priest in those ten years. That doesn't tell the whole story, if the numbers are declining, there could have been 5000 in year 2000, 584 the next year then none for the other 8 years.


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    #87
    Custardpi
    Registered Users Posts: 2,807 ✭✭✭Custardpi


    GarIT wrote: »
    With the level of racism in Ireland, especially in the west where religion is strongest does anyone actually believe that Irish Catholics would go to a mass said by a non Irish priest?

    Ireland really isn't that racist compared to many countries, despite what some would have you believe. If less people were going to mass in those areas it would be far more likely to be because the elderly true believers were dying off rather than the colour of the priest's skin. The whole confusing of religion & race is bad enough when it comes to the cries of "islamophobia". Lets not give the Catholic zealots that stick to beat us with as well.


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    #88
    DarkJager
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,960 ✭✭✭DarkJager


    dark crystal wrote: »
    I don't hear much good news in your message.

    Those fallen young girls in the Magdalene laundries sure were lucky they had people just like you teach them the true meaning of Christianity.

    And don't forget the hundreds possibly thousands of unnamed boys abused by the pedophiles in his precious church. But sure he's a pedo sympathiser, what good is it trying to talk to sense in to someone so unashamedly obnoxious and thick?


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    #89
    GarIT
    Registered Users Posts: 8,671 ✭✭✭GarIT


    Ecce_Agnus_Dei wrote: »
    Lol. "The Humanist Society of Ireland" -- I'd rather not go to one of their self-serving "funerals" thanks: A ceremony designed to accentuate the very worst of a human grieving, ignore God and ignore the passage of the soul. A humanist "funeral" exists to fulfill the needs of the congregation; not the deceased.

    You have not shown any evidence of a soul so you can't use that in an arguement. What needs does a corpse have?

    You supreme ruler of the boards Kim jong GIT (prove I'm not or worship my awesomeness)


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    #90
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 26,052 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Ecce_Agnus_Dei wrote: »
    Lol. "The Humanist Society of Ireland" -- I'd rather not go to one of their self-serving "funerals" thanks: A ceremony designed to accentuate the very worst of a human grieving, ignore God and ignore the passage of the soul. A humanist "funeral" exists to fulfill the needs of the congregation; not the deceased.

    There is nothing more self serving than a church that rules with fear, a congregation that is subjugated through threat, a life lived morally only under threat of punishment, and an organisation with enough wealth world wide to alleviate the suffering of millions, but chooses not to.

    There is nothing more self serving that individuals who see themselves are worthy of the love of a god, and non believers as deluded. It is nothing but egotistical self regard. The sort of self regard that sits, self satisfied, and judges those who are 'unworthy' of the 'gift of faith' as deluded, materialistic, shallow and in need of their superior wisdom to 'save' something they do not believe exists.


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    #91
    Benny_Cake
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,205 ✭✭✭Benny_Cake


    GarIT wrote: »
    With the level of racism in Ireland, especially in the west where religion is strongest does anyone actually believe that Irish Catholics would go to a mass said by a non Irish priest?

    No longer practise,but I've been to a number of services said by non-Irish priests (Indian or Filipino).I'd strongly dispute that there is a correlation between religious practise and racism in this country,or that people in the west are more racist,do you have something to back that up?


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