Does anyone join the priesthood anymore?

meoklmrk91

Okay I'm pretty young, 22, and I have to say that I have never met a priest under 40 or heard of anyone joining the priesthood in my lifetime. Apparently it was a big thing to have a priest in the family and it wold seem that they were one of our biggest exports.

padd b1975

Thanks for sharing that.

Swampy

Riveting read.

meoklmrk91

padd b1975 wrote: »

Thanks for sharing that.

Swampy wrote: »

Riveting read.

No probs guys, getting published later in the year, should be a hit.

Seriously was just asking a question, has anyone heard of anyone young joining the priesthood in recent years, cause it seems like all the ones I have known are like eternally 83 years old.

Ruu

I got mine with 10 Weetabix tokens.

Fr_Dougal

meoklmrk91 wrote: »

Seriously was just asking a question, has anyone heard of anyone young joining the priesthood in recent years, cause it seems like all the ones I have known are like eternally 83 years old.

Yes.

AlekSmart

Memo to Frankie.....Ditch the ban on marriage and those white anglo-saxon protestants might just start lookin towards the priesthood once more (Ok Ok..ye can delete the prods bit).

Until then,the Catholic Priesthood looks set to become the sole preserve of the African/Asian sub-continents.

Rayne Wooney

meoklmrk91 wrote: »

Okay I'm pretty young, 22, and I have to say that I have never met a priest under 40 or heard of anyone joining the priesthood in my lifetime. Apparently it was a big thing to have a priest in the family and it wold seem that they were one of our biggest exports.

Apparently 1 joined the college (or whatever you call it) last year, I'd love to know what his motivation was, hopefully not from reading the newspapers..

RhubarbCrumble

A friend of mine is a priest. He's 39 and joined the priesthood at 18, straight from school.

donvito99

Have you not seen any of d'young African priests?

Praetorian Saighdiuir

Searchin' for priests under 40 eh? Have you tried plentyofpriests.com?

Airitech

This could have a lot to do with it:

http://touch.boards.ie/thread/2056916125/1

Oranage2

Actually got talkin to a I guy that was doing some bible class, something that starts with t maybe theology or something like that, he wanted to be a religion teacher and was from Germany, so no op I don't know any, hope that answers your question.

Vojera

I'm late twenties and in my lifetime three guys from my parish (in their early twenties) have gone to the seminary. Two of those were ordained and one quit. My parish is really small, so I guess it's not that rare.

If you walk through the corridors in St Joseph's in Maynooth there are frames with pictures of everyone ordained each year from back in the sixties. You can see that it goes from at least forty per year down to about five per year in recent times.

admiralofthefleet

donvito99 wrote: »

Have you not seen any of d'young African priests?

sure they wouldnt know, they're from donegal

1ZRed

One word

CELIBACY

DainBramage

Vojera wrote: »

If you walk through the corridors in St Joseph's in Maynooth there are frames with pictures of everyone ordained each year from back in the sixties. You can see that it goes from at least forty per year down to about five per year in recent times.

no fan of the church but still kind of sad to see something dwindle away like that.

meoklmrk91

donvito99 wrote: »

Have you not seen any of d'young African priests?

Not personally no, I meant more Irish priests because it is clear that they with the lack of young Irish priests to take over from the old priests from Latin America and Africa will have to take their places.

1ZRed wrote: »

One word

CELIBACY

Has a good bit to do with it, not everything though, I think that the churches teachings are against a lot of young Irish people's beliefs, but then that is just my experience.

Skid X

meoklmrk91 wrote: »

Okay I'm pretty young, 22, and I have to say that I have never met a priest under 40 or heard of anyone joining the priesthood in my lifetime.

I'm sure I saw a documentary about some priests on an Island off the West a few years ago, there was definitely one youngish Priest, I think his name was Fr Dougie or something like that.

Custardpi

DainBramage wrote: »

no fan of the church but still kind of sad to see something dwindle away like that.

In the case of this particular something, no it isn't sad at all. Priests & the Catholic Church in general have been a blight upon the landscape of Ireland for centuries. With the exception of a few brave rebels the Church establishment & the vast majority of priests strongly opposed the independence movement. After the establishment of the Free State & up until fairly recently when they have attempted to don the sheep's clothing of social justice issues they fought tooth & nail against any form of intellectual, social or educational progress.
From the hounding out of writers to the defeat of attempts to establish a decent & equitable health service Ireland has suffered immense damage from the priest infestation from which we are only emerging in the last couple of decades. And that's before one even touches on the treatment of those in religious gulags like the industrial schools & magdalene laundries. Personally I hope that the numbers of deluded fools who sign up for vocations dwindles to zero in the coming years & that Irish people embrace reason instead of ignorance, bigotry & sexual repression. Nobody joining the priesthood? Great, good riddance to it!

Vojera

Vojera wrote: »

If you walk through the corridors in St Joseph's in Maynooth there are frames with pictures of everyone ordained each year from back in the sixties. You can see that it goes from at least forty per year down to about five per year in recent times.

Which coincides with the rejection of the CC's moral power over the so-called flock. Enlightenment gained in part through the education they provided, although not necessarily in the intended way.

And also coincides with a rise in standards of living and access to a wider range of financially rewarding careers. I think in times past that the priesthood was a sure fire way of avoiding poverty - and in the case of one priest I know of, avoiding inheriting the farm and lifetime of hard labour that went with it -or avoiding questions about avoiding marriage for gay men.

And of course there was the added bonus of kudos for the family for producing a priest, and the almost unlimited power and access to unquestioning loyalty. We all know how that turned out.

The downturn in 'callings' is very easily explained by socio-economic and cutural factors. Which begs the question if there is any such thing as a calling or not, even to those who believe in such things.

Ecce_Agnus_Dei

1ZRed wrote: »

One word

CELIBACY

Do you have any evidence to suggest that men are put off serving God because of the vows they must take? Or are you just engaging in populist conjecture?

These men aren't phased by celibacy: http://www.fsspolgs.org/ There are well over 1,000 seminarians there.

Unpopularity in joining the priesthood is an Irish phenomenon.

The Irish used to send priests all over the world (where they did untold damage) and Ireland was the darling state of the Vatican. How times have changed.

Just because there are only about 50 men training for the priesthood in Ireland, doesn't affect the reality that vocations are up worldwide.

But don't let the facts get in the way of a thinly veiled anti-catholic thread.

1ZRed

meoklmrk91 wrote: »

Has a good bit to do with it, not everything though, I think that the churches teachings are against a lot of young Irish people's beliefs, but then that is just my experience.

No I think you've hit the nail on the head. I think young people just can't see anything relatable in it and thus see less and less relevancy with the whole idea, at least from my pov.

All my circle of friends just have no interest in religious matters either.

Gummy Panda

Only die hard culchies. Usually if there is three brothers one becomes a Garda, one a solicter and the other a priest

Ecce_Agnus_Dei

1ZRed wrote: »

No I think you've hit the nail on the head. I think young people just can't see anything relatable in it and thus see less and less relevancy with the whole idea, at least from my pov.

All my circle of friends just have no interest in religious matters either.

How hip and cool it is to be an atheist these days.

I see this New Atheism as nothing but a fad the way roller-blading was in the 1990s.

Atheism is a shallow ideology 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.

DainBramage

Custardpi wrote: »

In the case of this particular something, no it isn't sad at all. Priests & the Catholic Church in general have been a blight upon the landscape of Ireland for centuries. With the exception of a few brave rebels the Church establishment & the vast majority of priests strongly opposed the independence movement. After the establishment of the Free State & up until fairly recently when they have attempted to don the sheep's clothing of social justice issues they fought tooth & nail against any form of intellectual, social or educational progress.
From the hounding out of writers to the defeat of attempts to establish a decent & equitable health service Ireland has suffered immense damage from the priest infestation from which we are only emerging in theid last couple of decades. And that's before one even touches on the treatment of those in religious gulags like the industrial schools & magdalene laundries. Personally I hope that the numbers of deluded fools who sign up for vocations dwindles to zero in the coming years & that Irish people embrace reason instead of ignorance, bigotry & sexual repression. Nobody joining the priesthood? Great, good riddance to it!

thanks the lecture on the damage the CC has caused in this country, I was completely unaware of it- it was the posters description of the numbers in the photos declining each year, I thought was kind of poignant.
If the photos were of people in any other walk of life I would have thought the same.

Peregrine

Gummy Panda wrote: »

Only die hard culchies. Usually if there is three brothers one becomes a Garda, one a solicter and the other a priest

Nonono
One becomes a Garda, another an Irish teacher and the other a priest.

1ZRed

Ecce_Agnus_Dei wrote: »

Do you have any evidence to suggest that men are put off serving God because of the vows they must take? Or are you just engaging in populist conjecture?

These men aren't phased by celibacy: http://www.fsspolgs.org/ There are well over 1,000 seminarians there.

Unpopularity in joining the priesthood is an Irish phenomenon.

The Irish used to send priests all over the world (where they did untold damage) and Ireland was the darling state of the Vatican. How times have changed.

Just because there are only about 50 men training for the priesthood in Ireland, doesn't affect the reality that vocations are up worldwide.

But don't let the facts get in the way of a thinly veiled anti-catholic thread.

I have no evidence to support it just from my own experience of when a priest came into us in 6th year talking about the priesthood. None of us showed any interest.

The figures back it up, young men have no interest in being priests. I'd argue that the sacrifices made to become one just aren't worth it in my people's eyes, my own included.

The times are changing and there's less emphasis and value placed on religion year by year, that's just what's happening. It's not just an Irish phenomenon, it's happening in all major first world countries. The only areas where religion is thriving is in poorer, less advantaged countries where education is scares.

There's no coincidence between the abundance of education and the diminishment of religion.

mccarthy37

Priesthood. Drink, feck, arse, girls not allowed anymore not interested.

Auldloon

Gummy Panda wrote: »

Only die hard culchies. Usually if there is three brothers one becomes a Garda, one a solicter and the other a priest

and who is gonna stay home on the land? The cats won't milk themselves you know!

1ZRed

Ecce_Agnus_Dei wrote: »

How hip and cool it is to be an atheist these days.

I see this New Atheism as nothing but a fad the way roller-blading was in the 1990s.

Atheism is a shallow ideology 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.

Good luck with all that bullshit chief