13 men begin journey in religious order

A RECORD number of men began a year long spiritual journey yesterday with a view to joining an ancient religious order.

The 13 men — 11 of whom are Irish — began the Dominican Order’s novitiate course having each received the order’s habit in a clothing ceremony held during a special Mass celebrated earlier this week.

The order normally accepts about two or three novices every year. But this year’s intake is the highest since 1963.

Following decades of falling vocations to religious life, the order’s director of vocations, Fr Gerard Dunne, hailed it as an extremely positive sign.

He said it is unlikely the recession is responsible for the surge but said “something is happening out there”.

“These guys are professionals and university graduates. Their average age is between 20 and 30,” he said.

“There is a thinking generation out there looking for something much deeper than what the world has to offer them at the moment.”

They will spend the next year and a day in the order’s novitiate community, based at St Mary’s priory in Cork, behind the landmark Dominican church on Pope’s Quay.

The order’s Master of Novices for the Irish Province, Fr Philip McShane, said the men will use the year to reflect on their vocation and experience the Dominican way of life.

“This is a spiritual year — not so much a year of study,” he said.