Bishops to discuss vocations and Mass attendance on Rome visit

The prevalence of suicide, declining vocations, and Mass attendance are just some of the issues that the country’s bishops will discuss with senior Vatican officials when they travel to Rome tomorrow for a 10-day pilgrimage.

Ageing priests and a lack of vocations to priesthood are seen as some of the biggest threats to the Irish and European Church but this trend is not mirrored worldwide.

Globally, there have never been higher numbers of seminarians with 117,000 studying worldwide and there has been a “noted increase” in numbers in Britain and the US.