Make religious life 'more attractive', Church urged

Calls have been made on Vocations Sunday for religious life to be made more attractive to would-be priests and nuns.

As vocations continue to dwindle, Fr Kevin Doran, director of the Dublin Diocesan Vocations Centre, said school leavers and other workers must have the career choice promoted to them as a unique opportunity in life.

Speaking on World day of Prayer for Vocations, he said: “How can we expect young men and women, who have all sorts of opportunities open to them, to choose a way of life which is not being actively proposed to them.”

“This is a challenge which faces the whole church and the solution must be a whole church solution.”

There are currently only 14 seminarians in the sprawling Dublin Diocese, two of whom are foreign nationals.

Eight students are studying in St Patrick’s College, Maynooth. Four others are in full-time parish placements, one is resident in a parish while studying in Dublin’s Milltown Institute and one is in the Irish College in Rome.

Three seminarians were ordained deacons by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin last November.

Fr Doran said adult Catholics must promote priesthood and religious life as valid and worthwhile choices.

He said priests and the religious should also talk in realistic and positive terms about the value of who they are and what they do.”

Fr Doran also called on bishops and congregational leaders to devote adequate resources to vocations.

A special collection to help cover the educational costs of Dublin seminarians will be taken up at Masses throughout the Dublin Diocese on Priesthood next weekend.