Ireland's sons turn their backs on the priesthood

[Cato]

I thought of at least ten in the time it took to read your post.

Ten more barbarous times in history, or ten instances of where I closed my mind etc. to reality?

[Cato]

Who is Augustine?

I really do hope that as per your smiley you are only joking with that.

[Half Nelson]

Can you honestly not think of any other time in history more barbarous than now, or more controlled. If not, then you are simply ignorant.

What reality do you believe I have closed my mind etc. to?

Do you label everybody who disagrees with you as ignorant?

But to make the point let me ask you how many human beings are daily intentionally and legally killed in our civilised western society and why is such killing no big deal?
Its for another thread but since you asked.

[myksav]

No, as I've said before, I would be quite happy for religious believers to hold public office as long as they do not allow their religious beliefs to effect their public duties. They will have to learn to separate the two. One cannot have religious superstition and nonsense influencing something as important as state policy.

Atheist politicians screw up just as well and as badly as religious ones on important stuff like State policy, for equally "superstitous nonsense".

Strangely, I don't see even that silly blasphemy law as Church interfering with State, given that to get a conviction under that law is next to near impossible.

[Luigi Vampa]

They're currently on their knees and close to falling. Time to give them a kicking and make sure they stay down.

Far greater have tried and failed for 2000 years. If it's back to the mass rocks so be it.

[myksav]

Barbarous times, Cato, barbarous times.

[TommyO'Brien]

Ireland's sons turn their backs on the priesthood - Home News, UK - The Independent



What are the consequences of this major change to Irish society going to be? Let's face it, like it or loath it, priests have been a major part of Irish society for some time. What are the consequences going to be for the Catholic church and for individual parishes? The bishops have done little to prepare for this crisis. They agreed to appoint permanent deacons and have agreed the norms for formation of same, but have not done anything beyond that.

When I went into the seminary in Maynooth in 1993 there were 48 men in my year. The next year the number dropped to 26 and the year after that it fell below 20. It has hovered around that mark since then. Less then half of those who go in make it through the full six/seven years to ordination.

Organisationally, what will happen is simple:

1. Parishes that traditionally had two priests (parish priest & curate) will have one priest. (That is already happening.)

2. As the remaining one priests in parishes die out, parishes will be grouped together. A massive process of closing churches will take place, with 60% of rural parish churches closed within 20 years.

3. Eventually the concept of the parish priest will be fazed out, with a parish team appointed to an urban centre with responsibility for the rural parishes around, which will be merged and their churches closed.

4. At an organisational level, Rome (as it is already rumoured to be about to do) will cut the number of bishops down to around 12, with the Archbishops of Tuam and Cashel downgraded to bishop status, as happened in the Church of Ireland in the 1830s.

5. Within two generations the Catholic Church will become like the Church of Ireland, a small remnant of its former self, with probably less than 15% regular Mass goers, they largely the very young who are brought by their parents (ie, pre-confirmation age) and the older-middle to older. The 20 somethings to the 40 somethings will disappear as a religious demographic.

Alongside the demise of the secular clergy, the religious clergy will all but die out, as will convents, with only a handful of convents surviving per (merged) diocese.

In effect, Catholicism as it is currently known and experienced right now will be dead within 2 generations.

[Sean O'Brian]

Hmm, question for Cato, myskav or anyone: do you think there was any time in Ireland's past when it was more civillised than it is now, in 2010?

[Luigi Vampa]

Within two generations the Catholic Church will become like the Church of Ireland, a small remnant of its former self, with probably less than 15% regular Mass goers, they largely the very young who are brought by their parents (ie, pre-confirmation age) and the older-middle to older. The 20 somethings to the 40 somethings will disappear as a religious demographic.

Alongside the demise of the secular clergy, the religious clergy will all but die out, as will convents, with only a handful of convents surviving per (merged) diocese.

In effect, Catholicism as it is currently known and experienced right now will be dead within 2 generations.

I've got bad news for you Tommy, you may dream on, because Santa doesn’t exist.

[NYCKY]

Ireland's sons turn their backs on the priesthood - Home News, UK - The Independent



What are the consequences of this major change to Irish society going to be? Let's face it, like it or loath it, priests have been a major part of Irish society for some time. What are the consequences going to be for the Catholic church and for individual parishes? The bishops have done little to prepare for this crisis. They agreed to appoint permanent deacons and have agreed the norms for formation of same, but have not done anything beyond that.

When I went into the seminary in Maynooth in 1993 there were 48 men in my year. The next year the number dropped to 26 and the year after that it fell below 20. It has hovered around that mark since then. Less then half of those who go in make it through the full six/seven years to ordination.

I think one of the major consequences will be that children, not just in Ireland but in parishes the world over can sleep more soundly and safely in their beds at night.