Welcoming the new student intake, Bishop Alphonsus Cullinan, chair of the Bishops' Council for Vocations, said, "It is really heartening that twenty-one men have started as seminarians in various locations to study on propaedeutic courses. This brings the number of men training for the priesthood for Irish dioceses to 74 in total. We thank God for each of them.

"Over the last year, in a special way, the Bishops' Conference promoted vocations to Diocesan priesthood. All around the country people prayed that the call to priesthood would be heard. Thanks to efforts in parishes, and via traditional media as well as on social, the vocation of priesthood was discussed in family settings, parishes and in communities. In addition, and based on feedback, faith-filled encounters with priests and committed lay people encouraged the idea that God is still calling men to priesthood. Such a positive notion was firmly planted in minds and hearts."

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This trend is being hailed as a hopeful sign amid ongoing challenges in meeting the pastoral and sacramental needs of the country's parishes.

At present, at least 26 seminarians from dioceses in Northern Ireland are studying to become Catholic priests.

Notably, the Archdiocese of Armagh leads the way with 16 seminarians.

Other dioceses reporting vocations include Dromore with two, Derry with four, and Down and Connor with three. The latter has also confirmed that six new seminarians will enter next month, marking the highest intake in the past three years.

Fr Eddie Magee, Diocesan Communications Officer for Down and Connor, expressed encouragement at the rise in numbers, highlighting the importance of these new vocations in addressing the increasing demands on the Church.

"Vocations are particularly welcome during a time when it is increasingly challenging to meet the pastoral and sacramental needs within parishes across the Diocese," Magee told the Irish News.

"The increasing numbers of those entering seminary also reflects an enduring commitment on the part of the Church to accompany and support those who are considering a calling to ministry."

Magee said new vocations are being nurtured, with each diocese having a designated Director of Vocations to guide those discerning their call.

He also mentioned the annual organisation of vocation retreats and other events designed to support those considering a life in ministry.

"As a Diocese, we ask God's blessing on all those who are responding to the call to ministry in the priesthood, diaconate and religious life, and encourage all to continue to pray for vocations" he added.

The slight rise in vocations comes when the national seminary in Maynooth was once designed to house over 500 trainee priests.

Last year, the Maynooth seminary had only 20 seminarians studying to become priests for Ireland's 26 dioceses, underscoring the challenges faced by the Church in attracting new candidates.

The closure of St Malachy's Diocesan Seminary in Belfast in 2018 has further complicated the situation, with seminarians now dispersed across institutions in Italy, Ireland, Spain and France.

Source

• Irish News

Nigeria's Catholic population is estimated to be 25 million, making up 10-15% of the country's 220 million people.

The country's population is expected to soar to 350-400 million in the next 20 years. The Catholic community will expand significantly along with it.

With burgeoning congregations and vocations, Nigerian Catholics believe their fervour could inspire global Catholicism.

Mass attendance at St Louis Church in Jos, Plateau State, is full to overflowing.

"Here it's like this: people are very religious, so you have to come early" explains Akeelah Jr Framinchi, a young local.

The liturgy at St Louis Church blends African traditions with Catholic rituals, creating a unique worship experience.

Broader African trend

The growth of the Catholic Church in Nigeria mirrors a broader trend across Africa, the continent with the highest number of Catholics worldwide.

Emmanuel Duru Ifeangi, a parishioner of St Louis, emphasises the enthusiasm of Nigerian Catholics.

He believes that the "zeal" of Nigerian Catholics can "inspire the whole world".

A local nun echoed this sentiment - "Even Pope Francis says that Africa is the future of the church!"

"We do not let them drift away from faith as they grow up" Ifeangi replied with pride.

"Whether through theatre clubs, youth nights or various workshops, our programmes accompany them up to questions about vocation."

Vocations boom

The rise in vocations is evident at St Augustine's Major Seminary where 354 seminarians are preparing for ordination.

Father Joseph Gotus, the vice-rector, points out that this seminary alone produces more priests than some entire Western countries. This surge in vocations underscores Nigeria's growing influence within the Catholic Church.

Seminarian Emmanuel Echo reflected - "Faith came to us from the West and is spreading rapidly here, while it fades in Europe and America. It is our mission to be sent there to revive it."

"The Vatican likes Nigeria because we are more Roman than the Romans" said another priest.

Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Abuja underscores Nigeria's potential but cautions against premature expectations of significant global leadership roles.

"We are still too young as Christians to assume significant responsibility. We have the vigour of youth but not the ecclesial wisdom and culture."

Sources

La Croix International

CathNews New Zealand

The pair were ordained at the Cathedral of Prato, Italy earlier this month.

Service and accompaniment

The newly ordained Father Giulio Vanucci said while he had enjoyed being in a punk band - and later a bricklayer for a Catholic housing apostolate - he's looking forward to being of service to others.

"For me, being a priest means putting oneself even more at service, it means taking care of everything and everyone" he said.

Former policeman Father Michele Di Stefano wants to accompany others.

"Today is not a goal achieved but rather the beginning of a new path, even an exhausting one" Di Stefano said.

"But I am sure that I am not alone and that I have God's help. My intention is to be close to people who suffer, who feel alone."

God looks for specific people to enter the priesthood said bishop of Prato, Giovanni Nerbini, in his homily at the ordination.

"The Lord has not chosen administrators or supermen but simple and always generous people" he said.

• CNA

Bishop Earl K Fernandes is spearheading efforts to cultivate a thriving culture of vocations within his diocese.

Since his ordination as bishop in 2022, Bishop Fernandes has witnessed a remarkable turnaround. In the past two years, the number of vocations to the priesthood has doubled in the Diocese of Columbus.

Contrastingly, there were no priestly ordinations and only 17 seminarians during his ordination year.

However, the recent surge in vocations is evident. Sixteen men entered the seminary this past year and 12 are in the application process for the following year.

The diocese currently boasts 37 seminarians and has celebrated five ordinations of priests this year. Three men were ordained to the transitional diaconate.

Vibrant culture of vocations

Central to Bishop Fernandes' approach is cultivating a vibrant culture of vocations. This is evidenced by the joyful witness of priests across all age groups within the diocese.

He cited the example of 87-year-old Msgr James Walter whose unwavering dedication and infectious joy have attracted young men to consider a life in the priesthood.

Moreover, Bishop Fernandes emphasised the importance of priests and religious engaging directly with young people. This fosters trust and builds meaningful relationships.

The bishop has implemented various initiatives within the diocese to further nurture priestly vocations. These include the reinstatement of the Andrew Dinner which provides opportunities for young men to engage with him and seminarians, and the Marian Dinner which offers a similar platform for young women discerning religious orders.

Additionally, the diocese launched the Melchizedek Project, facilitating monthly meetings between young priests and those considering a vocation.

Day-to-day contact

The diocese has priests and religious teaching in diocesan high schools because Bishop Fernandes believes in "day-to-day contact with young people".

Despite challenges such as the fallout from past scandals and societal pressures, Fernandes remains optimistic. He urges young people to prayer, frequent Mass attendance and time with the Lord in adoration.

He encouraged them to embrace their unique identities and heed the words of St Francis de Sales - "Be who you are and be that well. So that you may bring honour to the Master Craftsman whose handiwork you are".

"We're called to be comfortable in our own skin" Fernandes said. "God has given us this mind, this body, this heart by which we can love him and serve him and know him. And it's important for us, for our own humanity, to encounter the Lord and to see how he's calling us."

Sources

OSV News

CathNews New Zealand

This "confronts us with something new, but something we do not clearly understand.

"There are hardly any priests or practising Catholics.

"We feel perplexed, even that the Lord has abandoned us. We feel that we have lost our way" Archbishop Dermot Farrell told a group of Catechists.

"These are important parts of our journey."

The "memory of huge numbers, and of a secure, strong Church" can be "a very painful learning for us". He said this during a ceremony where 45 lay people received certificates after completing a year-long course in Catechesis (teaching Christianity).

"Generously, you have given of your time - to engage with your faith" he said.

But the ceremony - and the need for it in the first place - is something new for the Church, he pointed out.

"Even 20 years ago, hardly anyone here could have imagined an evening like this.

We've changed

"Our country has changed, our lives have changed, and the expression of our faith - which is an expression of our lives - has changed" the archbishop said.

The Church "happens in our lives. As we change, our Church changes. We are called to recognise how the Church is changing and discern where the Good Shepherd is leading us" he said.

Farrell compared human life to a journey. Our faith lives are also journeys he commented. And, "the Church is our journey in faith together".

The journey's current stage is in a new environment with a diminishing number of priests available to serve in the Archdiocese's parishes and other ministries.

At the same time, there are fewer and fewer people who celebrate the sacraments regularly, and a need for increased resources required to maintain the existing parish infrastructure, he said.

Parish cooperation

The changes in priestly and congregational numbers, combined with today's infrastructure costs mean "it is no longer possible for me to appoint a resident priest to every parish" the archbishop said.

That means parishes will have to step up their cooperation to provide sacraments and pastoral care, Farrell explained.

Lay Catholics will need to help out.

It will require "a much greater involvement of the lay faithful in the partnerships of parishes to enable them to fulfil their mission and ministry".

It would always be "a little flock that takes the way of Jesus to heart; it will always be a little flock that will have the courage to follow him, and the generosity to give as he gives" he said.

New generations are needed to "lead new generations on the way of Christ, to guide and empower their peers to receive the gift of God".

It was "not about who will say our Masses, or who will teach the faith" he said.

"Let us pray for people - young women and men who would ‘hear his voice,' entrust themselves to it, witness to it and show us all how God is near" he said.

Source

• The Irish Times

The problem is urgent, as what worked in the past when there were plenty of priests doesn't work today.

"We cannot expect things to change if we always do the same thing" says Archbishop Luis Argüello.

"To have different results, you have to do different things" he added.

The challenge

• Only 16 percent of people live in rural areas. Over 80 percent of Spanish municipalities are rural. Most people are Catholic. There are churches serving tiny populations everywhere.
• Priestly vocations are declining. Castile's nine dioceses have 1,505 priests, but only 39 seminarians.
• Priests' average age is close to 70 years.
• Rural parish life could become little more than the occasional celebration of the Eucharist when the priest serves several communities.

"It's very tiring, life is hard. How can priests of those ages serve 10 or 15 towns? And some younger ones serve people from as many as 40 small villages" one says.

The priest shortage means one priest celebrates Mass on Sundays in the two or three places he can, then another two or three communities get Mass the next Sunday.

He also travels to villages when people die and for patron saint festivals.

Fr Jorge González Guadalix of the Archdiocese of Madrid says he is more in favour of celebrating the Eucharist once a month in smaller communities than promoting other options such as lay-led liturgies.

González says it doesn't matter if the neighbouring Church is just 4km away - people want their church, with its saints, altarpiece and community.

Forming pastoral teams

Pastoral teams based in somewhat larger towns from which other villages are served are working elsewhere in Spain.

This means that although a priest remains canonically responsible for 30 villages, he isn't managing alone.

The ‘pastoral units'—composed of priests and religious—would care for the little towns and their seasonal population changes.

Castile's expanding dormitory communities would also benefit from the pastoral units. Established close to cities, these communities typically have more young people and migrant populations.

Lay-led Sundays

Increasing lay-or deacon-led Sunday celebrations of the Word is another option.

The Vatican's Dicastery for Clergy and the Congregation for Divine Worship is not keen. It "blurs the figure of the priest and makes people used to living the faith without priests" a priest says.

He says many already feel the church doors are always closed or that there is no contact with the priest. Fewer people participate in the Church's ministry because there is a feeling of abandonment.

Centralising Mass (but it doesn't work)

It is possible to centralise the Mass in regions with slightly larger populations. However Catholics haven't warmed to this idea. They like their local community where they are known and don't want to travel to Mass.

For González, it is a matter of putting his eyes on God first, reaching out to the people and evangelising with all the means available.

Source

• The Pillar

Coleridge told the Catholic priests that changes were happening, that there would be more of them and that it was important to be prepared.

Coleridge suggested that ministry as a Catholic priest was not a case of 'goundhog day' nor an example of 'yesterday once more.'

Rather, Coleridge recommended that Catholic priests prepare themselves for the changes and "fasten their seatbelts."

In his keynote speech to the nearly 200 Catholic priests at the Assembly, the archbishop said the Catholic Church is experiencing an "Abrahamic" moment.

Just like the biblical Abraham who set out on a journey for God without knowing where he was going, New Zealand's Catholic priests are also on a journey where the destination is unclear, Coleridge said.

Spiritual vitality

"The spiritual vitality of the Church is found largely in our immigrant communities," the archbishop noted.

"The centre of gravity of the Church is passing to Africa, Asia and Latin America. We have a Pope from Argentina. It's fasten your seatbelts time, we are going somewhere and there is no way back."

Coleridge says that, while the shape the future will take is unclear, we can rely on faith.

"But the act of faith is that there is one who does know where it is all leading. We must keep our eyes and our ears on God. We have to be on the journey."

Diminishing numbers

Coleridge pointed out the logical consequences of the current situation for Catholics in New Zealand.

"We cannot sustain the current mode of provision of priests, with far fewer priests and fewer people," he said.

"The shortage of people is the real problem.

"There are far fewer people who identify with the Church or come to Mass.

"People like our schools. They ask why are our schools full and our churches empty?

"Institutionally we are diminished."

Coleridge described the problem as "corrosive in a unique way... we are almost afraid to look at the damage."

Administrative changes

The priests at the Assembly heard that New Zealand's Catholic priests' administrative burden is also more complex than formerly.

Coleridge told the Diocesan priests at the Assembly they need to be like Abraham and turn wandering into journeys.

He acknowledged journeying is hard work - but also pointed out it goes somewhere.

"The priest as pilgrim is someone who can say to all the wanderers, come on a journey.

"The priest in a diocese is also a settler. The priest has a parish, and people are the community. We have to put down roots in a particular place, a parish."

Source

• New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference

It was at Rio de Janeiro's World Youth Day (WYD) that nine-year old Nathan de Brito came to fame. He's the boy who ran to hug the pope and said he wanted to be a priest.

"At that moment of meeting the pope, I could feel God's enormous affection for me, saying ‘My son, I love you,' in the arms of the one who welcomes us like a father.

"I had this very great experience of being welcomed by the pope and that he received what I told him. He simply told me: ‘Pray for me and I will pray for you.'

"Of course, we have the obligation to care for our vocation. But knowing that a person so special prays for us is something very special.

"Remembering that encounter is to always rekindle the flame of vocation," he says.

Developing the priestly vocation

Ten years after meeting Francis, de Brito is a seminarian in a Brazilian preparatory seminary.

"Of course it was not the awakening of my vocation, because I had wanted to be a priest for a long time. But it was, without a doubt, one more motivation within my vocation," de Brito says.

"I liked to play at celebrating Mass, going to Mass.

"I was an altar boy for many years from the age of five and really enjoyed serving. I also really liked catechism and was in a hurry for the sacraments. I remember my first Eucharist a lot, which was the happiest day of my life."

De Brito says he was seven when he first said he wanted to be a priest. Until then he'd always said he wanted to be a teacher and a priest, a doctor and a priest, always something and a priest.

"I always emphasise that my call is to holiness. We are all called to holiness and each one has a call, a specific vocation. And I understand that my vocation is to the priesthood, so I said ‘yes' to this vocation."

Benedict XVI - the pope of de Brito's childhood - was important to him. Benedict's "attraction to the vocation was precisely in him, because he saw in him an imposing figure who spoke timidly, but who spoke very well, he was the man of the liturgy.

"I used to watch the Masses at the Vatican, my eyes wide open."

Later, when he saw Francis in 2013, he said he saw a pontiff "very close to us."

"When he was elected pope, my love for the Church and for my vocation grew, because he was someone close to us...

"It's my duty as a person called to the priesthood to keep that flame burning, if that is God's will. But those sparks that help us maintain our vocation, like the meeting with Pope Francis, are always very pleasant, very happy to remember."

Source

• CNA

Despite it being a challenging time, they remained friends. Angelo eventually found himself questioning the purpose of his life. Then one evening, , Angelo asked God, "What do you want from me?" Then he opened the Bible randomly and read, 'Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; before you came out into the light, I had consecrated you (Jer 1,4-5)."

Angelo joined the seminary at the age of 26 and was ordained a priest at 33. Read more

Where once every large family in the country expected one son to join the priesthood, the scandals that have rocked the Church in the last two decades have meant the numbers being ordained have crashed.

But now the drive to recruit more priests has been rebooted to take into account new ways of contacting those who might have a vocation - including the use of digital and social media.

While there is a worldwide shortage of priests, the new awareness campaign around the year of vocations is specific to Ireland.

Read More

The last time so many men entered a seminary in Sydney was 40 years ago when 17 entered Good Shepherd's predecessor seminary, St Patrick's College at Manly.

Among the 2023 intake, five have come from overseas. The admission of overseas seminarians is not unprecedented, but the proportion of those born in Australia - baptised either as Roman or Eastern Catholics - certainly is.

Another first is the number of new seminarians from Australia's Eastern eparchies. Good Shepherd has never seen five signing up to undertake priestly formation from the Maronite Catholic Eparchy, the Chaldean Catholic Eparchy, and the Syro-Malabar Eparchy.

Sydney's Archbishop, Anthony Fisher OP, said the willingness of young men to consider entering Holy Orders is a sign that there is much hope for the future of the Church in Australia.

"We are very excited to have the 11 first years and six who have received some prior formation elsewhere, making a total of 17 new admissions this year," Fisher said.

17 new workers for the Lord

Seminary Rector Fr Michael de Stoop said it has been a blessing to see 17 new workers for the vineyard of the Lord and His Church.

The group of new seminarians is composed of individuals between the ages of 22 and 41. They come from the dioceses of Sydney, Wollongong, Canberra-Goulburn, Armidale and Hobart. Two individuals from Uganda are also part of the group.

Their educational backgrounds are diverse, ranging from medicine, engineering, optometry, philosophy, theology and teaching. Despite their different backgrounds, they share a common desire to serve the church's mission through teaching, sanctifying and providing pastoral care.

Answering God's call and dedicating their lives to the work of the church offers a true sense of freedom and a strong sense of inner peace, according to seminarians and clergy.

Sources

Catholic Weekly

CathNews New Zealand

The number of newly ordained priests dropped to 87 in 2023 from 131 in 2011, a decrease of 35 percent, according to the Statistics of the Catholic Church in Korea.

This year, the Jeonju Diocese had no priestly ordination as there was no candidate. The number of priests ordained in the diocese had dropped from six in 2011 to two in 2021.

The Diocese of Daejeon ordained three new priests this year, compared to 19 in 2011 and five in 2016, the data shows.

Although some dioceses saw a slight increase in priestly ordinations, the overall trend shows a decline.

Read More

Cardinal Willem Eijk, the Archbishop of Utrecht, said in a Feb 14 letter that he was committed to eliminating the priestless Sunday celebrations over the next five years, so that the Mass can "occupy its rightful central place" among local Catholics, despite protests from some members of the archdiocese.

In parts of Europe that have seen sharp declines in priestly vocations, Catholics routinely gather on weekdays for Celebrations of the Word and Communion, led by a permanent deacon or lay person. Scripture readings and the proclamation of the Gospel are followed by the distribution of Holy Communion, consecrated at a previous Mass.

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He says there will have to be changes in how priests minister to parishes with more lay people taking on great responsibilities.

Priests will share parishes, he says.

Right now the Catholic church in Europe is facing a stark decline in the number of young men joining the priesthood.

Dublin's Archbishop Dermot Farrell admits the collapse in numbers joining and an ageing clergy means the way the church operates in Ireland currently is 'unsustainable'.

Recently eight priests in the Cork and Ross diocese retired. Three others returned to their religious orders.

A radical new framework could work

Given disparity between parishes and priests, Cork's bishop is proposing a new framework to manage the problem.

Parishes will now be bunched together in "families of parishes" and overseen by a moderator priest.

In this way, scores of existing single parishes will become 16 'Families of Parishes'. Each will have a team of priests that would minister 'across the whole family of parishes'.

In his pastoral letter, Bishop Gavin said this would mean parishes working much more closely together. They will need to share their gifts, talents and resources - including their priests.

Major events in the church calendar, including Communions and Confirmations would be organised on a multi-parish basis. This will cut down on the duties of priests and allow more people to come together.

The new arrangements will come into effect next month.

Pope Francis recently moved to open the door more to women.

While he has appointed lay women to the Vatican council that appoints bishops, he has so far refused to consider admitting women to the priesthood.

Source

• CorkBeo
• Irish Examiner

Among those who are to be ordained are Samuel Piermarini, who gave up a promising football career and Riccardo Cendamo, a former film director. Read more

The church is also encouraging more young people to join the priesthood. Read more

On his website Food For Faith Fr John O'Connor was commenting on a feature in the Press about the recent ordinations in Christchurch.

But he was disappointed that the report managed to turn a good news story on its head with the online version posted on Stuff.co.nz sporting the headline: "three become priests while numbers receiving the call decline in New Zealand."

"It was the online version that I read first and as I read I felt a gloom descending.

Tragically most who catch the headline would read no further and continue their lives with a reinforced merging of the words 'priests' and 'decline.'

"A brief interview can do little more than convey an idea or two slanted with a personal, populist and often negative bias," he said.

"However a personal participation in the gathering itself has the power to convey the beauty and significance of the event."

O'Connor agrees that there are fewer people at Sunday Mass these days than when he was ordained thirty years ago, but he is not concerned by this.

"It is not our mission to be big and powerful. Our Christian history reminds us that secular, capitalist and commercial measures are unable to measure the beauty and power of life lived in loving relationship with Jesus Christ."

O'Connor said that contrary to the suggestion of the Press article, a growing number of people, many newly awakened to the insatiable promises of secular opportunities, are seeking to give their lives within marriage and work commitments to wholeheartedly following a deeper, transcendent and divine calling.

Source

• Food for Faith
• Image: Food for Faith

"It's that very annoying nagging that's kind of like when your parents are telling you to do the dishes, " he told Stuff.co.nz

Castello, who describes himself as "a born and bred Cantabrian", completed his secondary school studies at St Bede's College in 2008.

In 2009, while studying part-time for a Bachelor of Music at the University of Canterbury, he worked for the Catholic Youth Team for a short time.

No matter how often he dismissed it, he said the thought kept creeping back into his mind throughout that year.

"I thought no-one in their right mind would want to be a Catholic priest in this day and age."

"At the end of that year . . . filling out the paper work for the next year's courses didn't feel right. It was a very uneasy feeling.

"That's when I thought to myself 'let's go do something about this thought of priesthood'."

Castello was ordained last month in Christchurch, along with Graeme Blackburn, 33, and Huynh Tran, 31.

A recent report in Stuff described the path to the priesthood each of these men followed.

Blackburn said priesthood was "quite a foreign concept" to friends when he told them about his decision about seven years ago.

"The people who you get on with really well, they might struggle to see why you've picked this lifestyle because it is quite a lifestyle," he said.

But all were supportive of his choice and he had become closer to many of them, he said.

While numbers were declining in New Zealand, in Vietnam seminaries are having to turn people away.

That was how his confrere Tran found his way into the priesthood in Christchurch.

Bishop Barry Jones invited Tran to come to New Zealand about nine years ago to learn English before going to the seminary.

Source

• Stuff
• Holy Cross College
• Image: Mairehau Parish

And renewal is coming. After the 2002 scandal about sexual abuse by clergy, progressive Catholics were predicting the end of the celibate male priesthood in books like "Full Pews and Empty Altars" and "The Death of Priesthood." Yet today the number of priestly ordinations is steadily increasing.

A new seminary is to be built near Charlotte, N.C., and the archdiocese of Washington, D.C., has expanded its facilities to accommodate the surge in priestly candidates. Boston's Cardinal Sean Patrick O'Malley recently told the National Catholic Register that when he arrived in 2003 to lead that archdiocese he was advised to close the seminary. Now there are 70 men in Boston studying to be priests, and the seminary has had to turn away candidates for lack of space.

According to the Vatican's Central Office of Church Statistics, there were more than 5,000 more Catholic priests world-wide in 2009 than there were in 1999. This is welcome news for a growing Catholic population that has suffered through a real shortage of priests. Continue reading