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ENTERTAINMENT NEWS | |
MEN IN HEAVILY CATHOLIC IRELAND TURNING AWAY FROM PRIESTHOOD
August 27, 2010
(INTERNATIONAL) -- The number of priestly ordinations in Ireland has dipped below England and Wales for the first time in living memory, according to new figures released by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Ireland.
A report inThe Independent of London says the numbers show how low the fortunes of the Catholic church have sunk in a country that once used to export Catholic missionaries to all corners of the world.
Only 16 men are due to start training for the priesthood this Fall, a number less than half the 39 that signed up for the priesthood last year.
In the 1980s Ireland would regularly draw more than 150 new recruits to the priesthood every year.
The report byThe Independent says the Irish church’s reputation has been battered in the past five years by numerous sexual abuse scandals and repeated revelations that senior church officials deliberately covered up the crimes of pedophile priests.
The full report can be found HERE
In 2008 when the Irish church reported 160 priests had died that year with only nine new men becoming ordained priests and the numbers for nuns were even more concerning to church officials: 228 nuns had died yet only two women took their final vows for service in religious life.
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