Cathal Barry
Church leaders have agreed to a new national plan that aims to build a culture of vocations in parishes and re-energise the push to promote priesthood and religious life.
The establishment of a new national coordinating office is a key part of the new strategy which aims to revolutionise vocations promotion after years of decline. A similar office is credited with turning around vocations numbers in England and Wales.
Bishop Phonsie Cullinan, chairman of the bishops’ vocations council, said he hoped the new office would act as an “animator” for vocations directors around the country.
“We are one of the very few countries in Europe which does not currently have a vocations office. The vocations office itself is not the solution to the problem but it will be a help.
“Its main function will be a resource centre for vocations directors around the country but also as an animator, an office to keep the whole question of vocations on the agenda and to try to encourage vocations directors in their work,” he told The Irish Catholic.
Priority
Bishop Denis Brennan said the national vocations office “is intended to be a vehicle wherein the matter of vocations is not just given renewed focus, it is also given greater priority and resources”.
“Located at Maynooth, it will be a focal point for the many priests who pass through the college and it will endeavour to resource and streamline the message through the 26 vocations directors who meet as a group annually and who work individually throughout the country’s dioceses,” the Bishop of Ferns said.
Papal biographer Austen Ivereigh told this newspaper that having a National Office for Vocation “has been key to securing a rise in vocations in England and Wales in recent years”.
“There is a myth that vocations just ‘happen’, but in reality the Church has to create a culture of discernment first,” he said.
Vocations Ireland Director Margaret Cartwright said the office would work to build a “culture of vocation” within the Church in Ireland. “I am very hopeful for vocations anyway but I think the new office will show a more unified approach and the fact that we will be sharing resources will be of benefit to all and certainly to the priesthood and to religious life,” she said.
It is proposed that the office, which is set to open in 2017, will be staffed by a priest director, with administrative back up, who will act as executive officer to plans and projects that are agreed.
Bishop Phonsie said the success of the office depended “very much on the person who is running it and on their personal initiative”.
“The national vocations office will be for the specific vocations to priesthood and religious life. It will be a big help in helping to tackle the problem of the lack of vocations and it shows the commitment of the Church to take the whole question of vocations promotion more seriously,” he said.
