Cathal BarryArchbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin has issued an impassioned appeal for vocations to the priesthood following a week that saw some 17 ordinations across several Irish dioceses.
“We need more priests,” Archbishop Martin warned this week.
Recognising his responsibility to “speculate and reflect on the seriousness of the fall in the number of priests”, Archbishop Martin cautioned that “is not enough and indeed it could lead all of us off in a wrong direction”.
“The most important thing for us to do in this situation is to reflect on how important, how beautiful, and how fulfilling priestly ministry is. As a presbyterate we need to restore confidence in what priesthood means.
“We need to show forth the joy and fulfilment which priesthood means to each of us,” he said.
Archbishop Martin made his remarks during the ordination ceremony of Fr Seamus McEntee at St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral on Tuesday, June 3, which followed a bumper weekend of 16 ordinations – 15 to the diaconate and one to the priesthood.
In the Archdiocese of Armagh on Friday, May 30, Cardinal Seán Brady ordained Maciej Zacharek to the priesthood.
This was the first priestly ordination from Redemptoris Mater House of Formation, a new institution of the Archdiocese of Armagh, located in Dundalk.
This House of Formation was founded in 2012 by Cardinal Brady to form priests for the New Evangelisation who are both diocesan and missionary.
The seminary is one of 100 seminaries all over the world of the Neocatechumenal Way,
with an estimated 3,000 seminarians.
Then on Sunday, June 1, Cardinal Séan Brady, ordained 15 seminarians as deacons at Mass celebrated in the College Chapel of the national seminary in Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth.
Commenting after the Mass, Msgr Hugh Connolly, the President of Saint Patrick’s College Maynooth, congratulated the 15: “May each of them experience God’s grace afresh in their hearts so that they will courageously proclaim the Gospel in both word and deed and go out to serve the people of God in their various dioceses with care and compassion,” he said.
The 15 men ordained in Maynooth are all transitional deacons who will be deacons for approximately one year before being ordained to the
priesthood.