Archbishop Jorge Carlos Patrón Wong. Photo credit: incaelo.wordpress Staff reporter
A senior Vatican official has said the Church in Ireland has to come to terms with its “new reality” and focus on the “quality” of its seminarians.
Archbishop Jorge Carlos Patrón Wong, Secretary for Seminaries at the Congregation for Clergy, said he has “hope” for the future of the priesthood in Ireland.
There is hope for the present and future of Ireland, Archbishop Wong said, “because you still have to do many things”.
“I can see that when I meet young priests and seminarians. We are not talking about quantity but we can speak about the quality. I can see that in the quality of the soul and of the heart of young people, those in consecrated life and young priests. This is a new reality that we have to be aware off, conscious that it is happening now,” he said in a recording posted on the website of the Irish bishops.
Archbishop Wong was in Ireland to address the National Vocations Directors’ conference at Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth.
