Vocation shortage could see end of Irish chaplains abroad

Berkeley tragedy shines a light on vital pastoral service

Chaplains working with Irish communities abroad have expressed concern that vital services may be cut due to the shortage of vocations at home.

Reflecting on the rapid response of Irish chaplains in California to the Berkeley tragedy, they fear that in the future, such a pastoral response will be impossible as Irish priests are called home to fill vacant parishes here.

Fr Alan Hilliard of the Irish Episcopal Commission for Emigrants told The Irish Catholic “this is one area where the shortage of priests is really biting”.

Referring to the “wonderful work” of Fr Brendan McBride of the Irish Immigration Pastoral Centre in San Francisco, who helped the families of the six deceased students and the seven injured, Fr Hilliard said Irish chaplains in the US are “trying hard to hold onto an identity that is about pastoral care”.

Noting that there are only two Irish immigrant chaplains left in the US, one in Boston and one in San Francisco, Fr Hilliard said he hoped Fr McBride “would not be the last”.

Shortage

“Given the shortage of clergy in Ireland, the bishops will be asking themselves if they can afford to be sending priests abroad,” he said.

Echoing concerns, Fr Aidan McAleenan of St Columba Parish in Oakland described as “shocking” the lack of priests available to be sent from Ireland as chaplains to expats in the US.

Speaking to The Irish Catholic from California, Fr McAleenan, who is originally from Banbridge, Co. Down, said: “I know resources are spread very thin but I just couldn’t imagine not having the pastoral centre here.

“It has to be asked where are we going to get priests to send to America to take care of the Irish there when we can hardly take care of what is going on at home. It’s a very troubling situation,” he said.

Meanwhile, Bishop Brendan Leahy of Limerick has said that while the grief for families and friends of those who died in the Berkeley tragedy is unspeakable, “the sense of solidarity across Ireland and beyond, and particularly from the young, is hopefully shining through for them in these darkest hours”.