Increase in enquiries to diocesan priesthood gives ‘hope’ for future

Speaking ahead of the ‘Come and See’ retreat this weekend in St Patrick’s College Maynooth, an event organised for men exploring a vocation and reflecting “more deeply on a call” to diocesan priesthood, the National Diocesan Vocations Coordinator for the Irish Episcopal Conference said that the rise in the number of enquiries discerning a vocation to diocesan priesthood gives priests involved in fostering vocations “great hope” and a sense “that the future for the Church in Ireland is good”.

Speaking to The Irish Catholic, National Diocesan Vocations Coordinator Fr Willie Purcell said that the principle of the retreat weekend is to allow men who have been contemplating a vocation to diocesan priesthood to explore this idea in an official setting and with greater conviction.

“The ‘Come and See’ is really an invitation to men who are discerning with their vocations directors a call to diocesan priesthood,” he said. “The weekend is bringing together these men to reflect more deeply on the call to diocesan priesthood and as well as that what it means to become a seminarian – that’s why we hold it in St Patrick’s College, Maynooth.”

The recent rise in men beginning formation to the diocesan priesthood is also reflected in the number of enquiries that vocations directors are currently experiencing and Fr Purcell said that this rise in numbers making contact with vocations directors gives those involved at the centre of vocations in the Church “great hope” that “the future for the Church in Ireland is good”.

“As National Vocations Coordinator, I would be in touch with vocations directors and what’s coming back from the vocations directors is that there is an increase in the number of enquiries in relation to diocesan priesthood,” he said. “These inquiries are men who want to explore it and this gives us great hope for the future because it gives us a sense that the future for the Church in Ireland is good.”