Relying on overseas priests is not a solution to crisis – seminary head

Missionaries ‘welcome’ but it’s not a sustainable approach, warns Rector

The head of the national seminary has insisted that importing priests from overseas is not a solution to the vocations crisis. Fr Tomás Surlis was speaking to The Irish Catholic after the hierarchy announced that 13 men have begun studying for the priesthood for Irish dioceses this autumn.

The rector of St Patrick’s College revealed that in addition to the 13 who will now embark on a pre-seminary year, six men who have already completed the propaedeutic programme have begun studying at Maynooth in recent weeks.

Mission

While many dioceses now have priests serving from central Europe, Africa and Asia, Fr Surlis said this is not sustainable.

“We are receiving back from the countries to which Irish missionaries went in the past, and that’s a welcome thing, at the same time, a local Church in order for it to continue its mission into the long term, into the future, can’t just rely on vocations from outside,” Fr Surlis said.

Vocations

He said that in the midst of the challenges facing the faith in Ireland, parishioners should take heart from the fact that men are still coming forward to discern a vocation to the priesthood and entering the seminary formation programme.

“While they’re welcome [priests from overseas] – we can’t just be relying on those, and we’re not.

“We are still getting – I think this is an important point, despite everything in terms of the culture and all of the rest – we are still getting men from Ireland who are discerning this call and to me anyway that’s a sign of great hope,” he told The Irish Catholic.

Maynooth now remains Ireland’s only seminary since the Church decided earlier this year not to send seminarians to the Pontifical Irish College in Rome after almost 400 years of forming young men for the priesthood in Ireland.

In addition to the men at Maynooth, the other aspirants are spread between the Redemptoris Mater in Dundalk, Co. Louth, the Royal Scots College in Spain, the Royal English College in Spain and the Pontifical Beda College and the Venerable English College in Rome.