Only 16 Irish men will begin seminary training in Ireland this fall, down from 43 last year, and down from triple digits in the 1980's. In the longer term, the number of priests in Ireland is expected to fall from 4700 to 1500 in 2028. The number of Irish women joining religious societies has declined by 50% since 2002.
For the past five years, the Irish church has been rocked by the pedophilia scandal and its cover-up by high church officials.
The average age for a priest in Ireland in currently 63 whilst clergymen over the age of 70 currently outnumber those under 40 by ten to one.
The true extent of the crisis was laid bare in 2008 when the Irish church admitted that 160 priests had died that year with only nine new ordinations.
The decline in vocations mirrors what has been happening in the United States. In the 1970's, there were about 8000 students in Roman Catholic seminaries in the US. Today, that figure is around 1300.
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