Irish churches desperately look for priests

Ireland's Catholic churches may soon be left without sufficient priests to run their routine affairs, the Time magazine writes.

Earlier this month, the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, had made a grim prediction about the future of the church in Ireland: "If more young priests aren't found quickly, the country's parishes may soon not have enough clergy to survive," Archbishop Martin said.

The archbishop told the congregation at St. Mary's Pro-Cathedral in Dublin that his diocese had 46 priests ages 80 or older but only two under 35.

It is a similar story all over the island. According to a 2007 study of Catholic dioceses in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, about half of all priests are aged between 55 and 74.

The ordination of a family member was once regarded as a moment of great prestige, especially in rural areas.

Even as recently as 1990, over 80% of Irish people said they attended Mass at least once a week. But the country's relationship with the church began to change dramatically in the mid-1990s, when Ireland's economy began to take off, ushering in years of unprecedented growth.

Soon, disaffection replaced devotion among Ireland's newly rich younger generation. Most devastating of all, however, were the sex-abuse scandals involving pedophile priests that surfaced around the same time.

But more was still to come. Last May, the government published the findings of a nine-year inquiry into child abuse at church-run schools, orphanages and hospitals from the 1930s to the 1990s.

The report, which described "endemic sexual abuse" at boys' schools and the "daily terror" of physical abuse at other institutions, shook Ireland to its core and left the reputation of the church and the religious orders that ran its schools in tatters.

Then, this week, another government inquiry found that the church and police colluded to cover up numerous cases of child sex abuse by priests in the Dublin archdiocese from 1975 to 2004, prompting the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady, to apologize to the Irish people.

"No one is above the law in this country," he said. There are now calls for similar inquiries to be held in every diocese in Ireland.

Vincent Cushnahan, 29, the youngest serving priest in Ireland, says the church needs to carry out structural reforms, such as cutting the number of parishes (and, therefore, the number of priests required to fill them) and giving greater responsibilities to laypeople.

In some Irish parishes, for example, non-ordained church members are now responsible for roles like youth ministry.

Cushnahan knows how hard it is for the church to recruit young men these days and he himself had to face the challenging decision. "I had to forsake married life, my own house and money," he says.

"[Being a priest] can be more isolating and countercultural than it has been in the past. It's more challenging, but also more rewarding because of that."

Irish report condemns 'cover-up' of child abuse by Catholic church

Dublin - The Irish government Thursday vowed to bring pedophile priests to justice after a new report revealed that the Roman Catholic Church had covered up the "systematic abuse" of children while the state turned a blind eye. The report by a long-running commission published at the end of a three-year probe concluded that "hundreds of crimes" were committed against defenseless children in the diocese of Dublin between 1975 and 2004.

It said the Catholic Church hierarchy in Ireland was "granted immunity to cover up child sex abuse" while the authorities enjoyed a "cosy relationship with the church."

Justice Minister Dermot Ahern, who offered a government apology for what happened, said that the offenders would be brought to court regardless of the time that has passed.

"The persons who committed these dreadful crimes - no matter when they happened - will continue to be pursued. They must come to know that there is no hiding place. That justice - even where it may have been delayed - will not be denied," said Ahern.

The inquiry, which examined a total of 100,000 files, was based on a sample of complaints involving 320 children and 46 priests, of whom 11 have already been convicted.

It revealed that four former archbishops did not pass on the information they were given on the abuse cases to the authorities and alleged that the police treated the clergy "as though they were above the law."

The state authorities had facilitated the cover-up by failing to ensure that the law was applied equally to all and by permitting the church institutions to be "beyond the reach of the normal law enforcement process."

The report found that children were beaten, humiliated and raped. It listed one priest as having abused more than 100 children and said another had admitted abuse on a fortnightly basis during his 25-year ministry.

In May, a separate report detailed decades of abuse in schools, borstals and reformatories run by religious orders, affecting thousands of children.

"There is no escaping the cruel irony that the Church, partly motivated by a desire to avoid scandal, in fact created a scandal on an astonishing scale," said Ahern.

"In many cases, the welfare of children counted for nothing and abusers were left free to abuse - to visit evil on the innocent," he added.