Thursday, June 2, 2016

Priestly 'vocations'

David Quinn writes on vocations to priesthood in the current issue of The Irish Catholic.

The heading on the piece runs: 'Dynamically orthodox seminaries attract vocations: Is Maynooth one of those?'

At one stage in the article he tells the reader that if he were honest he doesn't like writing about Maynooth.

It's a flimsy piece, based on some of his hunches but all the time influenced by a worrying understanding of church, laced with a theme of right-wing palaver.

David Quinn keeps referring to the US church as a template. No, thank you.

Why the particular stock picture?

In another article in the same paper Gerard Dunne, former vocations director with the Dominicans writes:

What the Church wants are holy priests, men of prayer with a deep relationship with God. If seminaries are looking for anything other than that, then the calibre of future priests in Ireland and beyond will be lacking.

Some weeks back respected Jesuit priest Peter McVerry in an interview on RTE Television spoke how his understanding of God has changed over the years. He explained how these days he has stopped looking up to the heavens to find God, instead he finds God in the world in which he lives.

Surely a priest, above all, has to be interested in people?

A seminary that does not look for that aspect in a man's character must be suspect.


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