Thursday, November 12, 2009

Vocations growing in spite of abuse findings

A growing number of men and women are entering the religious life, less than six months after the Ryan Commission's horrific revelations.

A nationwide vocations conference has heard new green shoots are growing despite the report of systematic abuse by religious orders of children in institutional care.

The meeting brought 95 vocation directors together, representing 75pc of the country's 9,000 members of religious orders, to assess the current vocations picture in Ireland.

"There are men and women entering the priesthood and religious life today, even in these post-Ryan report times," Sr Eileen Linehan, IBVM, director of Vocations Ireland, said at the organisation's annual meeting yesterday at Emmaus, Swords, Co Dublin.

One of the main challenges for vocations directors was getting the attention of the 20-30-year-olds, according to Sr Eileen.

"Their secular culture doesn't afford them the kind of space and tranquillity needed to get in touch with their deeper selves," she said.

"It seems to take them another decade before they recognise their spiritual hunger and desire for a more purposeful and meaningful existence."

Sr Eileen said religious today were adopting a more proactive approach to vocations promotion and this was paying off.

Although no overall recruitment statistics were cited, individual religious spoke enthusiastically about how new members were joining their particular organisations and breathing new life and direction into the activities of their aged memberships.

Fr Gerard Dunne, OP, told the meeting that the Dominicans this year saw 13 men join their order in September.

"When I started this job of vocations director in 2000 we had one man in formation out of a province of 200," said Fr Dunne. "That represented 0.5pc.

"Currently, the Dominicans have 24 being trained out of a province of 180 priests and nuns, which is about 14pc.

"So we are looking at a growth from the bottom up rather than the top down," added Fr Dunne, predicting that next year the Dominicans were hopeful that there may be up to six new members joining.

Mercy Sister Anne Doyle, the outgoing chairperson of Vocations Ireland, said that despite the fallout of the Ryan report, her Order had seen six women join over the last few years in their south-central province, and interest among women about joining was growing in the northern, southern and western provinces.

Sr Anne said what was most interesting over her four years as chairperson was the considerable increase in "the vibrancy of Vocations Ireland and its vocations directors".

This, she added, was despite the fact that people mightn't have been entering.

Interest

"Even the few who are entering religious life are a source of excitement and interest and support for others," she said.

In a keynote address, Benedictine monk Dom Gregory Collins said that a calling to religious life had to have more to it than just the social work dimension.

And he challenged the view which presents secularism and Christianity in a head-on collision.

"There is no such thing as secularism," said Dom Gregory.

"There is only God's Earth, which is filled with His glory.

"We are not taking the message to a world in which there is no God, we are taking it to one which is already filled with the glory of God but doesn't know it," he added.
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