The Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, said yesterday that "a substantial number of parishes [in the archdiocese] will have to accept a reduction in the number of priests."
He was speaking yesterday at the ordination of Father Victor Fitzpatrick (28), at the Church of the Resurrection in Bayside. It was the first, and only, ordination to the Catholic priesthood in Dublin this year.
Currently there are 13 men studying for the priesthood in Maynooth, for service in Dublin. So far this year, two new candidates for the priesthood have been accepted in the archdiocese.
Father Fitzpatrick is the youngest son of Mr Joseph and Mrs Pauline Fitzpatrick. A past pupil of Pobal Scoil Neasain in Baldoyle, he left school in 1994 and worked with an accountancy firm before entering Clonliffe College in 1996.
In a homily yesterday Archbishop Martin said he had been "humbled by the dedication and enthusiasm" shown by so many priests in Dublin.
He told Father Fitzpatrick, "you join in a great tradition of service, of witness and of holiness." Generally he said, "we must speak more, and more enthusiastically, about vocations. We must overcome any hesitancy we may have had about doing so in the past."
There was "no hiding that the ministry of the priest is a difficult one today. But it is a challenging one," he said.