The Bishop of Achonry says he believes the idea of long term commitment is one of the biggest challenges regarding the recruitment of new priests for the church today.
Bishop Paul Dempsey was talking in the context of the ever decreasing number of priests around the country, and the very low numbers of new entries.
Announcing changes in the Achonry Diocese last week which left one parish without a resident priest for the first time, Bishop Dempsey said circumstances are changing very quickly and everyone needs to be more open to different possibilities into the future.
Speaking on the Let's Talk show this afternoon the Bishop said he feels long term commitment is a challenge both for marriage and the priesthood in our changing society, and it isn't easily addressed.
Some people sort of think that maybe in the morning if Pope Francis was going to allow married priests or whatever that all our problems would be solved.
I don't necessarily believe that.
I think there are far bigger challenges out there today, the whole senses of maybe making a commitment to something, or someone, for the rest of your life .
Nowadays we commit ourselves to a job or whatever it is for x number of years, but we know we can always change and go another direction , so that sense of giving life commitment to something is very different in today's culture , from what it would have been in the past.
