The Changed Reality of Being a Catholic Priest in Today’s Ireland

Abstract

Setting the scene I was ordained a Catholic priest on 8 June 1986. That is nearly forty years ago, indeed probably half my lifetime. Over the decades since then, my personal reflections along with my conversations with family members, colleagues and parishioners have persuaded me that the experience of being a priest in Ireland in 2022 differs greatly from that of the 1980s and earlier times. It is frequently said that change in the hierarchical Church happens incredibly slowly, usually occurring over centuries, as the Church trundles along rather like a huge millwheel moving almost undetectably. Irrespective of the pace of change within the Church, the past half century has witnessed a major transformation in how the institutional Church in particular and Catholicism in general are perceived in Ireland; the reality is that contemporary Irish society, similar to other Western democracies, is becoming increasingly secular, individualistic and materialistic.