Fifteen students begin priesthood training for Irish dioceses
Fifteen new students have begun their training for the priesthood for the academic year 2026 – 2027. In total, there are now 74 seminarians in formation training to minister for Irish dioceses, and these are:
- 15 entering their Propaedeutic Year in various seminaries;
- 51 are studying in the national seminary of Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, and at the Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Dundalk; and,
- 8 are based in seminaries on the continent.
Welcoming the new seminarian figures, Bishop Phonsie Cullinan of Waterford and Lismore, who serves as chair of the Council for Vocations of the Bishops’ Conference, said, “The number of those in training for Diocesan priesthood continues to rise. While the increase is modest, it is very encouraging. I believe that young men, and not so young, are discovering the personal love of Jesus Christ for them. They are not satisfied with the emptiness and shallowness of much in the culture around them. In various ways through the Church they are hearing the call to priesthood. Let us encourage them and continue to beg the Lord for all the graces they will need to fan into a flame the spark which has been placed in their hearts and minds.”
Also welcoming the news, Father Willie Purcell, National Vocations Coordinator for Diocesan Priesthood, emphasised the significance of their commitment and generosity, “Even in a secular world, we witness how ordinary lives are shaped in extraordinary ways. The arrival of our new seminarians reminds us that the call to the diocesan priesthood remains vibrant. Their generosity reflects the openness of young men today to hearing and responding to that call, and is a source of great encouragement for the Catholic Church in Ireland.”
The Propaedeutic Year is the first of the four mandatory stages of seminary formation: (i) Propaedeutic; (ii) Discipleship (Philosophical Studies); (iii) Configuration (Theological Studies); and (iv) Vocational Synthesis. This initial year takes place in a recognised seminary approved by the Irish Bishops’ Conference and the Holy See, whose “principal objective is to provide a solid basis for the spiritual life and nurture a greater self-awareness for spiritual growth” on behalf of the seminarian (cf. Directory for Priestly Formation in Irish Seminaries (2023) #160. It provides an indispensable help to the seminarian on his path of formation towards diocesan priesthood. Upon completion the seminarian, with the nomination of his bishop, then applies to a seminary to continue his formation for an Irish diocese.
ENDS
Notes for Editors
- The National Vocations Office of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference was responsible for managing the 2023–2024 Year for Vocation to the Diocesan Priesthood. For information on priesthood in Ireland and for contact details for local diocesan vocations directors, please contact info@vocations.ie and see vocations.ie.
- In recent years, the number of seminarians who began their academic programme and priestly formation for Irish dioceses were: in 2010, 16; in 2011, 18; in 2012, 12; in 2013, 20; in 2014, 14; in 2015, 17; in 2016, 14; in 2017, 19; in 2018, 17; in 2019, 15; in 2020, 13; in 2021, 9; in 2022, 10; in 2023, 15; in 2024, 21; and in 2025 there were 13 seminarians.
In another post earlier this week, I asked His Excellency Bishop Cullinan to investigate why the excommunicated SSPX has a booming Vocations Situation.
The SSPX Ratio: The SSPX operates globally with just 733 priests. Bringing in 68 new seminarians this year means their incoming class is equivalent to 9.2% of their total active clergy.
The Irish Church Ratio: The Irish Catholic Church has approximately 2,100 active or semi-active priests across its 26 dioceses. Bringing in 15 new seminarians means their incoming class represents a minuscule 0.7% of their total active clergy.
Is the Holy Ghost telling us something?
Right-wing ideology and traditionalist movements like SSPX are on the rise.
Professor Abou Chadi writes that in EU countries SIXTY percent of young men under thirty would consider voting for the far right. BBC reported that in Germany research indicated that anxiety was highest among these supporters. Anxiety is the anticipation of a future, potential threat. The search for absolute authority which gives clear rules and a sense of certainty draws them to SSPX. On the other hand…
The Roman Catholic Church allows doubt as part of the journey of faith.
Although the RC church admits to uncertainty and present day challenges it’s message is: Fear not for God is with us and God’s message is love.
As the SSPX movement rejects the principle of religious freedom it would logically restore the Inquisition in any country that made it the state religion – refusing to learn anything from the emergence of the Anti-Christian Enlightenment in western Europe in the 18th century. It is Constantinan, not Christian – unable to accept Jesus’ solemn warning of his followers against ‘lording it’ over others.
So conclusive is the historical evidence that political power did indeed corrupt the church and sabotage the New Creation of St Paul that any nominally Christian movement that refuses to absorb this lesson is simply intellectually in denial and functionally irrational. Even Chinese Christians can see that what happened to Christianity in the West – that church-state alliance – is the last thing they should wish for in China.
Only young men who are historically uneducated could want ordination by an SSPX bishop, one of whom denied even the true toll of the Holocaust. The SSPX is simply fundamentalist, the ultimate denialist distortion of the Gospel – relatively harmless only so long as it never realises its ambition to recreate the confessional Catholic state.
Sounds like the SSPX is a cult whose most virulent members are priests and seminarians. I asked Claude.com for statistics and got this reply:
SSPX doesn’t have “lay members” in a formal sense at all. Canonically it’s a “society of common life without vows” whose only actual members are its incardinated priests (plus professed brothers, oblates, and religious sisters in its affiliated congregations). SSPX’s own Ireland bulletin states this explicitly: “The only members of the Society in Ireland are the priests incardinated in the Society and living in the priories of the Society… The faithful attending our churches and chapels are not members of the Society.”
Clergy/religious (as of Nov 1, 2025): 1,482 total members — 2 bishops, 733 priests, 264 seminarians, 145 brothers, 88 oblates, 250 sisters.
Lay adherents: the standard cited estimate is between 500,000 and 600,000 worldwide, based on a 2007 Vatican Ecclesia Dei Commission figure that’s still the most-quoted number today.
That works out to roughly 400–800 lay faithful per priest worldwide (or ~350–400 per “member” if you count all clergy/religious).
France
The most commonly cited lay figure is old: 100,000 faithful associated with the SSPX in France (Quid 2007) — France has always held roughly a fifth of the global SSPX faithful, reflecting its origins there. No current official clergy count for the France district is public in these sources, but a useful local snapshot: at the Nantes priories, about 1 priest per 200 lay faithful at Sunday Mass.
Ireland is administered jointly with Great Britain as one district, and it has always been small. A 2009 SSPX-Ireland bulletin listed five priests incardinated in the Society and living in the three residences of the Society, and one professed religious brother — six clergy/religious total for the whole country at that time.
I don’t have a precise current lay-faithful count for Ireland; historically it’s been a few hundred to low thousands attending Mass centres in Dublin, Athlone, Cork, Belfast/Newry, and a few other Mass centres, spread across a handful of priests. That would put Ireland’s lay-to-clergy ratio in a similar range to elsewhere (low hundreds of faithful per priest), but this is an inference, not a published statistic.
Bottom line: worldwide the ratio is very roughly 400–800 lay faithful for every priest; France, being SSPX’s historic heartland, likely runs at the low end of that range (maybe 100–250:1 in well-served areas like Nantes); Ireland is a small mission field with only a handful of priests, so its ratio depends heavily on how many lay adherents are actually counted — a number nobody publishes with any precision.
I am not sure what the Holy Spirit is telling us through these statistics, but it could be telling us that this group claiming to be the only true Catholics and rejecting Vatican II is in fact a cultic formation, not a wholesome manifestation of the people of God. And that is in fact what the Church has concluded, as seen in the excommunication of SSPX members by Pope Leo (latae sententiae in the case of the schismatic ordaining and ordained bishops, more nuanced for priests and lay adherents, affecting only those who “formally adhere” to SSPX).
Joe,
I fully accept as a man adhering formally to the SSPX Schism, that Leo XIV has rendered his Verdict as head of the Synodal Church.
I dispute that his Verdict is that of the Holy Ghost. Synodality isn’t of the Holy Ghost.
I strongly recommend Joe, that you read Catholic Revivalism versus a Synodal Church by Professor William Thomas, a Galway man and former Classmate of Leo XIV. He is a prominent orthodox Roman Catholic Theologian and professor of Mariology. Possibly you know him.
Anyhow as my sojourn in Hospital continues, I am at peace. I believe in the Faith that was handed to me under the non Synodal Tradidi Quod et Accepi principle.
The indelible mark of my Baptism in Westminster Cathedral all those years ago cannot be effaced by Leo XIV.
I won’t live to see how all this plays out but, remember that not all excommunications are Valid.
On a slightly different topic, I note that the American takeover or makeover of Irish Catholicism continues apace. Ave Maria University of Florida has appropriated Mount Melleray. They are well known for the cult of St Charlie Kirk: https://angelusnews.com/arts-culture/jesus-charlie-kirk-sculpture/
Wow! What is a dangerous illusion?