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| Bishop Cullinan with Seminarians in Maynooth, March 2023 |
Next Sunday 21st April, is Good Shepherd Sunday (a reference to the Gospel of the day from John 10.11-18 which begins "I am the good shepherd"). Given that theme, it is also known as Vocations Sunday. A special Year of Vocations to the Diocesan Priesthood was launched on Good Shepherd Sunday last year (30th April) and will close this coming Sunday. Bishop Alphonsus Cullinan (Waterford and Llismore), Chair of the Bishops' Council of Vocations, was the main organiser of the year. He is pictured in the photo above with three clerical students, two Irish and one Czech, in our National Seminary at Maynooth. (The photo is taken from the website of the Bishops' Conference here.) So how did the year go? Read Bishop Cullinan's summary below, taken from The Irish Catholic, 21 March 2024 (p.15).
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| The Irish Catholic, 21.3.'24. |
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Pull-Up Banner on display in
Pugin Hall, Maynooth College |
All in all, then, food for thought, as we look round today at the situation in our parish, our diocese, our country and beyond, wondering and asking ourselves questions about the decline in the number of priests ‒ and what that might be saying to us.
