The number of aspiring priests in Ireland is finally on the rise with 20 students enrolling to be clerics when the new college year begins next month.
Maynooth College in County Kildare will admit the wannabe priests in September as 37,500 students begin third level education in Ireland.
The college will welcome 20 clerical students for the new term, up eight on last year’s figures. Many of them have already completed other university courses.
Their studies will take seven years in total including a three to four year degree course before completing their religious studies at St Patrick’s College in Maynooth.
Monsignor Hugh Connolly, the president of the Kildare college, told the Irish Examiner that this is one of the biggest numbers of new entrants in recent years.
He said: “Most have been through college, but there is a huge variety of qualifications among them. ”This year, they have studied things like quantity surveying, human resources, finance, history and politics, computers and maths, some have come from full-time jobs.”
Monsignor Connolly confirmed that most of the new batch of clerical students are in their mid-20s. Continue reading