In the wake of child abuse scandal, Irish priets are an endangered species

Priests are an endangered species in Ireland, Irish Central reports. Dublin's Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said:

We have 46 priests over 80 and only two less than 35 years of age. In a very short time we will just have the bare number of priests required to have one active priest for each of our 199 parishes. ... priests over 70 years of age outnumbered priests under 40 by 10 to one.

Father Brendan Hoban, parish priest at St. Muredach's Cathedral in Ballina, County Mayo, said "The difficult truth is that priests will have effectively disappeared in Ireland in two to three decades."

Martin acknowledged that the massive child sex abuse scandal affected recruitment. Investigation revealed 'epidemic' rape and child sex abuse of Irish children in Catholic care. Full publication of the explosive clerical sex abuse report is being postponed, and could be delayed for years.

Archbishop Martin's indication that the church must repent, when there is public foot-dragging on getting the full story told, seems less than comforting.