A road less travelled

Religious orders are struggling to find novitiates. Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent, hears from one of a rare breed

"Not so long ago we fêted young men and women who joined religious orders. Their vocations gave them an unequalled standing: we regarded them as superior creatures, closer to God than mere mortals. But the scandals of recent years have changed that.

Brother Dan Kelly, one of just six men training for the Franciscan order in Ireland today, horrified his family when he told them he planned to enter religious life. His friends too. It was 1996, just two years after the revelations about Father Brendan Smyth, whose paedophilia was so badly handled by Church authorities.

Indeed, although he might wince at the comparison, Brother Kelly's vocation was forged in similar circumstance to that of his order's founder, St Francis of Assisi. Then too the Church was in disrepute of its own making, and his family too opposed his decision to follow the religious life.

Brother Kelly is from near Strabane, in Co Tyrone, where he attended St Colman's College. Then he studied psychology for two years at the University of Ulster at Coleraine before, in 1995, setting out on a road increasingly less travelled. First he took a year out to establish what he wanted to do. He had already spent some time with the Benedictines at Glenstal Abbey, in Co Limerick, and the Cistercians at Mount St Joseph Abbey, in Co Tipperary, before realising monastic life was not for him. He wrote to the Dominicans and to the Franciscans. The former sent a glossy brochure with a compliments slip; he got a personal, hand-written letter from Father John O'Keefe of the Franciscans.

So at Easter 1996 he and about 20 other young men went for an introductory seminar on the Franciscan life at the friary in Killarney, Co Kerry. He liked what he heard and made a decision. His parents thought he was out of his tree. To say they resisted is putting it mildly. They "actively tried to discourage me", he says. "It was traumatic." His family, who go to Mass on Sundays, have a strong faith. But Killarney was a powerful experience. "I knew it was right. I had no doubt," says Brother Kelly, who appreciated the Franciscan emphasis on "living the Gospel to the full". It was about being the life rather than just doing the life, he says.

Before he could join he was interviewed by three lay psychologists. His postulancy began in September 1996 at the order's house in Terenure, in Dublin. That first year he spent time working at Our Lady's Hospice nearby, at the order's drugs and homelessness project on Merchants Quay and at its friary in Waterford.

There followed a year at the Franciscan novitiate house in England, south-east of London, where he was instructed in the writings of St Francis as well as the Gospels and where he was presented with his habit. The year confirmed everything he felt. "I fell into it head and heart," he says.

In August 1998 he took his vows - of poverty, chastity and obedience - at the Franciscan abbey in Multyfarnam, Co Westmeath. These were a "temporary profession". Novitiates take vows at this stage for three, five, six or even nine years, only then making a final profession. (Brother Kelly will make his final profession this summer.) Next he spent three years in Rome, where he disliked the study but loved working with people and "straying" around Italy, including Assisi.

From 2001 he was at the order's north Belfast friary for a year. He had experienced nothing like it. "I never saw that life growing up," he says of the sectarianism, "the hatred on people's faces." He was assaulted and spat at by gangs of young people, including in republican areas, where there was a strong anticlerical element.

Since 2002, back in Terenure, he has been studying theology at Milltown Institute of Theology and Philosophy while working at St Luke's Hospital, in Rathgar, and teaching religious education at St Mary's College in Rathmines. He is 30 this year, and his life has taken its shape. (The six men training for the order in Ireland are aged between 25 and 32. The Franciscans have a policy of no longer taking anyone directly from school.)

Being a Franciscan is about stripping away worldly ties and trusting in God's providence, according to Brother Kelly. When you "start taking on things you become tied down". It is, in part, why he doesn't plan to be ordained a priest. That way he can avoid the encumbrances of the role but still, as he sees it, bring the Gospel to the community.

He likes to confront people's perceptions of him as unusual. The experience with his parents - "people who loved me absolutely" - had been invaluable. "I couldn't do this, they told me." Similarly with friends. "The first thing they thought of was the sex," he says. He once turned to them in a pub and asked: "With all this chat of a promiscuous society, when was the last time you had sex?" Their replies were muted.

"It takes a while, but when people see it's genuine they accept it," he says of his vocation. His family have also come around. "They have got to know the friars. They see I am content and happy."

He claims not to be depressed at the decline in vocations, which means the average age in his order is now in the early to mid-60s, although "it can be very hard sometimes being young and seeing the Church in decline". But he recalls too that the Church was "in total decline in the times of Francis".

Six of the order's friaries in Ireland are to close - such are the cycles of growth and decline, he reflects - and the order is refocusing its work in response (see panel, below left).

The reform is "quite visionary", says Brother Kelly, who points out the excitement with which older Franciscans recall reforms in the order at the beginning of the 20th century and the energy they released. He believes the same will happen now. Ireland's Franciscans "have overcome the fear of disappearing and the fixation on numbers".

Facing up to the future

Last month the Franciscan order announced that by 2009 it would be unable to provide full-time resident friars for Multyfarnam, in Co Westmeath; Limerick; Carrick-on-Suir and Clonmel, in Co Tipperary; Wexford; and Rossnowlagh, in Co Donegal.

The Irish Franciscan presence in Rome and Brussels is also under discussion.

In 1970 the order had more than 400 members in Ireland. Now it has 120, of which about 80 are priests and about 40 are brothers.

The order, which was founded by

St Francis of Assisi in 1209, is said to have been in Ireland since 1228. Its foundation at Multyfarnam is understood to date from that century.

The Irish friars say they decided to reorganise their communities to give the order a stronger presence, if in fewer locations.

The worldwide order's new minister general, José Carballo, recently called on its friars to return to the fundamentals of community life, prayer and the service of the people, especially the poor.

Father Ulic Troy, head of Irish Franciscans, said in response: "We face the future with hope, believing that the gospel values of Francis of Assisi offer a great deal to people in their search for Christ, for peace and for a fairer world for all.