KIERAN P. DOOLEY,
Sir, - I refer to Jim Mitchell's Rite and Reason article in your issue of July 23rd. He highlights the sense of anger among Catholics, lay and clerical, on the issue of clerical child sex-abuse and the inadequate and reluctant response of the bishops.
He refers to the Pope being "aware that the shortage of clergy and nuns in the Western church will get more acute as each year passes" and that the running of parishes will have to be handed over to the laity. The Pope's current visit to Toronto for World Youth Day is to encourage and equip young people "to participate more fully in future parish and church administration".
The decline in vocations and the consequent drop in the numbers of religious in the Western church predates the recent child sex-abuse and other clerical sexually related events. The trend has been progressive since the early 1960s and shows no sign of reversing.
On a global scale, the Vatican can show that vocations and ordinations of priests are increasing. This, however, is primarily due to the pattern in Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe. There seems to be an inverse ratio between economic and educational development and the number of seminarians: the higher the standard of living, the lower the number of vocations.
This raises a very profound question. Is there a basic incompatibility between the democratic principles underpinning the economies and way of life of developed countries and the propagation of the church's mission?
The dearth of vocations points in that direction. Quo vadis! - Yours, etc.,
KIERAN P. DOOLEY, Knocknacree Grove, Dalkey, Co Dublin.