ARCHBISHOP John Bathersby of Brisbane has responded to criticism of the archdiocese’s record of attracting candidates to the priesthood, saying it is only part of the picture and he does not wish to take the Church backwards.
He was responding to comments by author Michael Gilchrist at the Melbourne launch of his new book Lost!, in which he claimed “lukewarm” Catholicism had resulted in a major decline in the number of priests being ordained and points to Queensland being the worst state in Australia to attract students to its seminary.
Seven students are studying at Holy Spirit Seminary in Brisbane for the Queensland Church. This compares with 44 in Sydney, 41 in Melbourne and 20 in Perth, according to Mr Gilchrist.
Archbishop Bathersby said in a letter to The Courier-Mail on October 24 that it was one thing to judge local Churches by the number of young men seeking priesthood, and another thing to examine the vitality, vision and involvement of the people of God at a local level.
Holy Spirit Seminary rector Fr Michael McCarthy said several recent initiatives in the archdiocese were helping to turn around the low number of seminarians.
