IN reply to issues raised (CL 5/9/04) by Columban Father Charles Rue, if we are to realistically tackle the shortage of priests in Australia, we need first to look seriously to the roots of this problem and to the supply of priests in the past – our own Church history.
Australia has never been self-sufficient in supplying priests. Most of the priests came from overseas, mainly Irish.
To speak of these priests from overseas as foreigners, to me, seems derogatory as the priests that Australia send overseas fall into the same category. We used to call them missionaries.
Australia has no chance of increasing vocations while the base from which they are expected to be drawn has been decimated.
Surveys have shown that as little as two and a half per cent of students leaving Catholic schools are practising Catholics, and in some parishes, as little as 6 per cent are practising Catholics.
On entering many churches, one of the main criteria seems to be ‘have you got grey hair?’
We have to be honest and realise, as many parents can attest to, our Catholic education has failed our children, or have we as parents also failed because we believed that Catholic education would provide and nurture the faith that we were so privileged to receive?
I thank God for the so-called ‘foreign’ priests I have known and the sacraments they have provided me with.
I am in the twilight years of my life and may be denied a priest at my death bed and the wonderful privilege of a requiem Mass which the laity cannot provide.
There is no more validity in denying the importing of overseas priests where they are available than there is for denying our priests going to needy countries.
There is no convincing argument in denying us the benefit of Polish, Indian, French, Irish or any available priests.
Maybe the real concern is that these priests will be too traditional in their Catholicism.
HARRY GREEN
Bucasia, Qld
