A Killarney man who was ordained to the priesthood last August had a brief and unsuspecting cameo role in a high-profile documentary about the decline in vocations screened on RTÉ on Monday night.
The Last Priests in Ireland was presented by actor and comedian Ardal O’Hanlon who compared clergy numbers in contemporary Ireland to the time he was born in 1965 and examined the many major changes that have occurred, for a variety of reasons.
The average age of priests in Ireland is now over 70 but the documentary featured one brief segment of Mass in Knock Shrine where the celebrant informed the congregation of the presence in the church of a youthful Fr Mark Moriarty.
From Aghadoe in Killarney, he was ordained in St Mary’s Cathedral just five months ago and he is now ministering in St John’s Parish in Tralee.
Picture: Marie Carroll-O’Sullivan
O’Hanlon said it was little wonder that Fr Moriarty received a round of applause in Knock as he was only one of two priests ordained in the Diocese of Kerry over the past 16 years.
Fr Seán Jones, from Moyvane and now serving in Killarney, was ordained in 2018 but until then there had been no ordination in the diocese since 2007 when Fr Bernard Healy, from Tralee, took his priestly vows.
There were 400 priests ordained the year the Fr Ted star was born but last year it was down to just 10.
The comedian, who was raised in a typically devout Catholic family and educated by priests, asked viewers what would be lost if the present generation of Irish priests was the last?
The documentary reflected on how Catholic clergy once influenced every aspect of society but O’Hanlon wondered aloud what would be lost if religious vocations continue to decline?
The second episode in the two-part documentary, The Last Nuns in Ireland, will be presented tonight by journalist Dearbhail McDonald.
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