Shortage of Catholic priests.

I knew a lad from Sierra Leone who said a church service wasn't any good unless it lasted at least three hours, had loads of singing and food etc.. It's a weekly festival by the sound of it.

I feel this is fundamental to the RCC and its continuing decline. More and more, people simply can't be arsed with them or frankly religion in general. Go back one or two generations, you'll still get true believers who fully signed up to the whole Jesus package. Thereafter we get people who proceed with all of the various religious rights out of social obligation, followed by those who do this due to familial pressure or expectations. But once we get to the point of those who were baptised / confirmed simply to appease a relative, we're into a sort of end game. That final generation isn't going to apply the same pressure onto their own children, and so in coming decades you are going to likely see a very large drop in the numbers of people even getting baptised.

While all that happens, the amount people who even believe in a god is deminishing. The business of being a priest in Ireland will face a terminal decline…quite literally since those who actually attend church and apply pressure on family members to undergo religious rites on their children, will be dying off. This may take decades, but it's likely to happen within the lifetime of many of us. The RCC will likely still exist, but in Ireland it will probably be reduced considerably.

No there's one reason with regard to Islam.

People are afraid to be critical of Islam, given the majority of its members are non white and lot are immigrants here. Therefore they are afraid of being called racists or xenophobes by having legitimate observations in relation to the muslim faith. Only white people can be racist you know

From the Muslim men I regularly speak to, at beach or in local playground ( I don't get to speak to the women 😀)

1. Homosexuals should be ashamed and keep their heads down. Not big fans of pride week
2. women's place is primarily in the home
3. Society needs a strong religion to keep people in their place.

1950's Catholicism reinvented.

Conspiracy theory forum is probably more suitable.

Islam doesn't have substantial influence over our schools. Islam hasn't covered up generations of abuse and failed to compensate the many victims in the country. It's pretty clear why Irish people would feel stronger about Catholicism.

https://www.whitelawpllc.com/faqs/how-prevalent-is-clergy-abuse-in-different-religions/#:~:text=How%20Prevalent%20Is%20Clergy%20Abuse%20in%20Islamic%20Communities%3F,cases%20tend%20to%20go%20unreported.

Interesting take from lawyers representing victims of sexual abuse.

Given much of the Muslim world is conservative or ultra conservative I'd bet my bottom dollar disclosure in that community is about where it was here when De Valera was Taoiseach

I always assumed that came from parish funds collected as mass and envelops.

If so I reckon cash flow took a massive hit during lockdowns. I won't be surprised if they coast on for years selling off property.

Good auld fr.Hernandez.

Haha I laughed out loud at this.

It's all part of "the plan".

Why the RCC hate for children they abused?

Why the RCC hate for societies that they lied to?

To be fair, I've never heard a muslim say "it's all part of God's/Allah's great plan!" dismissively.

I do not at all think "hate" and "mockery" are the same thing or that having one means you have the other. I would "mock" certain beliefs because they are genuinely hilarious myself. And quite a lot of comedians have used religious beliefs for material very well.

Dave Allen used to have a great bit about Adam and Eve.

Eddie Izzard has a good one about Jesus appearing in heaven after crucifixion and sheepishly telling his da how he might have instigated a cult of cannibalism and vampirism.

And Ari Shaffir has a wonderful hour and a half free on you tube about how patently hilarious and ridiculous many Jewish beliefs are. The bit about how there is different ways of scapegoating sin and his dad chose the most graphic and traumatizing to do with his son when he could have taken him to feed bread to fish instead was hilarious. And I nearly split my sides about the special Jewish book that is essentially a FAQ on applying jewish beliefs in specific scenarios like what to do if your wife starts her period during sex - or how in the after life Jews have to meet the deformed children born of each and every time the Jew masturbated.

Many Religious Beliefs are genuinely hilarious and prime for mockery and jokes and jest. Even by the religious themselves sometimes. For all his other faults for example - I think the Rabbi David Wolpe is a genuinely funny man who can laugh at himself and his religion as readily as anyone else.

All that said though there is a phrase for your "You wouldn't do this to muslims would you" rhetoric. It's called Fatwa Envy. The truth is many people very much do say the same things about Islam as every other religion. For example that both Christianity and Islam are essentially a Personality Cult.

But the thread is about the shortage of priests or people entering religious vocation so it is important to keep all of the above in context and on topic. And I reckon one aspect of many involved in the shortage of vocation is people relying too heavily on taking it all seriously and clinging to hard to solemnity. Of all the priests I have ever met the ones who were both the happiest and the most effective in their role as a priest - were the ones who could laugh at themselves and their vocation at the same time as finding it serious and transcendent. And those priests had absolutely no concept that mockery and humor and irony were automatically indicative of - or born of - hate. And the resulting enjoyment of their career and life means they were probably most likely to recommend that career to others - or be an inspiration to others to follow them in a similar career.

If someone wants more vocations to the church - they could start therefore by not taking it all so seriously vicariously on behalf of those priests or that church. Make people realize that such a career can be as much fun and funny as it can be serious and meaningful. And that none of these things are at all mutually exclusive.

The difference between the two is that islam does not have the political power to force non-adherents to live their lives as islam sees fit.