International agency hired to promote vocations

An International agency has been retained to help attract new vocations in the Archdiocese of Tuam - territorially the most extensive diocese in the Irish Catholic Church.

A website, freephone number and a bilingual advertising campaign are key elements of the strategy drawn up for the archdiocese by Quantum Advertising Group International.

Men in their late teens and early 20s are to be targeted in a drive which will be initiated this evening in Westport, Co Mayo, by the Archbishop of Tuam, Dr Michael Neary.

"Surfing? Deep calls to deep"; "The priesthood of Jesus Christ: a Bridge between the Human and the Divine" against the backdrop of the lights of Manhattan; and "For lack of wood the fire goes out (Prov 26.20)" are some of the slogans already employed by the advertising agency in the United States, with the dioceses of New York and La Crosse among its satisfied customers.

The agency borrows liberally from the scriptures for captions to its range of eye-catching posters. A young woman in mountainous desert terrain is the model for the message: "Discover the hidden and unknown life of Nazareth - with the Marist Sisters."

A video on the priesthood has also been made by the agency, which regards itself as the leader in ecclesiastical communications in the US. The Tuam campaign will be the agency's biggest project here and will highlight the exciting and challenging aspects of working in a rapidly changing region.

Tuam's 56 parishes include Mayo and Galway islands, pockets of the Gaeltacht, and busy urban areas such as Westport and Castlebar.

Proximity to the vibrant city of Galway will also be identified as an attraction, as will the topography and culture of the west of Ireland.

The diocese has not quite reached crisis point in terms of vocations, but the decision to hire Quantum was taken after it was confirmed there were only three seminarians bound for Tuam at St Patrick's College, Maynooth, this year.

"You compare that to 28 when I was studying," Father Brendan Kilcoyne, secretary of the diocese, says.

"Realistically, we need to have four studying, and at least two ordained annually, to keep up," Father Kilcoyne said.

"Every one of our parishes still has at least one priest, and in some there are several. But we have had to withdraw curates from two outlying parishes to date, and that has caused a fair amount of hurt," he says. "We did ordain four priests last year, which is as good as any year in the 1950s, but it was a blip and not the norm now."

The diocese is trying to recruit vocations from within the western region, primarily. "The obvious context is religious faith, but after that we are emphasising challenge, diversity and opportunity," Father Kilcoyne says. "We can't offer big money, and the celibacy requirement on Latin clergy does make it a hard life, but we can promise quite an exciting and varied ministry.

"Apart from the increased urbanisation in towns like Castlebar, there are extensive movements of population from the land, and we have four full Gaeltacht and two half Gaeltacht parishes within our remit. We also have the islands, from Aran to Inishturk and Achill. And there is the fact that the church is at a very interesting time - the end of a 200-year-epoch, straddling pre-emancipation, the missionary era, and the move into a highly secularised society.

"For young men with a specific idea or project, the sky is the limit," Father Kilcoyne says. "There is no comparison between the ministry now and what it was 30 years ago. Older clergy will testify to this.

"We would encourage initiative, and there are openings for those who wish to pursue teaching or counselling. We also acknowledge that authority is still an issue, and that team work is involved - but this type of tension is a fact of life anyway in the multinational industrial sector."

Slogans for the campaign have been kept secret, though at least one carries a sporting analogy.

All will be revealed at this evening's press conference in Westport, when the website will be officially launched. The freephone number for the campaign is 1850-201-877.