Catholic Priest Shortage in Dublin

Dublin, Ireland has historically had a large Catholic population. That is still true today, but that does not mean that the Catholic Church in Dublin is without its share of challenges. One that recently made headlines is that there is currently only one man studying to enter the Catholic priesthood in Dublin--see the article here.

It is already well known that the Catholic Church is dealing with a shortage of priests in many areas, and Dublin in no exception. There are many factors that contribute to the shortage, and many of them center on the relatively high opportunity cost of being a priest. For example, the financial compensation is limited, and you cannot be married or have children. As a result, by becoming a priest, a young man must give up the pursuit of a financially rewarding career and an emotionally rewarding family life. And notice that I referred to a young "man," because women are not allowed to become priests, a policy that immediately eliminates half of the potential candidates.

In standard economic theory, when a market has a shortage of supply, then the price of the good in that market will increase which eventually leads to a shifting of resources from supplying goods in other markets into the market with the shortage. The market for Catholic priests could, in principle, see a similar development, with the pay for Catholic priests going up to entice more men to enter the priesthood. However, there are opposing forces that work against this solution. For example, the low financial compensation is seen to be a key aspect of being a priest and is seen as a signal of commitment. Also, by raising the compensation, the church might then have men join the priesthood for the money instead of a sense of religious duty. This is an instance of the low pay acting as a kind of screening device that allows them to identify the most committed men and thus the best priest candidates.

Instead of raising pay, the church could instead lower the cost of being a priest by allowing them to be married. This would effectively raise the non-paycheck benefits of being a priest, thereby serving a similar purpose. But this solution is also not without problems because it would the low financial compensation may make it difficult to provide for a family even with a working marriage partner. It also requires changing a policy that has been in place for years and that has its own religious justifications even though there were married priests long ago in the church's history.

Without being able to boost the supply of priests, the Catholic parishes (congregations) in Dublin are responding as best as they can. In some cases, a shortage of priests requires the combining of congregations or the establishment of new forms of worship (see the article). Another response is to shift duties that used to be performed by the priest to other volunteers. These types of adjustments will be necessary if the priest shortage continues.