AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
May 3, 2015
Shane Green
Associate Editor of The Age
Despite a series of sex abuse scandals, the Catholic Church has seen a renewed interest in training for the priesthood.
Father Brendan Lane didn’t see this coming. Twenty years ago, the number of young men training to be Catholic priests in the seminary had dwindled to about 20. Lane, the silver-haired priest who heads the Corpus Christi College, saw an institution in decline.
“I thought with attitudes as they were, we’re finished,” says Lane, then a parish priest. Two decades on, and the priest of 41 years has witnessed a transformation, a revival in interest in the priesthood that means he doesn’t have enough rooms at the seminary, and an appeal to fund an extension will be launched.
At last count, this year will see close to 60 men in training to be priests in Melbourne alone – the highest number since the early 1970s. Across Australia, the number is more than 150.
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