Mill Hill Missionaries to take on Dublin parish as Irish priest numbers fall

Irish missionary priest Fr. Thomas McGrath said the flow of missionary vocations has reversed over the course of his life, with priests from Africa and India now being sent to serve communities in Europe. In an interview with ACI Africa, McGrath, a member of the Mill Hill Missionaries who began his work in Kenya in October 1969, linked the change to the decline in vocations in Europe.

McGrath recalled arriving in Africa on a flight full of missionaries, most of them from Ireland. "I have seen a total change in the Church in Europe," he said, adding that the shortage of priests in Ireland is alarming. "The priests who are active are aging fast, and there are not enough young men being ordained," he said.

He said the Church in the Global South should support the Church in the Global North by sending missionaries to parishes that have no priest. He welcomed the decision by the Mill Hill Missionaries to take responsibility for a parish in the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin, beginning in September. "The most surprising thing is that we are now beginning to send missionaries to Dublin," he said.

McGrath said individual missionaries from Africa have served in Europe before, but that the new arrangement is a formal commitment by the society. "There have been people who have gone there, but officially they are taking responsibility for a parish in the Archdiocese of Dublin," he said.

On the situation in Ireland, he said participation in the sacraments, including marriage, has fallen sharply. "The sacraments in Europe have declined, even marriage," he said. Comparing his current ministry with his years in Kenya, he said he now serves a community where very few people marry.

McGrath is priest in charge of the parish of St. Ciarán in Labasheeda, in the Diocese of Killaloe in western Ireland. He said he was grateful for the chance to keep serving. "I am happy to serve in the community, rather than retire to Dublin where I would simply wither away," he said. He described a return trip to Kenya for an ordination as "an incredible boost" to his energy.

Born in 1944, the eldest of 10 children, McGrath grew up on a small farm in County Clare in difficult economic circumstances. His admission to St. Joseph's Freshford, a school run by the Mill Hill Missionaries, changed the course of his life. "If they had not accepted me at St. Joseph's Freshford, I would probably have been one of those emigrants who went to England, America and Australia," he said.

His desire to become a missionary was encouraged by figures such as the Servant of God Cardinal Maurice Michael Otunga, who visited Freshford in 1950 to ask for missionaries for Africa. McGrath was ordained a priest on June 29, 1969, and arrived in Kenya later that year.

He spent more than three decades as a missionary in Kenya, where his work included teaching and promoting small Christian communities. In 2011, after learning that his sister was ill, he returned to Ireland to care for his family and has continued in pastoral ministry there since.