Meanings of diocesan priest in English

Today the average age of the Irish Catholic diocesan priest is also 70.

Meanwhile the average age of the Irish Catholic diocesan priest hovers at around 67.

Dublin diocesan priest Monsignor Paul Tighe (57) has been appointed a bishop and secretary of the Vatican's Council for Culture by Pope Francis.

He says that most diocesan priests "accepted celibacy as part of the price of ordination."

The Catholic Church in Ireland has 4,475 priests, of whom 2,747 are diocesan priests.

In 1970 Ireland had almost 4,000 diocesan priests.

More than half of the roughly 17,000 active diocesan priests are expected to retire by 2019, Ruhl said.

Since 1940 more than 1,350 diocesan priests and approximately 1,450 priests from religious congregations have served in Dublin.

In 2006, the latest year for which figures are available, there were 3,078 diocesan priests and 3,278 religious order priests in Ireland.

The number of Catholic diocesan priests in Ireland dropped 13 per cent in the decade between 2002 and 2012, according to new figures.

This new study of Irish diocesan priests in the five decades from 1960 to 2010 provides some astute insights about their varying perceptions of priesthood.