Today the average age of the Irish Catholic diocesanpriest is also 70.
2
Meanwhile the average age of the Irish Catholic diocesanpriest hovers at around 67.
3
Dublin diocesanpriest Monsignor Paul Tighe (57) has been appointed a bishop and secretary of the Vatican's Council for Culture by Pope Francis.
4
He says that most diocesanpriests "accepted celibacy as part of the price of ordination."
5
The Catholic Church in Ireland has 4,475 priests, of whom 2,747 are diocesanpriests.
6
In 1970 Ireland had almost 4,000 diocesanpriests.
7
More than half of the roughly 17,000 active diocesanpriests are expected to retire by 2019, Ruhl said.
8
Since 1940 more than 1,350 diocesanpriests and approximately 1,450 priests from religious congregations have served in Dublin.
9
In 2006, the latest year for which figures are available, there were 3,078 diocesanpriests and 3,278 religious order priests in Ireland.
10
The number of Catholic diocesanpriests in Ireland dropped 13 per cent in the decade between 2002 and 2012, according to new figures.
11
This new study of Irish diocesanpriests in the five decades from 1960 to 2010 provides some astute insights about their varying perceptions of priesthood.