The Catholic Church in Scotland has turned its search for new priests abroad, as the number of Scottish trainees shows a dramatic fall in the past two decades.

|TOP|In the last twenty years the number training to join the Scottish priesthood has fallen by 80 per cent. The issue of the growing shortfall in Scottish seminarians was raised by Scotland’s Catholic leader, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, in a rare interview with Catholic newspaper, The Tablet, earlier this month.

In the interview, Cardinal O’Brien said he was happy to accept priests from abroad who want to spend some time in Scotland, but did not want “to go over to relying upon foreign clergy”.

According to latest figures, there are just 31 seminarians in Scotland today, a huge drop from the 149 in 1980, reported The Sunday Herald.

The number of baptisms in Scotland has also been in decline, highlights Monsignor Peter Smith, Archdiocese of Glasgow: “The number has dropped, in real terms, by less than 1 per cent from the early 1960s to the early 21st century. It’s not a surprise when you take into consideration the falling numbers of people attending church.”

Cardinal O’Brien said: “After 1600 years of Catholicism, Scotland should be able to provide its own priests.”

The decline in the number of seminarians is a worldwide trend and will be discussed at this week’s Synod of Bishops being held in the Vatican.

Communication director for the Archdiocese of Glasgow, Ronnie Convery, said there were “multiple reasons” for the demise of the priesthood.

“These days there has been a decline in people wanting to commit throughout society. The institution of marriage is on the decline, with divorces rising, people won’t stay in a job for 40 years like they used to either,” he said.

|QUOTE|Mr Convery also attributed the decline in trainee priests to the “secularisation of society” and a clash between the demands of the priesthood and the values of modern society: “The choice to become a priest involves chastity and obedience, which are at odds with society today”.

According to Professor Owen Dudley Edwards, an historian at Edinburgh University, the vow of celibacy acts as the greatest disincentive to becoming a priest.

“There’s no doctrinal opposition to married clergy and there are married Roman Catholic clergy. The Church of England bishop of London, Dr Graham Leonard, became a Roman Catholic a few years ago and is now serving as a curate in a parish, and is living with his wife. If it’s alright for Dr Graham Leonard it should be alright for everyone else.”

Professor Edwards added, however: “It’s obvious Cardinal O’Brien is doing all he can but it is for the Vatican to relax this rule.”

Mr Convery said, however, that the drop in training priests should not cause alarm. “Compared with other countries we are quite well off as we have 833 Catholics per priest compared with the world average of 2677 per priest.”

He also sees hope in the opening up of the EU which “has meant we can receive more international priests, especially from Eastern Europe”. There are currently three Polish priests working in Glasgow.