Dublin, Ireland - Ireland, a country that used to export its Catholic clergy around the world, is running out of priests at such a rate that their numbers will have dropped by two-thirds in the next 20 years, leaving parishes up and down the land vacant.
The decline of Catholic Ireland, for decades the Pope's favourite bastion of faith in Europe, has been regularly predicted, as the economic successes of the Celtic Tiger brought growing secularisation. But new figures have starkly set out the fate of the Irish priesthood if action is not taken by the church to reverse the trend.
One hundred and sixty priests died last year while only nine were ordained. Figures for nuns were even more dramatic, with 228 nuns dying and only two taking vows.
Based upon these figures, The Irish Catholic newspaper predicts that the number of priests will drop from the current 4752 to about 1500 by 2028.
The decline in vocations is attributed to the loss of the church's authority after a string of sex-abuse scandals. In 1994, the Government collapsed over the mishandling of the case of pedophile priest Brendan Smyth.
The scandals broke a dam of silence, prompting apologies from both the church and the Government for the abuse of children and women who passed through religious institutions. An estimated E1 billion ($1.6 billion) are being paid out in compensation to victims.
Regular church attendance, which was at 90 per cent at the start of the 1990s, has suffered a collapse, mitigated partially in recent years by the mass influx of Polish workers.
With an average age of 61, most priests are already close to retirement age.
Religious commentators are calling on the church to convene a national synod to address the crisis. Some are even challenging the vow of celibacy as unnecessary.
"The time has come for the church in Ireland to confront this problem much more seriously," The Irish Catholic said.
Father Eamonn Bourke, director of vocations in Dublin, said: "It is impossible to argue with statistics and the situation is very grave. For a long time people have failed to realise how much the decline is."
David Quinn, a commentator on Irish religious affairs, told The Times: "The real problem is that the demographic has finally caught up and priests are retiring and dying at a rate of knots.
"I'd say that a majority of priests in Ireland would probably favour dropping the celibacy rule, while the bishops would be more evenly split on the issue.
"Ireland is now the vocations blackspot of the world. It's not a crisis, it's a catastrophe and it's happened in a generation. There used to be three priests for every parish but it's becoming common for two priests to share three parishes. In the near future there will be just one priest for every five parishes."
Mr Quinn said the church had to do more to promote vocations, in schools and at the altar.
One possible solution to the crisis was illustrated this week when a former Catholic priest became Dean of the Protestant Church of Ireland's Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin.
The Very Reverend Dermot Dunne made a point of kissing his wife, Celia, while standing on the steps of the cathedral as he took up his new office. His most illustrious predecessor is the satirist and author of Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift.
"It came to a point where I felt I needed to be honest," he said.
"I could see the church was going one way and I another."
It is all so different from 1947, when the Irish government sent a note to pope Pius XII inviting him to relocate to Ireland in the event of a communist takeover of Italy. The pope replied: "Ah, Ireland, where else could I go but Ireland!"