Catholic church: Decline in priest numbers exacerbated by psychological vetting

Ireland may be running out of priests and nuns but if a young Mother Teresa tried to join the Catholic clergy today she would be sent packing for being psychologically unsuitable.

Nuns and priests from Ireland's dwindling religious orders have revealed that all new recruits are now psychologically vetted. The screening process is partly to prevent a repetition of the clerical abuse scandals that hit Irish Catholicism in the 1990s and dramatically reduced the church hierarchy's political power.