TUAM, Ireland (CWNews.com) - The biggest diocese in Ireland has launched an Internet campaign to win vocations.

    The Archdiocese of Tuam has hired international advertising group Quantum Advertising to launch its soccer-theme web site at www.towardsthegoal.com. Quantum also ran a campaign for the Archdiocese of New York.

    The Archdiocese of Tuam -- which covers the whole of the west of Ireland -- has just three men training for the priesthood at the moment. Diocesan secretary Father Brendan Kilcoyne said that, just a few years ago, there were 28 men training in the diocesan seminary. Father Kilcoyne said the collapse in numbers "may well become a crisis.

    In a message on the web site from Archbishop Michael Neary, he calls the vocation of the priesthood a "risky affair" and an "adventure," comparing priests to sailors and mountaineers.

    "This is a site for risk-takers, impossible-goal-scorers, gamblers, if you like," he writes. "We are Catholic Priests, followers of Jesus Christ. ... If you're already an active Catholic and you don't feel you're making enough trouble yet, maybe you should be leading operations, directing the break-out? We need leaders. That's what a priest does, in various ways: he leads. Out. 'Towards The Goal.'"