sentences:  Since his consecration as Bishop of Brentwood in 1980, the Catholic population of the Diocese has increased steadily, while the number of priests has remained approximately stable, leading to a decline in the ratio of priests to people comparable with that occurring elsewhere in the Western world over the same period.As of December 2018, there are nine students in training for the priesthood.In March 2015 it was heard at Southwark Crown Court that McMahon was one of two Bishops responsible for allowing Father Anthony McSweeney to be appointed as a priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of East Anglia following an incident in 1998 in which "a housekeeper found what she said were pornographic images at [McSweeney's] home."