Thursday 25 May 2017

A Changing Church


Priests and Parish Pastoral Council members from across the Diocese of Waterford and Lismore gathered in Clonmel during the week to hear plans outlined for the years ahead as changes take place owing to the declining number of vocations in the Diocese.

In the last three decades nearly all parishes have seen changes happen with the amount of priests working in parishes cut and some parishes have been left with no priest living and working in the parish, and are instead administered from neighbouring parishes.

In the future lay people could be asked to play an even greater role in most parishes that they are currently asked to.

Lay people could well be asked to carry out prayer services at funerals where there is no priest available to administer and could also be asked to carry out other functions like the distribution of ashes to the faithful on Ash Wednesday and to bless throats on the feast of Saint Blaise.

Parishes could also be brought together with one priest working as a moderator alongside different Pastoral Councils.

Parishes could also be administered by a Permanent Deacon or a lay person directed by a Priest from outside the Parish.

In the future where it is not possible to have a mass celebrated in a given church, a lay parishioner could be appointed to lead the people in a prayer service.

The last number of years has seen the number of Priests working in the Diocese significantly drop with Priests who are members of Religious Communities already working in a number of Parishes across the Diocese.

Two years ago the then newly appointed Bishop of Waterford and Lismore, the Most Very Reverend Aphonsus Cullinan was able to bring three priests from India to the Diocese to work in parishes in Clonmel, Carrick-on-Suir and Waterford City, but it is understood that there is no plans to bring any other priests in on Temporary Missions.

There are currently five parishes in the Diocese that do not have a working priest.

In West Waterford the Parish of Tallow is without and priest with the Parish Priest of nearby Ballyduff Upper travelling to Tallow to celebrate mass in the town.

Modeligo and Affane became the first parish not to have a priest and is administered from nearby Cappoquin and recently the Parish Priest of Clashmore and Kinsalebeg retired and the Parish Priest of Ring and Old Parish was appointed as a moderator working with other priests in the area to ensure that parishioners can attend mass on a Saturday evening or Sunday morning in their own parish.

In the east of the county there are two parishes currently without a Parish Priest.

Dunhill and Fenor is currently administered from Tramore while Butlerstown is administered from the Saint Paul’s Parish in Waterford City.

Currently all Parishes in County Tipperary that are part of Waterford and Lismore have at least one priest working in them.

The Diocese of Waterford and Lismore has four Diocesan Priest’s that were ordained since the turn of the Millennium with a further ten priests working that were ordained in the previous decade.

In the same time (1990-present) over 40 priests of the diocese have died, while an number of others have stepped aside from active ministry while a number of men have decided to be laicised.

At present priests are obliged to offer their resignation to their Bishop once they reach the age of 75, but because of the shortage of priests in the Diocese some ask or are asked to remain in active ministry as long as their heath allows them to do so.

At present the Diocese also has a number of priests in the double digits who are currently retired, but many are helping out in parishes at weekends as well as covering when priests are sick are on holiday.

In the Diocese there is currently at least one priest who has only taken time away from his ministry during the weekdays in recent years so that parishioners in his care can attend weekend masses without having to call on often what is often much in demand priests to stand in for him.

The then Bishop of Waterford and Lismore the Most Very Reverend William Lee began the process for preparing parishes for what lies ahead some years ago when he gathered parishes at a meeting in Dungarvan and it was explained to those that attended that  the parishes would have to be clustered into groupings and that the amount of masses on offer in each parish could have to be cut and the times of some masses would have to be changed so that they fell in such a way that allowed a priest from a neighbouring parish to come and celebrate the mass if needed while also celebrating mass in his own parish.

No comments:

Post a Comment