From this month on villagers in Newcastle, Co Tipperary will have to travel to a church in Fourmilebridge for Mass on Sunday, as there will be no Sunday service in their own church.However the Saturday evening vigil Mass will continue to celebrated in Newcastle church.
Three parishes in and around Carlow town are also to have their number of Sunday Masses reduced.
The total number of Sunday Masses in at Graiguecullen/Killeshin, Askea/Bennekerry and Carlow Cathedral parishes will fall from 19 to 16.
Askea curate Fr Liam Morgan, CC Askea, said that as priests retire there were no replacements for them.
"We are fortunate to have a group of parishes close by each other so we can enjoy enhanced cooperation between the parishes”
He said he hoped lay people would become more involved in the running of parishes to allow priests to concentrate on their pastoral duties.
PP of Newcastle, Fr Frank Lloyd, said the abolition of Newcastle’s Sunday Mass was caused by the fact that his parish and the neighbouring Touraneena parish now had only two priests between them. He said that his sole colleague and he now have to service four churches, at Newcastle, Fourmilehouse, Touraneena and the Nire.
Masses had to be scheduled so that there was adequate cover if one of the priests fell ill, he said,
Fr Lloyd said he appreciated people’s disappointment at the loss of the traditional Sunday morning Mass but said the decision to drop it “hasn’t taken place overnight”. “I think people understand the need for us”, he said, adding bluntly that it was “not possible to continue the way we were”.
“If one of us got sick, there would be just one guy to cover Masses at all the churches,” he pointed out. Fr Lloyd added that the age profile of priests in the two parishes was getting older.
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