Over 300 clergy, religious and parish representatives attended a historic meeting in the Diocese of Cork and Ross which was convened by Bishop John Buckley to help address urgent issues facing the Catholic Church. This is the first time that representatives of all the 68 parishes of the diocese met together and with their clergy and representatives of the religious orders.
The diocese has 68 parishes from the Mizen Head in West Cork to Watergrasshill and includes all of Cork city and its suburbs.
The meeting on Sunday March 9, 2008, at the Rochestown Park Hotel was convened to further the implementation of the diocesan pastoral plan “Pilgrim Steps”, which was published in 2005.
That plan calls for greater involvement of laity in all aspects of parish life and proposes that parishes work together to share personnel and other resources.
The meeting was addressed by Bishop Buckley and members of a working group who drafted proposals to plot a way forward for the local church.
Addressing the meeting, Bishop Buckley thanked all the delegates for their dedication to their parishes and for contributing to their parishes by being part of the parish assemblies, pastoral councils and finance committees.
He said that as well as involving laity because it is their natural calling, a strategy to deal with the scarcity of priests is also necessary to help provide ministry and leadership in the parishes.
“The call of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s for more lay involvement in the life of the Church had nothing to do with an impending shortage of priests,” Bishop Buckley said, “but clearly the lack of priests today and fewer vocations to the priesthood has given great urgency to this way forward.”
Bishop Buckley told the meeting that the scarcity of priests is taking hold in the diocese.
“We have no choice but to respond to it in practical ways,” he said.
There are currently 123 priests of the Diocese of Cork and Ross but 19 of these are retired.
The meeting was told that the situation regarding priests will get more difficult in the coming years as there are just 13 priests in the diocese who are age 44 or less.
Proposals were announced at the meeting to group the 68 parishes into 16 pastoral areas in which the parishes will retain their own individual identity but plan and work together.
Bishop Buckley developed the plans for the pastoral areas with a working group which he established last year.
This groups consists of Fr. Bertie O’Mahony, PP Carrigaline; Fr. Kevin O’Regan, CC Rath and the Islands; Fr. Tom Deenihan, Diocesan Secretary; Mr Barry Murphy (Our Lady Crowned Parish, Mayfield); and from the Pastoral Development Office: Fr. Tom Hayes, Sr Karen Kent and Mr John McSweeney.
Each pastoral area will have a coordinating group comprised of all the clergy and religious in the individual parishes and representatives of the parish assemblies, parish pastoral councils and parish finance committees.
Fr. Tom Hayes, Director of Pastoral Planning, said that over 50 parishes will have developed either a pastoral council or a parish assembly by the summer of this year. Almost as many now have active parish finance committees, he said.
“That’s a tremendous indicator of hope for the future of the parishes and the local church. Over 1,700 people are already actively involved in leadership now in the parishes of the diocese,” he said.
The delegates at Sunday’s meeting are bringing the proposals back to the parishes for further discussion and local area meetings are planned for April and May.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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