More than 200 clergy and lay people are attending the two-day conference, entitled Parishes in Transition, to plan a way forward for the Irish parish in the con-text of the huge drop in priests.

The conference, at Mary Immaculate College in Limerick, was told the diocese of Limerick had 25 students in various seminaries in 1989, but now it has just two.

Maynooth is the country’s only surviving seminary, whereas there were eight just 20 years ago.

Theologian Dr Eugene Duffy, a priest from the diocese of Achonry, said the grouping of parishes into clusters, sharing the same priests, is the way forward and will not diminish the parish identity.

Dr Duffy said the parish was essentially a local Christian community focused around the church.

“Each parish has its own identity and our task is to ensure those communities are well-resourced to be vibrant and alive Christian communities.

“That does not mean that a parish would lose some of its identity with, say, the GAA and other social organisations.

“That healthy inter-parish rivalry and the pride it generates can be protected with clustering where parishes share the same priests.”

Dr Duffy said the laity have a huge role to play in the new parish clusters.

He said: “It is a work in progress, but we have to move forward because there is no alternative.”

Fr Eamonn Fitzgibbon, who has responsibility for the clustering of parishes in the diocese of Limerick, said there is urgent need for action to deal with the huge loss of priests working in parishes.

There were now 13 clusters of priests working in the 60 Limerick parishes.

Fr Fitzgibbon said: “We need to share resources and expertise.

“It is the way we need to work in parishes, regardless of the current crisis, but the crisis adds urgency to it.”

Catholics from Holland and Germany attending the conference detailed their experience in coping with the decline in the number of priests in their countries.