Two of the country’s four archdioceses, Tuam and Armagh, are about to take radical initiatives to cope with the fall in the number of working clergy. Archbishop Michael Neary is expected to issue a pastoral letter in the coming weeks setting out how he proposes to address the implications of the rapid drop in the number of priests in his Tuam archdiocese.
Dr Neary is said to be considering the findings of a working group of five priests who did a detailed study of the clerical manpower needs in Tuam in the years ahead.
The group is recommending a much expanded role for lay people and the deployment of deacons to handle weddings, baptisms and funerals.
The archbishop is set to issue a pastoral letter outlining to the people of Tuam the extent of their archdiocese’s priest number crisis and setting out a strategy to deal with it.
The extent of the problem Dr Neary faces is underlined by the fact that the average age of priests in his archdiocese is now 62 and the staggering prediction that in a mere four years, the number of working priests will fall by a third from 102 to 70.
Meanwhile, the priest shortage in the Armagh archdiocese will shortly lead to the clustering of adjacent parishes and the dropping of some Masses in the Dungannon area.
Cardinal Seán Brady has said parishes would have to join forces to ease workloads and increase the level of lay participation in the running of the church.
Dungannon and the nearby Donaghmore and Pomeroy parishes are to be grouped, while Coalisland will join Clonoe and Ardboe. and Killeeshil, Aughnacloy, Eglish and Moy parishes will all form clusters.
Meetings have been held in the parishes to discuss the strategy and consider how parishioners can best be encouraged to become more involved in the work of the Church.
The cardinal recently said the Church has to adapt if it is to continue to carry on the mission of Christ effectively.
He envisages that clustered parishes will share resources like programmes, personnel, gifts and talents.
"I want to emphasise that our purpose is the strengthening of each parish in its mission of making Christ known and attending to pastoral needs," he said.
"Each parish will maintain its own identity - we will not be merging parishes or amalgamating parishes,” he stressed.
70 per cent of the 138 priests serving in the archdiocese are over fifty years of age.
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(Source: CIN)