The four Irish archbishops, led by Cardinal Seán Brady, are strongly resisting broad terms of a Vatican plan that would cut the number of Irish dioceses and by default the number of bishops.The plan to reduce the 26 dioceses has emerged as a major theme following the Vatican investigation -- the Apostolic Visitation -- into the Church in Ireland.
Vatican officials have been floating the reforms since the Irish bishops met with Pope Benedict XVI in February 2010.
At that time, senior Church sources told The Irish Catholic that members of the hierarchy strongly resisted any changes to diocesan boundaries.
However, it has now emerged that the bishops have recognised that some changes are inevitable and are trying to minimise the cuts.
Lower limit
A committee met in Maynooth in September with the aim of drawing up plans that would remove smaller dioceses by setting a lower limit of 100,000 Catholics per diocese.
This would affect Cashel and Emly, Achonry, Ardagh and Clonmacnoise, Clogher, Clonfert, Dromore, Elphin, Killala, Kilmore, Ossory and Raphoe.
However, this paper has learned that the members of the Apostolic visitation are understood to think a figure in the region of 300,000 Catholics per dioceses is more realistic to the needs of a modern Church.
The Irish Catholic understands that the bishops will argue that dramatically cutting the number of dioceses would seriously undermine the historic roots of the ancient sees.
However, the Holy See has been quick in the past to set aside such concerns abolishing, for example, almost 100 Italian dioceses in the 1980s.
Ireland - with a similar Catholic population to the Italian city of Milan -- has 26 dioceses over an area of 84,421km2.
The country also has an aging clerical population, a declining practice rate, and an ever costlier infrastructure to maintain.
The diocesan structure has come in for criticism from the visitation team and it is strongly felt in Rome that there are simply too many dioceses and that this proliferation of representation around the bishops' conference table has contributed to a lack of clear decision-making and decisive direction.