I learned last weekend that there are only eight curates in the 88
parishes in our Diocese of Down and Connor. That was a very sobering thought.
I know that the average age of our clergy here is 66. In five years we will probably have about 40 priests to lead our 88 parishes.
By then, unless something changes very radically, the average age of parish clergy will be at least 71 - well past retiring age for most people.
As a diocese, therefore, we are facing inevitable, extensive change. When our parish priest announced last week that the parish is losing two curates and that we will only have one fully active priest in the parish, I noticed a bit of furrowing of brows.
There are currently 7,500 people registered in the parish. People were rapidly doing calculations. We have two churches, which currently have seven Sunday Masses.
There is a huge amount to do in any parish, but ours really is a very busy parish, and until recently we have had at least four priests. Those days are done.
It is probably the same in most parts of Ireland.
We are very soon going to have to face a situation in which there may not even be a priest to baptise a baby, or to say a requiem Mass for a bereaved family. Members of the laity will have to step in to conduct funerals and baptise our babies. There are already those who act as Ministers of the Eucharist and visit the bereaved and pray with them.
We may rejoice in the increased involvement of the laity in the administration of our Church, but we cannot but grieve that we will no longer, on so many occasions, have the priests, the men of God, who have devoted their lives faithfully to God and to His Church, who have studied and prayed, and who can walk our spiritual journey with us.
We are losing something very precious: the men who by virtue of priestly ordination have been specially formed to nourish us sacramentally, to encourage, enable, enlighten, rejoice with us and mourn with us, who have celebrated our marriages, baptised our children, visited our sick, called us to be aware of and focus on the Lord who made us, and to comprehend as best we can the mystery and reality of our journey through this world and home to the Father and to eternal life.
It is as we face this reality that I thought about our forthcoming Diocesan Congress, which will take place in the Waterfront Hall in Belfast on September 27-28.
For decades now I have heard both priests and people calling for a forum for discussion and talk within the Church. There has been huge frustration at the perceived distance between people and bishops, between priests and bishops, and between the dioceses here in Ireland and the Church in the rest of the world and particularly at headquarters: the Vatican.
The horror and distress of people and priests within the Church following the terrible revelations of abuse and of how these things were dealt with brought people together in dioceses across Ireland to try to understand how all this could have happened.
I attended some of those meetings, and in our diocese they were followed by a structured programme of listening to identify what people wanted the Church to be, what needed to be done in the Church today, what were the most important issues with which we needed to deal?
Over 3,000 Down and Connor people came to those meetings. They identified five areas for work: the need for more lay involvement, particularly for ongoing listening and discussion, the need to make our churches open welcoming communities, to take responsibility together for our Church, to make our worship as wonderful as it can be, and to make sure that we do all we can to hand on the faith to our young people.
There followed a process by which five groups of people, priests and bishops worked together to devise a diocesan plan to give effect to what the people wanted. Finally, a working group set to work to synthesise all the ideas and thoughts into one coherent diocesan pastoral plan, which says exactly how we are going to do what has been asked for.
One of the things people stressed repeatedly was the need for better communication, and some form of diocesan meeting.
It is that meeting which will take place in September. The congress is the next step in the people in this diocese working together to build our Living Church. People can come as part of parish groups or individually. It is for everyone who wants to come and the only limit is the capacity of the hall. Having called for the congress, it is to be hoped that people of all ages and experience will gather together in Belfast.
Friday, Sept 27 will be a special day for the young people transferring to secondary school this week, so that they will experience just how much they are loved and valued in the diocese, and understand better that they have a role to play in the Church now, using their Confirmation gifts in the service of the Church.
Pope Francis told the young people on Copacabana Beach in Rio at World Youth Day, that ‘The Lord is calling you, each of you, today to build a more beautiful church and a better world’. Children can play a very important role in bringing justice and goodness into the world in the name of God who made them and loves them. Nearly 2,000 will be there. Hopefully they will have a really good time.
On Saturday, Sept 28 there will be great speakers like The Irish Catholic columnist, teacher and journalist Breda O’Brien, and Fr Peter McVerry who works with homeless young people.
The BBC’s Martina Purdy will facilitate discussion and everyone will get a copy of the plan so that they can see how they can help to make the diocese, even more, a Living Church. In the afternoon everyone can attend two workshops.
After the congress there will be a special concert in the Waterfront Hall, a Celebration of Faith, starring The Priests, Fr David Delargy, Fr Eugene O’Hagan and Fr Martin O’Hagan, as well as by many other great singers, choirs and dancers.
This is all about the bishops, priests and people of Down and Connor working together for the future. Really the congress is about carrying on the work which started in 2011. It is but one step, an opportunity for conversation and discussion about how we can do what we want to do. It will need the support of every person if it is to work as well as it could.
We may not have as many priests in the years to come, we may lose some of our parishes and our old ways will no longer be sustainable, but we can “build our Church” together.
My dream is that the people, the priests and the bishops will seize this opportunity, and that out of it will come a flowering of faith, that the Church will mature, and that one day we will again see many ordinations, priests prepared to commit their lives, as priests do today, to bringing people home to God.
For information about the congress see www.downandconnor.org/livingchurch