One of the largest Catholic
churches in Dublin is to be demolished to make way for a much smaller
building accommodating 350 worshippers instead of 3,500.
The scaled-back building on the site of the Church of the Annunciation in Finglas West on the city’s north side will also allow social housing to be built alongside it.
The current church opened in 1967
when John Charles McQuaid was archbishop of Dublin and there was a vogue
for building very large churches.
However, the fall-off in regular
Mass attendances in recent years have left such churches underused and
parishes have also struggled with high maintenance and running costs.
Parish priest Fr Éamann Cahill
said Finglas West parish had struggled for many years with extensive
building problems in their church.
“Following recent research,
discussion and much analysis, the parish pastoral council, the finance
committee and the parish team agreed that it would be best to replace
the present church building with a new church.”
Parish support
He said the proposal had been
discussed at a public meeting at which there was a clear majority in
favour of building a new church.
The Dublin archdiocese had agreed with the plan and given the parish great support.
The new church building will include pastoral facilities, such as meeting rooms, a coffee/tea dock and offices.
In a posting on the parish website
Fr Cahill said “preparations are well under way but it will take time.
We will need lots of support, planning permission and a budget to see us
through.”
Coda Architects has been asked to examine a replacement for the current church building.
Fr Cahill said many of the priests
in Finglas West would reach retirement age in a few years and it was
likely the number of priests serving the area would be halved.”
He noted how “in times of crisis in Ireland
– for example, in penal times – faithful Christians took responsibility
for the faith, and were supported only by an occasional visit from a
priest to celebrate the sacraments. It is the same in many parts of the
world today”.