Priestless funerals are likely to become commonplace throughout Ireland before the end of the decade, as lay-led ceremonies become the norm.
That’s the stark prediction from the Association of Catholic Priests, which has warned grieving families to expect radical changes at funerals due to the unavoidable impact of declining clergy numbers.
Fr Roy Donovan, a spokesman for the 1,000-strong priests’ group, said he believes ceremonies, led by lay ministers and without funeral masses, will be firmly established in more populated, urban areas across Ireland in as little as a few years.
A number of dioceses – including Dublin, the country’s largest – have already taken the lead by introducing training programmes for parishioners to ease the burden on overworked priests by taking on funeral rites.
More than 70 new lay leaders in the two dioceses of Clogher and Down and Connor are due to finish training in the coming months, and take a leading role in funeral liturgies across the two regions’ parishes.
Diminishing priest numbers and the ever-worsening vocations crisis could also soon lead to both grouped and delayed funerals, families have been warned.
Fr Donovan, parish priest of Caherconlish, Co Limerick, said: “Lay people are being trained at the moment at dioceses around the country to perform funeral duties, and it’s exactly what’s needed because the burden on priests has to be relieved.
“There are fewer priests than there have ever been and they are getting older, yet people still expect a priest to be available to lead a funeral mass. That simply is starting to become unrealistic.
“So lay people will start to take a more central role. You already see this happening in some parishes where parishioners will go with the priest to visit a grieving family, or help out at churches.
“But in a few short years I think it’ll start to become normal to see lay people leading funeral ceremonies, doing pretty much everything apart from the funeral mass. Unfortunately, there may be far fewer funeral masses in the future, because we won’t have the priests to lead them.
“Certainly by the end of the decade it’ll become common to see laity and priests sharing responsibilities throughout the country, while in cities we’ll start to see funeral ceremonies without a mass, because there won’t be a priest available.”
He added: “I think another trend we’ll see before long are longer delays before funeral ceremonies take place. If people want a priest to lead a funeral mass, we may have to wait a week or two, like what happens in England.
“And we are also likely to start seeing a couple of funerals taking place at the same time, because of the impact of the priest shortage.”