“Bishops are facing the unenviable task of ensuring that every parish can still receive pastoral and sacramental care even as the number of priests declines and our average age rises,” said Fr Martin Delaney.
A parish priest in Ossory Diocese, Delaney gave a keynote talk at the association AGM on the theme: ‘Shepherding the Shepherds – When Obedience Meets Care’.
He revealed that in some Irish dioceses more than half the priests are over 70 while in others, there are more priests over 90 than there are under 60.
For older priests rooted in a parish, perhaps in fragile health and dependent on diocesan housing or income, a bishop’s request to move and take on a demanding new role can feel like pressure.
“When that happens we risk, however unintentionally, crossing into something that the Health Service Executive might call a form of elder abuse,” said Fr Delaney.
“Harm doesn’t have to be deliberate,” he emphasised, “it can happen quietly through decisions made without enough attention to dignity, choice or well-being.”
What he was highlighting was “about systems under strain and relationships that need care on both sides.”
The AGM was also addressed by canon lawyer, Fr Martin Whelan, a parish priest in Moycullen, Co Galway. Speaking about ‘The Rights of Diocesan Priests in the Code of Canon Law’, he highlighted that a key canonical right of priests is the right to adequate support.
Regarding the welfare of elderly priests Fr Whelan said it was an injustice that priests in their late 70s and 80s “feel they can’t actually retire because there isn’t a place for them to retire to. That is wrong.”