.jpg)
The outgoing Bishop of Derry, Donal McKeown, has said that the Catholic Church’s hierarchy are still exploring an amalgamation.
Bishop McKeown recently retired as the Bishop of Derry after 12 years in the role and his successor, Bishop Michael Router, was formally installed at St Eugene’s Cathedral in Derry on Sunday.
Bishop McKeown had held talks with Church leaders about a planned merger with the Raphoe Diocese - and pointed to concerns regarding the cross-border elements.
“It hasn’t gone off the table in terms of the Vatican saying: ‘We have too many dioceses in Ireland’,” Bishop McKeown said.
"It's possible Derry and Raphoe may be asked to work together in the future.
"I have made clear to the Vatican it would need a major civic reorganisation, one diocese is registered as a charity in Dublin, the other in Belfast, who would be in charge?
"I can also see on the map, there's really nowhere else that Raphoe can go other than with Derry in terms of the border that it shares."
Eleven of the Derry Diocese’s 51 parishes are within Co Donegal.
Bishop McKeown previously told the Vatican that there are “civil problems” in terms of a cross-border amalgamation.
Last year, it was confirmed that the then Apostolic Nuncio of Ireland, Archbishop Luis Mariano Montemayor was examining the future of the Diocese. He met with Bishop McKeown and there is a broader consultation process being overseen by the Dicastery for Bishops in Rome.
Archbishop Montemayor resigned in July and Ireland is without a Papal Nuncio at present with the role to be filled at some point in the future.
The Bishop of Raphoe, Niall Coll, and Bishop Emeritus of Raphoe, Philip Boyce, were among the clergy present for Bishop Router’s installation on Sunday.
There have been concerns raised within the Vatican corridors that there are too many Diocese in Ireland. At the moment there are 26 Roman Catholic Diocese in Ireland while there are 27 in Germany, where the Catholic population is said to be around 19million.
Ireland presently has 26 diocesan bishops, including four archbishops.
On Sunday, Bishop Router’s installation ceremony was led by the Archbishop of Armagh, Eamon Martin.
Bishop Router was the principal celebrant and homilist and he touched on the future of the Church.
“Of course, there is a realistic awareness of decline and change, but also a conviction that considerable spiritual resources remain, and that the Diocese of Derry possesses a recognisable ecclesial culture and identity that will endure,” he said.
“Both the priests and the laity I listened to in the formal meetings and in casual encounters, valued inherited traditions but they also recognise the need for renewal, for new approaches that speak to people immersed in a modern culture so completely different from anything experienced before in history.”