Sunday morning Mass-goers at St Colman’s Cathedral in Cobh did not appear overly concerned at the prospect of the Cloyne diocese eventually merging with one of its neighbours.
News emerged last week that Cloyne is to be amalgamated with a neighbouring diocese under a single bishop in the coming years.
One parishioner, Ted Murphy, told The Echo that the ongoing decline in vocations to the priesthood made it “inevitable” that the Catholic Church would continue to downsize.
“With the scarcity of priests to fill the posts in the parishes, you can expect to see more of this,” he said.
Last month, a consultation document was circulated privately by the seven bishops in the Cashel Province — which corresponds with the Munster counties.
The document presented multiple merger options for the seven dioceses, and four of those proposals related to Cloyne, variously merging it with Cork and Ross, Waterford and Lismore, Kerry, or Limerick.
Such a merger is made more likely for Cloyne as its current bishop, William Crean, will reach the Church’s mandatory retirement age of 75 in December.
Cloyne, which covers much of the northern half of Co Cork, has a Catholic population of more than 150,000.
It is understood that many of Cloyne’s clergy would favour an amalgamation with Cork and Ross, which covers the rest of Co Cork and has a Catholic population of approximately 224,000.
Mass-goers at St Colman’s Cathedral were philosophical about the future.
Mary Foley, said she would still go to Mass, and the prospect of amalgamation “doesn’t bother me”.
Another, Peter Kenny, said he wouldn’t mind a merger with Waterford because its current bishop, Phonsie Cullinan, is “supposed to be a very good bishop”.
He spoke for many when he said of the popular Bishop Crean: “It’s sad that we’re losing our own bishop”.
Frank and Mary Morrissey both said numbers are down, and they believed the Church “has no choice” but to merge dioceses.
Sister Paschal, a Bon Secours nun, agreed that the Church had no choice with numbers down. “We’ll probably go back to what we originally were, with Cork and Ross, we were part of that years and years ago,” she said.
“I don’t think we have a choice, because numbers are so down, and I think we’ll have fewer Masses as well.”