This article is from page 2 of the 2012-11-06 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
THE Killaloe Diocese is facing a “crisis” of holy orders, with the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) predicting that the entire diocese will be serviced by a handful of “ShannonDoc priests” in as little as a decades time.
The organisation, which now represents more than 1,000 parish priests in Ireland, says that massive changes are required by all the Irish Bishops and the Vatican if this doomsday scenario is to be avoided.
According to Fr Tony Flannery of the ACP, the priesthood is set to become a transient profession in Ire- land, with a much reduced number of priest delivering sacrament across many parishes – without having the time to be based in any individual community.
A spokesperson from the Killaloe Diocese told The Clare People yesterday, that there have been active moves to engage with lay community in the diocese over the last 12 months – there are some issues which can only be changed at Vatican level.
“Priests in the Killaloe Diocese are already doing the work that three priests would have been doing ten years ago, and this is going to get much worse, very quickly. This is a crisis, no questions about it. In 10 or 20 years time there will be only a handful of priests and they will be just saying mass in an area and moving on – they will be like ShannonDoc priests,” said Fr Tony Flannery.
“The ACP now have more than 1,000 priests in our organisation and it is growing all the time. This is in spite the feeling that priests are being actively discouraged by the powers that be to join. So it shows you that there is a real desire among the priests for change.”
According to Fr Brendan Quinlavin, spokesperson for the Killaloe Diocese, Bishop Kieran O’Reilly has been engaged in a “listening” process over the last 12 months designed to allow lay people to have more say in the diocese.
“The ACP is concerned that there is not a proper dialogue between lay people and the church hierarchy but that has been happening in this diocese for more than a year. The Bishop [O’Reilly] has been fully involved in this process so I would reject any suggestion that we are not interested in taking the opinions of the people of the parish on board.
“There are issues of Church doctrine that cannot be dealt with at a diocesan level and would need the input of the Vatican, the Curia and indeed the Pope to change. But that is not to say that we in the Killaloe Diocese can not do everything we can to empower people to become active members of the Church.” Wh ile t h e re wo n’t b e t o o m u c h ra in t h is we e k (3/ 4 m m s), it w ill b e c h illy, g e t t in g w in t e r c o ld by t h e we e ke n d , wra p u p !