Parish rivalry and aged clergy don’t bode well for a church running out of priests

In his 2013 publication, Mayo priest Fr Brendan Hoban predicted a cliff edge in relation to vocations and warned that a eucharistic famine was coming down the tracks.

He cited statistics from his own diocese of Killala, where 46 priests gathered in 1982 for their annual retreat. In 2032, when the Irish church will celebrate 1,600 years since the coming of St Patrick, it is probable the number of priests in Killala will have dropped to just six.

Archbishop Francis Duffy of Tuam, a diocese once a bastion of the faith with a plentiful supply of vocations, said last weekend: “There is a decline everywhere.” Every Irish diocese is affected.

Last year, there were only 26 student priests in the national seminary in Maynooth. That averages as one for every diocese in the country across all seven years of formation.

Thirty years ago, there were more than 500 seminarians in Ireland. Addressing the congregation in Westport parish for Reek Sunday, Dr Duffy told them: “I suggest you look at your priest, he may be the last in a long line of resident pastors and may not be replaced.”

In this new reality, people will increasingly find their priest who is retiring will not be replaced. They will be cared for pastorally by a team of priests looking after a number of parishes.

On paper, this might work well, but it will result in the rapport between priests and their flock diminishing. It is hard to have a close relationship with someone who is only fleetingly there.

The decline in priest numbers is not only a logistical headache for the bishops. The argument goes that without priests there will be no mass, and without mass there will be no church.

The bishops are hoping the laity will step in to bridge the gaps exposed by the shortfall in priests.

Under these new strategies being introduced across Irish dioceses, parishes will have to work much more closely together and share resources, including priests.

In Cork and Ross, Bishop Gavin is hoping the collaboration of “families of parishes” will give parishes the opportunity to prepare together for baptism, first communion, confirmation, marriages and funerals.

These new arrangements demand a new way of ministering. Most priests have been trained to work as individuals, but in the future there will be a team of priests, all equal and with the same rights and responsibilities.

Not everyone is convinced that an already-stretched clergy will benefit from the new structures.

Fr Tim Hazelwood, parish priest of Killeagh-Inch in Co Cork, has said it will fall to an ageing priesthood to implement the new arrangements.

“It means that you’re giving extra work to older men, which is not fair,” he said.

He also wonders whether parishes are ready to collaborate. “Most of the parishes I know are rivals in GAA, so I don’t think they will appreciate that family term,” he added.

Some in the church argue that while these radical changes may paper over the cracks, ultimately, in order to renew itself, the church will have to grasp the nettle on issues such as married clergy, women deacons and priests and adopt a more welcoming approach to divorced, re- married and LGBTQ+ people.

As Fr Hazelwood said, “a fundamental change needs to happen for the church to survive”, otherwise it will merely be “rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic”.