Two of Dublin’s better-known, city-centre Catholic parishes will merge this Wednesday due to a shortage of priests.
St Mary’s Pro Cathedral parish and the Jesuit-run parish of St Francis Xavier on Gardiner St are to become one under a decree by Archbishop Dermot Farrell.
It followed a taking into account of “the changing pattern of the population in this area and the availability of priests to serve the needs of the archdiocese in the foreseeable future,” the Archbishop said.
Last September he was contacted by the Jesuit’s Irish provincial, Fr Shane Daly, who said “they were no longer in a position to provide pastoral care for the parish of Saint Francis Xavier, Gardiner Street, due to limited resources; lack of vocations; and the age profile of their current members.”
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The parish of St Francis Xavier is to be subsumed into the Pro Cathedral parish, with St Mary’s the parish church.
Meanwhile, Fr Brendan Hoban, co-founder of the Association of Catholic Priests, has said in Ireland “native priests have become [as we say] as rare as hen’s teeth in that there is now a mathematical certainty that in a short number of years the only native priests left in Ireland will be in nursing homes.”
He noted, for instance, that in Dublin with its 197 parishes and over 1.2 million Catholics, there was just one man studying for the priesthood.
Writing in the Western People newspaper, he commented on “the rumour that there are hundreds if not thousands of priests in Africa and in Asia ready and willing to come to Ireland. That’s NOT the case. The priest-per-people ratio in Africa is one priest for every 5,200 people. In Europe it’s one for 1,700. Taking from the Third World to benefit the First World, is in every sense really another form of the rich exploiting the poor”.
Dioceses are also merging in Ireland. Three smaller dioceses in the west of Ireland have been merged with larger neighbours due to falling priest numbers, reducing the number of Catholic dioceses there from six to three.
Since February 2022 the two dioceses of Galway and Clonfert have been pastorally administered by Bishop Michael Duignan.
Last April Archbishop of Tuam Francis Duffy was appointed Administrator of Killala diocese, following the retirement of then bishop of Killala John Fleming.
Since 2018, the small Dromore diocese in Co Down has been administered by Catholic Primate and Archbishop of Armagh Eamon Martin, but it is unclear whether this is a permanent arrangement.
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