Country’s largest Catholic diocese to amalgamate 199 parishes into 53 in major overhaul
He said the move was necessitated by the lack of priests and volunteers and the dwindling congregations in the Archdiocese of Dublin. “Through Parish Partnerships, different parishes are coming together and sharing what they have in order to adapt to the reality they are facing.”
The move comes as the Archdiocese of Tuam announced plans in a pastoral letter this Advent for lay-led liturgies to be held in churches when no priest is available to say Mass.
Archbishop Francis Duffy told his flock that the drop in the number of clergy was ongoing and that it was “happening in your parish right now”.
“The trend is downward,” he said and highlighted that at present Tuam has 41 diocesan priests under the retirement age of 75 working in 56 parishes. There are currently two students studying for the priesthood.
Fr John Kenny, parish priest of Partry and Tourmakeady, who has responsibility for arranging a rota of priests to say mass on Clare Island and Inishturk Island, told the Irish Independent that there will be no Christmas mass this year on Clare Island as there is no priest available.
On Inishturk, islanders will have a Christmas mass thanks to a visiting priest who is in his 90s.
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/co...11994.html
He said the move was necessitated by the lack of priests and volunteers and the dwindling congregations in the Archdiocese of Dublin. “Through Parish Partnerships, different parishes are coming together and sharing what they have in order to adapt to the reality they are facing.”
The move comes as the Archdiocese of Tuam announced plans in a pastoral letter this Advent for lay-led liturgies to be held in churches when no priest is available to say Mass.
Archbishop Francis Duffy told his flock that the drop in the number of clergy was ongoing and that it was “happening in your parish right now”.
“The trend is downward,” he said and highlighted that at present Tuam has 41 diocesan priests under the retirement age of 75 working in 56 parishes. There are currently two students studying for the priesthood.
Fr John Kenny, parish priest of Partry and Tourmakeady, who has responsibility for arranging a rota of priests to say mass on Clare Island and Inishturk Island, told the Irish Independent that there will be no Christmas mass this year on Clare Island as there is no priest available.
On Inishturk, islanders will have a Christmas mass thanks to a visiting priest who is in his 90s.
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/co...11994.html
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"