Parishes will have to make difficult decisions

But Bishop of Meath believes that religion is becoming more attractive to the young again

Half a century ago in Ireland, Sunday Mass was sacrosanct. Nothing interfered with it, and everything revolved around it. There was First Mass, and Second Mass, and maybe if you were in a town, a third one. A major change was the introduction of the 'Vigil Mass' on Saturday evenings in the 1980s. This was all during a period when there was an abundance of priests to celebrate these Masses.

Now, after a self-inflicted fall from grace of the Church as an institution over the past three decades, local parishes are beginning to experience the realities of a shortage of clergy, and some now have no resident priest, while others only have one Mass per church at weekends.

This issue was addressed in recent weeks in the Diocese of Meath by Bishop Tom Deenihan, in a pastoral letter to parishioners, entitled 'The Future of our Parishes, Communities of Belonging and Evangelisation'.

“This is where the difficult conversations are going to have to be held among parishes and parish councils,” he explains to the Meath Chronicle.

“We have divided the 69 parishes of the Diocese into 14 'centres for co-operation'. If one of those parishes in a pastoral area doesn't have a resident priest, then another priest in the pastoral area would provide the sacramental cover. But there is going to have to be some kind of discussion about parish Mass times – because if you have four parishes and three priests, they can't all have Mass at six o'clock.”

The Pastoral Letter just published follows some years of internal soul-searching within the Catholic Church on a “journey of synodality” begun by the late Pope Francis, and initiated in Ireland by the Catholic Bishops's Conference in March 2021. This coincided with Bishop Deenihan's pastoral visits to parishes in his diocese, as he assessed the situation on the ground across Meath, Westmeath, and Offaly.

“The synod discussions began two and a half to three years ago, with regional meetings across the deaneries in the diocese,” he says.

“The areas that really got traction were the future of the faith – handing over the faith to the next generation; the future of our parishes – because people are acutely aware of the age profile of our presbyteries increases; and third issue was people longing for some form of sense of community. There were other issues, but by and large at all the meetings, these were the significant issues.”

Bishop Deenihan said that these fed into what he was trying to do, having appointed Fr Derk Darby as an episcopal vicar for pastoral development.

“Fr Derek has been working on that pastoral development over the last couple of years. Around that time, I began a discussion with priests requesting that parish pastoral councils be established in all parishes. Some parishes had them, but I wanted a situation where there were councils in all parishes, all working to the same terms of reference. Fr Derek has been providing training over the last two springs, meeting parish council members throughout the diocese, and it is working.”

The Bishop says that the structure is needed to ensure that a parish continues when there is no resident priest, “so there's a sense of accountability, sense of responsibility, a sense of mission.”

Then, you have to ask the question, what is the purpose of a parish council, he says.

“It is not a community association – there has to be some form of evangelisation; of faith formation; of faith information; of faith celebration; and tied in with that we have hired a faith development co-ordinator, who is working with various parishes at the moment, devising faith formation projects. That has been very successful as well.”

This is where the Pastoral Letter comes in, he says.

“It's about how do we get parish councils to come together. There is always a fear when you are saying this type of thing, that he is trying to close our parish; that he wants to take our money to support another parish – these things are not on the agenda.

“In fact, canonically I can't do that. The parish is recognised in canon law, and the parish assets are the parish assets, and neither I nor a neighbouring parish can take those – it's not about that.”

In the Pastoral Letter he makes suggestions about how parishes in the groupings can work together, like better communications through Sunday Newsletters, taking part in various faith development courses together, travelling on diocesan pilgrimages or events together. This may apply to more rural parts of the diocese where populations are less.

“All we can do is provide the training, provide the norms, provide the definition. You have to trust the people as well.”

He says that the only thing that will close a church is the want of a congregation, or the want of the resources of a parish to be able to keep it open.

“These are local decisions, not decisions for me. At the moment, all our churches have Sunday morning or Saturday night. In 10 years' time, that might change.”

He says the number of priests in the diocese is probably better than most, but adds that there are 23 priests who do not belong to the diocese, with five from Romania, two from the Institute of the Incarnate Word order, a number of retired missionaries, a Polish chaplain, and an Indian chaplain and others working in the diocese, as well as some Nigerian students who are studying in Maynooth.

“And we have a number of priests past the retirement age of 75 who are happy to continue, which is very generous of them. I have to be sensitive to their needs, and of course, they may decide in the morning they are going. Some have stepped down as parish priests and are happy to continue as curates.”

As well as Fr Anthony Kerr, ordained last weekend, there are five in the seminary, with the vocations team talking to others, “So i wouldn't say it's all pessimism”.

He adds that a lot of priests have said to him that in the last 12 months that there has been a slight increase in the Mass growing population.

“The pendulum is always swinging – a lot of young people are saying that religion is becoming more attractive again.”

Students from three diocesan schools joined the Jubilee Year Youth Pilgrimage to Rome – St Patrick's Classical School in Navan, Eureka in Kells, and St Mary's CBS in Mullingar, and Bishop Deenihan says they brought a great generosity, faith commitment and positivity to the pilgrimage.

His background has been in education, and as well as being secretary to the Bishop of Cork, he was general secretary of the Catholic School Manager's Association, and became secretary of the Council for Education at the Bishops' Conference in 2016, two years before his appointment to Mullingar. He is currently chairperson of the Bishops' Council for Education, and is encouraging all to participate in the Department of Education's Primary School Survey on school choice, which closes on 16th December.

“It is school specific,” he says. “So it's not about people saying I should have the choice if I want it – it's about what I want in my school. When people respond to the survey, they have an eircode. The Department is able to allocate that eircode to the school nearest to it. The Department shares the concern that only those who do want change might participate, and the rest not bother.

“It is important we get an accurate picture – so it is very important that people who are happy with the status quo respond as well. Otherwise if you get a 30 per cent response rate, and 60 per cent of the 30 per cent want change – when you go to implement it or start discussions on it in a local area, you will meet huge opposition because the silent majority hadn't participated.”

He says that if there is a decision for other patronages, he is happy to work with the Department on that.

“My priority is for those in the diocese who want a Catholic education or a sacramental education for their children in primary school, and if we do give schools to other patronages because of a decision, then I need to be able to ensure that the kids who want to go to Catholic school are able to. At the moment, that's not possible because of enrolment policies. If there is plurality of choice, those who want to receive a religious education should be able to get priority in a Catholic school. But all that can be ironed out afterwards.”

One of the seven priorities to have emerged from the national synodal process has been 'healing' – acknowledging wounds, especially those caused by abuse, committing to accountability, justice, and reconciliation; and ensuring safe space for survivors, and all who carry pain.

“I am in touch with people who have been abused, and it is horrific,” Bishop Deenihan says. “It has destroyed a generation, it has destroyed families, because people either didn't listen to concerns, or didn't notice concerns, and now we have people in their 40s trying to make sense of the whole thing. It has been harrowing listening to some of the experiences they have had to tell. We have had an organisation, Towards Healing, which has done great work and is doing great work, and people from the diocese are availing of its services and it is bringing some healing."

Abuse has created huge damage, destroying people's lives and relatonships between parents and children when it happened in schools, Bishop Deenihan states. “It was the church, and how the complaints were dealt with, and what happened afterwards. People expected higher standards from the church. We stood for the moral position and we betrayed that.”

He has met people from throughout the diocese who have suffered, in some cases by priests who are deceased; some by other people. “The pain is still there,” he says.

On the topic of funeral eulogies, which are not allowed in the Diocese of Meath, he says that from the church's point of view, a funeral Mass is a prayer to Almighty God that the soul of the deceased will be welcomed to Paradise, and whatever sins they have committed are forgiven.

“It is a prayer,” he says. “Society has different expectations, in terms of a service of thanksgiving - a look backwards. I said before, it's about looking forward.”

He has referred the matter to the Council of Priests of the diocese on a number of occasions, as well as to the Diocesan Pastoral Council and all wish to keep the situation as it is.

“We could all tell horror stories where the sacred has been prepared by all sorts of nonsense, I've sat through eulogies that were more in keeping with the best man's speech at a wedding. Or others that have left a family in tears at the end. The funeral liturgy is meant to a degree of; the promise of resurrection, and a degree of consolation.

“Sometimes after the priest and the liturgy itself, the prayer of the Mass working at all of that, when the eulogy comes in at the end, the whole thing is reduced to a nostalgic looking back and the whole thing is destroyed again. The function of the funeral Mass is to give hope.”

Interview first published Meath Chronicle print edition, Saturday 6th December