Catholic churches facing mass exodus as lack of priests and falling attendances threaten closures, by Alana Fearon, Irish Mirror (October 7, 2015)

Catholic churches facing mass exodus as lack of priests and falling attendances threaten closures

By Alana Fearon
Irish Mirror
October 7, 2015

http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/catholic-churches-facing-mass-exodus-6585387

Faithful: Empty pews worry church

Ageing priests and a plummeting number of practising Catholics have left the Church facing an unprecedented crisis

Catholic churches may be shut down completely as a chronic lack of priests and falling attendance sees Masses cancelled.

The situation nationwide is already so critical that weekday services have been cancelled and Sunday Masses in many places are only held every second weekend.

Ageing priests, a lack of young seminarians and a plummeting number of practising Catholics have left the Church facing an unprecedented crisis.

The institution in America has dealt with the same turmoil by shutting churches and clustering whole parishes.

And it may not be long before we are forced to do the same, it’s been warned.

Anthony Neville from the Association of Catholics in Ireland told the Irish Mirror: “Weekday Masses are disappearing because if there’s only one priest who has to travel around three or four churches, plus do funerals, weddings, visiting the sick and administration, it’s impossible.

“There’s a very high percentage of priests who are over 65. In some dioceses it’s as high as 80% and there are very few seminarians coming along to replace them.

"Some parishes have more than one church but only one priest, so there might be Mass every second day in each church.

"But older people are now finding their local church doesn’t have Mass and they can’t get to another church so that’s a major issue."

Priests across Dublin have been asked to count Mass-goers over the next three weeks, an audit which could lead to the cancellation of Masses which have poor attendance.

Although the paedophile priest scandal was hugely damaging, many who quit the Church in its wake are slowly returning.

Lay people in some parishes now hold their own prayer service because of the lack of priests and the cancellation of Masses.

Mr Neville added: “This needs a more formal structure but these are very positive signs. In some services, they have been allowed to give out Holy Communion.”