IRELAND
Irish Times
Patsy McGarry
Weekly Mass attendances in Dublin’s Catholic archdiocese are projected to drop by a third over the next 15 years, while the number of priests serving in parishes is expected to fall by over 60 per cent to 144 in the same period.
And this is the most optimistic projection. A report prepared for the Dublin Council of priests by external consultants notes that if religious congregations such as the Redemptorists or Jesuits redeploy their priests from parish duties, then Dublin will be left with just 111 priests in 2030 – a drop of 70 per cent.
The analysis, prepared by consultants Towers Watson, also found that 57 per cent of Dublin’s priests today are over 60.
It is projected that three-quarters of priests will be over 60 by 2030.
Weekly Mass attendance levels in Dublin are currently put at 20-22 per cent (of the population), while being as low as 2-3 per cent in some working-class parishes.
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