St Patrick’s Parish, Belfast St Patrick’s Parish, Belfast has been reduced to just one priest for the first time in 200 years.
The parish not only attends the spiritual and pastoral needs of the community, but also serves a hospital, a primary school, several residential and care homes, and the new Ulster University Belfast Campus.
The large scale building is known as pro-cathedral, or temporary cathedral for Down and Connor Diocese. For decades the parish would count with services of up to six priests, but in 2022 it was reduced to only two Parish Priest, Fr Eugene O’Neill and curate Fr Tony McAleese.
Fr McAleese will be moving to St Oliver Plunkett Parish. Becoming the only priest in the parish, Fr O’Neill told The Irish News he has been talking to Bishop McGuckian about the parish’s needs.
“But the bottom line is there just aren’t enough priests to go around and the bishop simply has nobody else to send us. So now we have to face the future in a very different context”, Fr O’Neill said.