Mags Gargan
Bishop Denis Nulty Kildare & Leighlin is the latest diocese to look abroad to fill clerical appointments in order to counter the decline in priest numbers.
Announcing the diocesan appointments for the coming year, Bishop Denis Nulty said he was “aware of the huge demands on priests in 2016 and each year the changes will get that bit more tight to ensure all parishes have priest cover”.
He said he was in “ongoing conversation” with the Diocese of Iasi in Romania around the possibility of “a couple of priests from there spending a few years with us in our diocese”.
He told The Irish Catholic the talks were in “the very early days” and that he had reached out to the Romanian diocese because “I had met some of their priests who study and live in the Irish College in Rome and they would have come to my native Diocese of Meath for summer duties over the years”.
Fr Yesudas Kodiveetil, a priest from South India, will take up an appointment as curate in Tuam parish in July and last year the Diocese of Kilmore appointed two Nigerian members of the Society of St Paul as curates.