Greg Daly
It’s an inevitable fact that much of the religious patrimony of Ireland built up over centuries will disappear in coming years as religious orders sell off property to fund retirement care for elderly members. There is upset amongst some returned Spiritan missionaries in Dublin this week after they were told that their nursing home will close and 27 of them will have to move from Kimmage to north Dublin away from their confreres.
Fr Tony Flannery, a Redemptorist missioner currently out of ministry due to his disputes with the Vatican, said what is happening with the Spiritans is facing all orders.
He told The Irish Catholic this week that religious life in Ireland is facing a steady decline until it virtually disappears with orders having no option but to sell off properties to support ageing and infirm clergy and religious.
“The one thing that’s saving the religious orders at the moment is the selling off of property,” according to Fr Flannery.
“The cost of nursing homes – and unfortunately, that’s where we will all end up – is enormous”.
The Spiritans – also known as the Holy Ghost Fathers – say they can no longer afford to maintain Marian House in Kimmage as a nursing home, and will be relocating the house’s residents to Nazareth House on Dublin’s Malahide Road.
Nazareth House, according to Spiritan Provincial Fr Marc Whelan, is expanding to include extra bedrooms, and the Spiritans there will remain part of the Kimmage Community, supported by a delegate and continuing to be visited by Kimmage-based clerics.
Poorly treated
The Irish Catholic understands that some of those being asked to move feel very upset, believing they have been poorly treated and are paying the price of poor health as a result of lifetimes of work, often in tough tropical conditions. The leadership team, however, maintains that the decision is a necessary one that has followed a lengthy discernment process.
Fr Gerry O’Connor of the Association of Catholic Priests, which has previously raised questions about the capacity of dioceses to continue supporting elderly priests, said while he has not heard of religious clergy expressing similar concerns, “undoubtedly the income trend is only in one direction, and that is down, therefore organisations are dependent on the wise stewardship of past income and past investments”.
Belfast-based Passionist Fr Gary Donegan said the situation can vary from order to order.
“It is actually down to particular orders – I think for some they may have taken the eye off the ball as far as this is concerned,” he said.
“It’s the same as in families,” he continued. “Families would all love to care for people at home, whether it’s disability or whether it’s age or whatever, and when there was massive numbers [of religious] that was so much easier.”
Reduced numbers in religious communities mean that this is no longer possible, he added making it inevitable that people end up in nursing homes.