‘Radical’ changes only hope for Church survival

Radical change is needed in the Irish Church if it is to stay afloat, a Limerick-based priest has said.

Speaking in the wake of a two-day conference in Thurles last week, entitled ‘The Future of the Irish Parish: Lessons from Abroad’, Fr Eamonn Fitzgibbon said that the Irish Church needs more pastoral lay leaders to help in parishes and curb the ongoing shortage of priests.

The conference, organised by the Irish Institute for Pastoral Studies at Mary Immaculate College’s campus in Thurles, saw Cardinal John Dew of Wellington speak about the benefits of appointing lay pastoral leaders in his diocese.

Distinguishing between Eucharistic Ministers and lay people who already help in their church, Fr Fitzgibbon said pastoral lay leaders have “a kind of professional recognised ministry” and very often are employed by the diocese or a group of parishes. With this role, they “work across the whole gamut of pastoral needs of the parish,” such as caring for the bereaved and the sick, youth ministry, sacramental formation and working alongside the clergy.

Training

Although there are already pastoral workers “in varying degrees” around the country such as in the Archdiocese of Dublin, Fr Fitzgibbon said he is hoping to develop a training programme for volunteer pastoral workers so that they become more widespread.

“We’re going to have to do something. We’re going to have to move towards something like that. Now the question will be whether or not we will have the resources,” he said.

Fr Fitzgibbon added that ideally there will be professional and volunteer pastoral workers helping the diocese and supporting one another, noting that “both will have to happen hand in hand”. But, he added, given the declining number of priests in Ireland, the structure of parishes is going to change in the future, and this may entail reducing the number of parishes in each diocese and closing churches.

“It’s a very radical step but I think we’re going to have to look at doing something quite radical in Ireland as well, to make it sustainable in the future because we can’t be dependent on clergy numbers because they’re simply not there,” he said.