Dutch Cardinal Eijk believes spending money on near-empty churches is unjustified. Relentless Ministry – In a new series written by Priests, we will explore what most priests describe as “Relentless Ministry” and the challenges of being a priest in Ireland today
Listening to priests around the country – and reading what some have written – there is a discernible sense of the ‘end of an era’ in how many interpret the position of the Church in contemporary Ireland and, by implication, the context for their own ministry.
Concrete signs of the passing of that era are unmistakable across the country’s landscape. Imposing convent buildings often lie vacant, or have been adapted for purposes other than those for which they were intended. Male religious congregations have similarly scaled back and are gradually withdrawing from town-centre friaries and from that cherished place the ‘orders’ traditionally occupied in our larger urban settings. Long established monasteries, too – known and respected throughout the land – are having to close their doors and merge with communities elsewhere. The national seminary at Maynooth, meanwhile, has leased much of its former facilities to the adjoining university – and there has been talk of a small, purpose-built replacement, somewhere within the College’s grounds. These are all symbolic and telling developments, symptomatic of the wider demise of a Catholicism and religious culture many of us knew well.
Replacements
In mainstream parish life, however, this ‘end of an era’ can be – at least outwardly – less obvious. Certain factors help obscure it: The understandable affinity which local people have with their church buildings, and related sites, means there has been little attempt to rationalise in terms of physical plant at parish level. Continuity can appear, therefore, more evident than change. Sacramental ministry and Church involvement in common rites of passage also continue to a considerable degree – and, for the most part, along broadly traditional lines. The increasing availability of priests from abroad and the emergence of the Permanent Diaconate here have enabled such continuity, despite the dramatic fall-off in home-grown vocations to the priesthood.
Overall responsibility and accountability for the parish remains, ultimately, with the figure of the Parish Priest”
One tangible indicator of the overall decline, nonetheless – which growing numbers of our parishes do experience – is the absence of a resident PP or of a priest devoted specifically to that parish. When diocesan ‘changes’ are publicised, in summer or autumn time annually, they follow a now predictable pattern: The retirement of certain parish priests will likely be their initial emphasis. The entrusting of the parishes these are vacating to existing PPs will generally follow – with, perhaps, notice of the arrival of a priest from abroad, effectively assuming the role formerly fulfilled by a diocesan curate.
A notable consequence of this approach to appointments is that Irish parish priests are increasingly likely to be assuming additional duties and expanding their areas of responsibility as they, themselves, move further into either middle or old age. The practice contrasts with the pattern of most working lives, where people generally shed responsibilities after they pass their peak years and as their capacities begin to diminish.
The demands this practice can give rise to are further intensified by the fact that – within the parochial system and clearly articulated in Canon Law – overall responsibility and accountability for the parish remains, ultimately, with the figure of the parish priest. This has significant implications at various levels, not least in the fact that – in a growingly bureaucratic age – the administrative and managerial duties attached to a parish ar potentially doubled for a PP who takes on more than one parish. Even where he can competently adapt, and draw on skilled lay support, a priest in these circumstances will often find his availability for pastoral, catechetical and other areas of ministry constricted – areas likely to prove fruitful if he had more quality time to devote to them.
Revision
Our parishes were designed and established around the expectation of at least one resident priest and, while it does provide for other exigencies, Canon Law still assumes this to be the norm. One wonders, therefore, about a seeming reluctance on the part of Irish dioceses to revisit the whole parish system in light of this awareness, and in light of the fact that circumstances on the ground are moving us further and further away from this norm. Clusters, groups of parishes and families of parishes, are just some of the terms which have been devised – in the course of the past two decades – to describe arrangements which have put in place because of the unsustainability of the conventional model. Perhaps it is time for a more fundamental review and rationalisation to be considered?
Reinforcing of local identity can shelter communities from wider realities and rather entrench them”
The maintaining of existing parish boundaries and the expectation that priests should traverse these has obvious benefits. It affirms the strong sense of community and pride of place which will have typically grown within a parish over several generations, while enabling parishioners to experience themselves as the local Church and take fuller responsibility for Church on their own home patch. Its limitations lie in the risk that the reinforcing of local identity can shelter communities from wider realities and rather entrench them in their sense of themselves.
I have heard, at least a few times in recent years, of local congregations opting or expressing a preference for having their own ‘Communion Service’, in the absence or potential absence of a priest – rather than travel a relatively short distance to join a neighbouring congregation for Sunday Mass. An admirable attachment to the local can gradually undermine one’s commitment to the ‘Catholic’, without the congregant ever intending or, maybe even, noticing it.
Consequences
An inevitable consequence, however, is the growing practice of priests finding themselves moving between small and shrinking congregations, in the course of a weekend, to celebrate a number of Masses within a relatively limited geographical area. Parish Priests are frequently preoccupied, meanwhile, with the financial and related challenges of keeping various church buildings safe, warm and in sufficiently good repair to facilitate the continuance of this pattern of worship and ministry.
‘Relentless Ministry’ is the title which The Irish Catholic has chosen for this series of reflections on parish life today. The relentlessness, I would propose, derives not solely – perhaps not even primarily – from the amount of work to be done, but from the pressures which accumulate where traditional approaches persist regardless of newer realities, and custom and practice prevails in the absence of meaningful change. Where this happens, even the most committed begin to wonder as to the value of what they are doing and question the worth of much of what they are busy about. Such reservations can undermine one’s sense of purpose and sap energy and enthusiasm at a time when both are much needed.
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Fr Andrew McMahon is a priest of the Diocese of Dromore.