Diocese set to count Mass-goers

MASS-GOERS are to be counted in churches across a diocese this and next weekend as a bishop tries to place priests where they are most needed.

The survey comes as priests from all over the country gather for a conference about trying to develop a national strategy for vocations promotion.

By order of the Bishop Laurence Forristal, a survey of Mass attendance across Kilkenny is being set in motion.

The results could lead to dramatic changes and greater involvement by lay people in the running of the Church. A spokesperson for the Catholic press office said she was not aware of any similar move in any other diocese in the country.

Some Masses could also be dropped if numbers don’t justify such services, the diocese of Ossory in Kilkenny has warned. “It is a stocktake of our diocese by way of Mass attendance figures,” said Fr Dan Carroll, diocesan spokesman. “We have to consider our resources,” he said.

Priests retiring in the diocese have not been replaced and the local seminary, at St Kieran’s College, closed almost 10 years ago. For the past seven years, nobody from the diocese has signed up for the priesthood.

The survey being carried out could lead to cutbacks in Masses at some local churches. Only one church in the diocese has kept such figures. That is Fr Carroll’s parish church, St Patrick’s.

That head count earlier this year showed 40% attendance at weekend Mass in a parish which has a population of 7,000. A national survey carried out by RTÉ’s Prime Time programme last month revealed the average Mass attendance was 43% in urban areas, down from 48% five years ago.

The survey comes as vocations personnel from 20 dioceses take part in a four-day workshop at Dundrum, Co Tipperary.

“We want to begin the process of developing a national strategy for vocations promotion, and we also want to discuss how we can work in partnership with those who contact us, to help them to explore what God wants of them,” said Fr Kevin Doran, national co-ordinator.

It is essential, Fr Doran said, that every member of the Church sees himself or herself as called by God, and recognises that part of our own Baptismal vocation is that “we become together a Church that listens and a Church that calls”.

This autumn, just 17 men were called to the priesthood and began their studies at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, The Irish College, Rome, St Malachy’s College, Belfast, and the Pontifical Beda College, Rome.