Parishes must prepare to share priests

THE strong attachment to the parish will withstand the loss of local resident priests but people will have to get used to sharing priests with neighbouring towns and villages, a conference heard yesterday.

More than 200 clergy and lay people are attending the two-day conference, entitled Parishes in Transition, to plan a way forward for the Irish parish in the con-text of the huge drop in priests.

The conference, at Mary Immaculate College in Limerick, was told the diocese of Limerick had 25 students in various seminaries in 1989, but now it has just two.