Diocese gets €670k donation in will

A CASH-STRAPPED Catholic diocese has received over €670,000 in a will.

However, the Diocese of Killaloe — which has been reliant on its 90 priests to keep it out of the red over the past three years — can only use the money to educate young men to become priests and to promote vocations.

According to the diocese’s annual accounts for 2010 and 2009, it has received €678,330 under a “specific legacy” over the two years to boost vocations.

A spokesman said yesterday that a further allocation would appear under the same heading in the diocese’s 2011 accounts, which are not due to be published until next December.

He declined to state what the 2011 allocation would be.

However, the spokesman said the benefactor inserted a condition that the monies be used specifically for the education of young men towards the priesthood and the promotion of vocations.

The legacy comes against a continuing decline in the number of vocations in the Irish Church and priests from the Killaloe diocese putting their hands in their own pockets to keep the diocese out of the red.

Over the past three years, the priests have donated between €1,000 and €3,000 per annum to pay €500,000 to the diocese.

The payments, which end on December 31, have ensured the diocese recorded a surplus last year of €93,941.

Fr Brendan Quinlivan said the money in the legacy “is ring-fenced” for the education of young men towards the priesthood and the promotion of vocations.

He said the diocese currently has one seminarian studying to be a priest.

This year was the first time in 14 years that the diocese ordained two priests in one year — Fr Ger Fitzgerald of Castleconnell in Co Limerick and Fr Ger Jones of O’Briens Bridge in Co Clare. Half of the diocese’s working priests are aged over 60.

Fr Iggy McCormack, the diocese’s director of vocations, said yesterday the legacy was “an extraordinary gift and extraordinarily generous in terms of resources promoting vocations. Other dioceses would be struggling with resources in promoting vocations, but we have no struggle”.