Priests’ role in society ‘must be reimagined’

The Church has little choice but to ordain married men and welcome former priests back into the clergy if it is to exist in Ireland in 20 years time, a founding member of the Association of Catholic Priests claims.

Fr Brendan Hoban has warned in his new book that the country will suffer a “Eucharistic famine” in 20 years if there isn’t a “measured and gradual... re-imagining” of the role of priesthood”.

“Without priests we have no Mass and without Mass we have no Church,” he says in his latest work, Who Will Break The Bread For Us?