Vocations crisis sees Church prepare for lay ministers

Families are facing the prospect of priests no longer officiating at the graves of loved ones at funerals in one Catholic diocese.

The prospect of priests not receiving remains at Church or officiating at graves at funerals is contained in the Killaloe Pastoral Plan to 2020 as the Church there grapples with the growing vocations crisis.

Against the background of declining vocations, the plan states: “We have to plan for a situation where members of the local community will lead liturgical celebrations on weekdays and also on Sundays when no priest is available.”

The plan also states that, on any given weekend, Masses will not be held in all of the existing churches, but will be scheduled for parish clusters.

The plan also states that roles previously performed by priests such as “visiting the sick, bringing communion to the housebound, receiving funerals at the church and officiating at graveside” will be done by lay ministers.

The plan states: “We need to continue making significant shifts in thinking and practice, if we are not to find ourselves struggling beyond our capacities in the middle of the next decade.”

Currently, the diocese has only one seminarian who is due to be ordained a priest in the summer of 2015 and diocesan spokesman Fr Brendan Quinlivan said yesterday: “After that, we have no one, but I know that our director of vocations is in talks with a number of people who have expressed an interest in joining the priesthood.”

More than half of the 82 priests in the diocese are over 66 years of age, with the priests serving 56 parishes stretching from Loop Head in west Clare to Kinnity in Offaly.

Fr Quinlivan said the number of serving priests in the diocese has fallen from 100 to 82 over the past decade “and if it continues at that rate, it will be a serious concern”.

The steep drop in vocations in the diocese comes in spite of the Church there having a cash pile of over €1m to promote vocations to the priesthood.

This followed a person leaving over €1m to the diocese with the proviso that the monies be ring-fenced for promoting the priesthood and educating priests and not be used for day-to-day running costs.

Fr Quinlivan said: “It is a reality of demographics that lay people are being asked to take on functions normally carried out a by a priest.”

The pastoral plan states: “There is a real urgency now for us to begin to prepare for a rather different kind of Church, one where all of us will have to assume much more active roles in developing and supporting the faith life of our communities.”

Asked how bereaved families may respond to priests not being at the graveside at funerals, Fr Quinlivan said: “People are very good at adapting and have already shown that they are good at adapting to the new ways of running the Church.”