Irish Examiner view: Rate of change in Catholic Church is quickening

Ronan Sheehan of Newcestown, who is 27, is the only priest who will be ordained this year in the diocese.

This was the week when evidence of the Catholic Church’s waning visibility and influence became impossible to ignore.

The fact that a new priest was ordained in the Diocese of Cork and Ross was itself worthy of note — Ronan Sheehan of Newcestown, who is 27, is the only priest who will be ordained this year in the diocese, which is expected to lose at least eight priests from active ministry in that same period.