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Irish Catholic Church failing as numbers of priests at record low levels - POLL

Young priests disappear while Mass attendance drops to 10%

CATHY HAYES,

IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Thursday, August 11, 2011, 3:30 AM

Updated Thursday, August 11, 2011, 5:51 AM

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Irish Catholic Church doomed – numbers of priests and congregation at dire levels

IrishCentral.com Poll

A leading County Derry priest predicts that in less than 15 years “at least a dozen parishes” in his diocese could have no parish priests. His calculations were made after examining the considerable reduction in the numbers of men entering the priesthood in recent years.

Father Michael Canny, the Templemore administrator and the diocese media liaison officer observed that in 1990 the diocese had just under 150 priests. Now there are 50 parish priests, 22 curates (under the age of 75) and 14 retired priests who “help out”.

Put simply he explained to the Derry Journal that his diocese is running out of priests. By 2025 there will only be 41 priests in the diocese of Templemore under the age of 75.

Canny said “In that scenario, given that some will be involved in hospital and other specialized ministries, we will have at least a dozen parishes without a resident priest.”

The numbers of Catholics attending Mass has also plummeted over the last decade. Canny said “We estimate that in rural or country areas attendances are no more than 35 percent generally while in the city areas the attendance are as low as 10 percent.

“So maybe in 15 years time 40 priests in active ministry in the diocese will be more than enough in proportion to the numbers who will be worshipping regularly.”

The priest also said that Mass-goers will “no doubt” be shocked by the news that they will have no fulltime parish priest. He added “That said I am of the opinion that when the Bishop announces that a parish is to be without a resident priest there will be pandemonium.”

He continued to say that the identity of “the parish” and the presence of the parish priest “have been part of the Irish thinking” for many generations in Ireland’s history.

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33 Comments

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2BorNot2B | Nov 09, 2011, 02:06 AM EST

My question (as I read the OBLIGATORY anti-Catholic rants this cyber rag delights on putting out, and I had no time to look at before), regarding the blathering of the doyenne of deceit, the eerieMuck, is the following: Why the hell does someone who is not even Catholic be so concerned with 'reform' in a Church she despises? Shouldn't she limit herself to be 'a shining example' in her own church-milieu, and just practice whatever hybridized pagan rituals her sect participates in that make her feel so self-righteous and satisfied? -- - It should be quite a shock to her, when she eventually arrives at comprehending the biblical passages where Jesus describes His eternal rule as KING, and the place He promises to His followers as a KINGDOM. She will probably also rant and rave when she reads The Fathers of the Church and discovers that from the very beginning the Church Christ founded - the Catholic Church - was ALWAYS liturgical and hierarchical. - No doubt she'll exhaust her puny efforts at 'reforming' the Kingdom of Heaven.. that is, if she can do it while she's being roasted on a spit.

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supersurvivor77 | Aug 12, 2011, 06:26 PM EDT

CATHOLICABUSESURVIVORSNI.COM----- AMEN

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eiriamach | Aug 12, 2011, 05:23 PM EDT

Cuanmara, why do you write of "religious discarding their habits" as though modern clothing were the devil's work? I can recall the horrific death of a nun whose starched headdress caught flame as she leaned over to light a candle in church. Most nuns have appropriately discarded the medieval habits that impeded their work in hospitals, schools, and shelters. It's time now for the Church to discard the medieval habits that impede the work of Christianity! And what's wrong with a liturgy that does "not offend Protestants"? It's unfortunate that RCC has had no liturgist as talented as Cranmer and currently is introducing a translation in such garbled English that, taken literally, some of its prayers are heretical! You employ a 'post hoc ergo propter hoc' when you attribute liturgical abuses and low Mass attendance to V.II. Vatican II was not responsible for these. But the failure to carry out V.II reforms has allowed the abuse and cover-up problems to shut many church doors. As a Lefebvreite who dislikes the 20th-21st century world, you cannot accept Pope Paul's 1966 declaration that the V.II Magisterium had "as much authority and far greater importance than the Council of Trent." John Paul II reaffirmed its "authentic teaching," and Paul VI reminded Catholics that they must open their minds to the world if they wished to save it. You cannot reject V.II without rejecting these popes, and if you do reject them, what kind of a schismatic are you? V.II began the re-unification of Christians; ironically, having rejected V.II, you will forever struggle just to keep Roman Catholics united!

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pilib04 | Aug 12, 2011, 02:47 PM EDT

AengusOg, how about "protecting the children from the evils that walk the earth" like the clergy.

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Portia777 | Aug 12, 2011, 01:22 PM EDT

Yankee724 Hell was a creation to keep the sheeple under control through fear.

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Portia777 | Aug 12, 2011, 01:20 PM EDT

Yankee724 Hitler and the Vatican are one as jesuits taught Hitler. Check the history.

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Portia777 | Aug 12, 2011, 01:18 PM EDT

The church of Roma/Molach is Dead . RIP.

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BishopSean | Aug 12, 2011, 10:17 AM EDT

AengusOg, I understand your pain. However, if there is one thing Catholics should learn from other Christians, it is that we must know God not only through His Church on earth--that can mess up massively-- or only through Sacramental life, but also directly through His Word in the Bible. God is probably asking each of us:"Didn´t you read My Book?" "So shall My word be that goes forth out of my mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall do what I please and it shall accomplish that for which I sent it." (Isaiah 55:11).

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Tisovertheglen | Aug 12, 2011, 09:40 AM EDT

.."Most of the change we think we see in life is due to truths being in and out of favour"(Robert Frost)

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AengusOg | Aug 11, 2011, 09:38 PM EDT

There is a Tridentine Mass at 11:00 am on Sunday in Manhattan, The Church of St. Agnes, E. 43rd St. I am not fooling myself, but here I can immerse myself in my childhood Catholicism and easily maintain my spiritual connections. This trip back in time is emotionally satisfying. I am not fooling myself about Mother Church, which has expired. This foolish Archdiocese offers the intentions of the Mass for illegal immigrants, politicians and the like. What about protecting the children from the evils that walk the earth, what about granting the clergy the strength to live up to their vows. Even these benign 'mea culpas' are lacking. The Mystical Body of Christ has been my most compelling connection to God. The Catholic Church may disappear, has disappeared for me. Perhaps I was never a true Catholic. Yet my connection to Christ is so deeply ingrained that the best I can do is return to my childhood experiences as a convenient spiritual oasis here at St. Agnes. I have not betrayed the Church, the Church has betrayed me.

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peterson | Aug 11, 2011, 09:02 PM EDT

Yankee, you have got that right !! The Church will survive !!

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Yankee724 | Aug 11, 2011, 08:51 PM EDT

The Catholic Church "failing"? Sadly mistaken. Jesus told Peter, "My church is built on rock, and the gates of Hell will never prevail against it". I.e DESPITE the efforts and Hitler jigs of the lefties like this misled author. Rant and rail all you want, God and His Church WILL win in the end!

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brianmack | Aug 11, 2011, 07:46 PM EDT

Personally, the change from Latin to English, amongst other factors, lost me as a Catholic. It was the "Universal Language" and now it's a joke. Sad-

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JuneAnnette | Aug 11, 2011, 07:41 PM EDT

Those who will carefully and prayerfully read God's Word, as it is found in the book of Hebrews, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, will soon discover that Christ is the substance of that which was prefigured in the priesthood of Aaron which was ordained of God under the Mosaic Law, as it is set forth in Exodus, Chapters 28, 29, 30, and enlarged upon in the book of Leviticus. This is what Christ meant when HE said that HE came to “fulfill the law”. (Matt. 5:17) As is the case with all of the ceremonial laws, so it is with respect to the priesthood.***As it is written in Heb. 10:1: “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually, make the comers thereunto perfect.”***And again, in Heb. 10:11-12: “And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man, (CHRIST) after HE had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God:”*** It was the singular work of our Great High Priest ALONE to appease God and atone for sins by his offering, and thus the office of the priesthood was effectively done away with when Christ “appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” (Heb. 9:26)

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Cuanmara | Aug 11, 2011, 05:25 PM EDT

Eiriamach: For all your postulating and pro VII defense, the fact remains that the fruits of that pastoral council are ecclesiastical chaos. Until you can demonstrate how the decline in priests, schools without qualified catechetical teachers, religious discarding their habits, Mass attendance at a pathetic low, ambiguous instructions from the council documents that paved the way for the incredible liturgical abuses that have infected every country in the world and such lack of formation within the Church that more than half of those who profess to be Catholics do not believe in the Real Presence. One has to have blinders on not to recognize that what the Freemason, Archbishop Bugnini, manufactured turned the Church upside down. Who, by his own admission, set out to construct a liturgy that could be accepted by and not offend Protestants. The results of this ecclesial imbroglio are blatantly obvious and have succeeded in all but destroying the Faith of the most Catholic country on earth. Wake up and take a look at what your precious VII has spawned. It ain't pretty.

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