Vocations are a top priority for the Church in Ireland, according to the newly elected president of the Irish Bishops’ Conference.
Speaking of his concern at the shortage of priests and its consequences for parishes, Archbishop Eamon Martin told a press conference following the autumn general meeting of the bishops that he was “very happy to dialogue with anyone” concerned about the problem.
“These are issues of concern to the bishops and priests,” he said, indicating a new willingness to engage with the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP).
Archbishop Martin said he was in conversation with priests in Armagh about the pressures they are under, about their well-being and about their increased workload resulting from the drop in the number of priests, as well as concerns about access to the Eucharist.
Last week the ACP warned that the shortage of priests in Ireland could result in priests having to marry several couples at the same time and hold multiple funerals.
“We could even be looking at having funeral Masses where there are up to 10 coffins in the church at the same time,” Fr Brendan Hoban, a founder of the ACP, said as he highlighted that the average age of priests in Ireland is 65.
Archbishop Martin reiterated that vocations are a priority for the Irish bishops and he said their meeting had considered how more young people could be encouraged to answer a call to the priesthood or religious life.
Meanwhile the ACP at its AGM in Athlone rejected clustering as a solution to the shortage of priests, describing it as “a short-term managerial strategy to cope with – or to pretend we’re coping with – the decline in priest numbers”.
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