THE Bishop of Kerry has asked to meet with locals in Kilcummin who say they are devastated that the busy parish is to be left without a resident priest from mid-July.
Bishop Ray Browne has called a public meeting for next Tuesday night at 8.00pm on the village recreation hall and he will outline the situation and tell why he had to make the tough decision.
After two years in the parish, Fr Eamonn Mulvihill is to be transferred to Castlegregory while priests from the parish of Killarney will assume responsibility for services in Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Kilcummin, with Fr Kieran O’Brien as moderator.
At a public meeting attended by over 200 people in the local recreation hall last night, locals bristled with anger at the decision and they told of their shock and upset that they were being deprived of a resident priest.
Parishioners were determined to remind the Diocese of Kerry that they willingly donated to a renovation €1.2 million renovation fund to totally transform and modernise Our Lady of Lourdes Church just 14 years ago and they also gave generously when the new presbytery was being provided.
One proposal that they should protest at the decision by withholding contributions to the collection box at Masses was greeted with sustained applause and there was a suggestion that ‘Save our priest’ should be written on slips of paper and placed in the parish envelopes instead.
The offertory collection at Masses in Our Lady of Lourdes Church last weekend amounted to €1,795.
The retirement of three priests was confirmed on Friday, leaving eight out of the 53 parishes without a resident priest as the vocations crisis worsens.
On his decision to transfer Fr Mulvihill, Bishop Browne said it is a very sad occasion when a parish loses its resident priest and it is challenging for both the parish and for the pastoral area.
Bur, he added: “Over the past seven years, as a diocese, we have grown in our ability to give good support to these parishes as they adjust. Recent consultations with the parishes without a resident priest have shown that they are quite positive about their situation”.
The bishop said a parish without a resident priest means that the priests in the other three or four parishes in their pastoral area provide a full service in that parish. In that situation no priest is any longer full-time in his parish of residence as each also ministers in the other parishes.
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