AS angry locals in Kilcummin prepare to meet this Friday night to discuss the loss of a resident priest in the parish, the Bishop of Kerry has acknowledged that it is a very sad occasion that presents challenges not only for the parish but for the whole pastoral area.
As the vocations crisis escalates, Fr Eamonn Mulvihill is being transferred to the parish of Castlegregory and responsibility for Kilcummin will fall to priests in the Killarney parish with Fr Kieran O’Brien, the popular Killarney Parish Administrator, to be moderator.
Bishop Ray Browne, who has had to made adjustments following the retirements of three more priests, said the past year has seen a lot of priests becoming ill.
“Providing continuity of service in their parishes has been a challenge. I pay tribute to all who have gone the extra mile to make it possible: neighbouring priests, the laity in their parishes, the deacons and our retired priests. There has been a true spirit of teamwork. Thank God, many have made a good recovery,” he said.
But he stressed that recent consultations with the parishes without a resident priest have shown that they are quite positive about their situation.
“A parish without a resident priest means that the priests in the other three or four parishes in their pastoral area together provide a full service in that parish. In that situation no priest is any longer full-time in his parish of residence, each also ministers in the other parishes,” Bishop Browne said.
He stressed that a parish without a resident priest remains a fully independent parish with its own committees for pastoral, liturgical and financial matters.
“There is no change as regards baptisms, funerals, weddings, First Communions, Confirmations and First Friday calls. The parish continues to have its own identity,” he said.
“The challenge that all of us face together is to provide the best service to all 53 parishes in the diocese with the resources we have. The hope and the intention is that all the parishes of our diocese have good energy and life and that the parish without a resident priest has the same fullness of parish life as every other parish,” the bishop added.
He said in all areas many people are becoming more and more involved in the life of their parish and that is how it should be.
The retirement of three priests has resulted in two more parishes without resident priests and it brings the total number of such parishes to eight. Of the 12 pastoral areas, just four have yet to have a parish without a resident priest.
One priest was ordained in Kerry last year and two seminarians are currently studying for the priesthood.
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