MORE Kerry parishes will be without resident priests after this summer, it has been confirmed.
The Bishop of Kerry said two and possibly three priests are due to retire after over 50 years of service but the vocations crisis will mean there will be nobody available to fill the vacancies that arise.
“There is a serious issue that we are facing, having fewer and fewer priests. That means there will be more parishes without a resident priest and there will be additional ones this summer, unfortunately,” Bishop Ray Browne confirmed.
It is likely to result in priests from neighbouring parishes visiting some churches to celebrate Mass but it is also expected to result in a reduction in a number of services in some the parishes affected.
The official announcement on retirements, appointments and transfers for the Diocese of Kerry is usually made in early July but the bishop has already confirmed that there will be a reduction in numbers.
“Our priests are a good age. We are eternally grateful to priests who work until they are 75 or 76 years of age and who give great service,” said Bishop Browne who stressed that close on 90 per cent of priests in Kerry are over 50 years of age.
There are 53 parishes in the diocese and six are already without a resident priest. This has led to less Masses in some areas and a decision not to hold funerals on Sundays.
There are just two seminarians from Kerry currently studying for the priesthood and the ordination last year of Fr Sean Jones, a native of Moyvane now based in Tralee, was the first in Kerry for 10 years.
Bishop Browne said the vocations crisis will mean the laity taking more responsibility and, already, funeral teams are in place in at least one Kerry parish with members of the public receiving remains to the church and leading the prayers at burials.
“That’s the way forward and that it part of their baptismal calling. The most important people passing on the faith has always been the parent and the grandparent, not the priest,” the bishop remarked.
While many people are tuned into what’s happening on the ground, the extent of the problems being encountered by the Church in terms of vocations hasn’t quite sunk in with many others, Bishop Browne told the diocesan radio programme Horizons.
Asking the people to pray for vocations, he remarked: “We will have far less but, please God, we will still have a good number. We’re also asking people to pray for the life of their parish, the challenge to have a fuller parish life in a world of fewer priests”.
In April, at the Mass of Chrism in Killarney’s St Mary’s Cathedral, at which the oils for the sacraments used in the diocese were blessed, Bishop Ray Browne said the great challenge now being faced was having fewer priests.
“We have all felt it in the past 10 years. We realise we will feel it much more in the years immediately ahead,” he said.
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