Communion services conducted by lay people on the agenda in Kildare and Leighlin diocese

Communion services conducted by lay people is on the agenda in Kildare and Leighlin diocese.  

Discussions about grouping parishes together are currently underway, and the Portlaoise meeting requested training for people who take more of a role as lay leaders, that could involve their conducting communion services and funeral removals.  

The series of meetings during March and April about the future of the diocese in the face of declining priest numbers, follow on from the gatherings last year attended by more than 1,000 people.

Fr Kevin Walsh, a curate in Portlaoise parish, has been involved in discussions from the outset, and told ciNews that it is not a case of parishioners worrying about having fewer masses or priests.

“People are very aware of the reality of change,” he said.  “The group that was here (at the meeting) the other night are a more senior group and they have seen a lot of change anyhow.  They accept it, but they do realise that they need to take on a role as lay people in leading in their own community, if they want to hold the community together with the church as a focal point.  They need to be trained as leaders and in areas such as communion services when there won’t be Mass.”

He explained that Kildare and Leighlin is like many other diocese.  

One priest will be ordained in the next eighteen months while several serving priests are retiring and passing away.  

The Portlaoise meeting included the adjoining parishes of Mountrath and Ballyfin.  

These two parishes operate as one, whilst still retaining their individual identities.  

They share a parish priest who lives in one parish and a curate who lives in the other and Mass times have been rearranged so that if one priest is indisposed the other can cover all the Sunday Masses. 

In the past both Ballyfin and Mountrath had their own parish priest in residence.

The parish in Portlaoise has sufficient priests, with the services of an African priest, to look after immigrants’ needs as well as the diocesan Polish priest.  

In other parishes in Kildare and Leighlin retired parish priests remain on as curates to help out. 

In some parishes with one or two churches ‘of ease’, the Mass alternates and is held only once a fortnight in each.  

Clusters (where two or more parishes were grouped together under one parish priest) have been formed over the last ten years when vacancies appeared. 

At present, there are eight clusters in the diocese involving 17 parishes (out of a total of 56 parishes).

The current round of meetings is looking at such issues and how parishes could work together in their suggested Pastoral Area (a new term for clusters). 

Meetings involving three to five adjacent parishes are taking place in thirteen locations in the diocese.

Monsignor Brendan Byrne, Diocesan Administrator, stated that people at the meetings discussed more meaningful approaches to grouping parishes beyond the numbers of priests and on a ‘when and where’ response.  

Acknowledging the good work of convenors, facilitators and planning group, Monsignor Byrne said that final decisions will wait until the appointment of a new Bishop and any formal changes will not happen until he takes office.

“In all our planning, we must not lose sight of the mission that we are trying to serve and share. The Good News must define and shape all our work. What we are seeking is the best way of working together to proclaim the Good News in our time and place. At its heart, we know that this is a shared mission among all the people of God,” he concluded. 

 

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