AUGUSTINIANS TO LOOK TO FUTURE
Thursday meeting to discuss ‘sharing ideas’ as number of priests falling
A MEETING to discuss the ‘Sharing of Ideas’ in relation to the future of the Augustinians in Drogheda and elsewhere, is to take place in the Westcourt Hotel on Thursday June 9th at the Westcourt Hotel (7-9pm).
Fr. Colm O Mahony told the Drogheda Independent that numbers were diminishing at the moment. “There is only one student currently in his second year of training with another one set to begin his training this summer and these are the first to commence the training process in the past six to eight years. I, myself, am the youngest Friar and I was ordained 4 years ago, but before me, there was nobody ordained for 15 years. ”
The main ethos of the Augustinian order is ‘community first’. They work towards fostering and sustaining communities and as a result, they are very popular here in Ireland. Although numbers are down, they still have a very loyal congregation of regular attendees and this contains people across all ages and origins.
With the Augustinian order in Drogheda over 700 years old, and the average age of a Friar between 70 and 75 years, the order have realised that it will be hard to keep everything going at the pace it is now.
There have been four communities closed down in the past number of years which unfortunately was unavoidable due to issues such as ageing, illness and personnel numbers.
The purpose of this meeting, which will be facilitated by Mr. Sean Ruth, is to figure out how best to address the needs of the church attendees and to reach out to those who don’t attend. They also will discuss how to maintain the outreach of chaplains in schools.
Fr. Colm also said that they want people to give their opinion on how best the Augustinian order can help them, where they see the Augustinians in 10 years, what areas they believe need to be focused on, how to maintain community spirit, etc.
Fr. Colm also added that it was an open meeting for anyone to attend but the order do ask that anyone who wishes to go, should let them know so they can give numbers to the hotel.
If you would like to attend, please let the Prior or one of the community know or give your name into the Shop. You can also email the Prior on colmomahony@gmail.com.
The Augustinian Order in Ireland would be classed as one of the oldest, founded in and around 1290-1300AD with the first order, founded in Italy in 1256. The Irish order historically founded orders in America, Australia, Nigeria and were instrumental in the foundation of Kenya. They also re-founded England during the late 1800s as the order was wiped out during the Reformation.