KEEPERS OF THE FAITH
IN THE START OF A NEW SERIES, WEXFORD’S PRIESTS SPEAK OF WHAT LIFE IS LIKE WORKING A JOB IN WHICH MOST PRIESTS ARE OVER RETIREMENT AGE, WRITES
IN THESE uncertain times in the Catholic Church, Wexford’s priests continue to keep the faith – with some celebrating Mass into their 90s.
The diocese of Ferns was founded in 598 AD and has survived many challenging periods over the centuries. In a new series investigating the role of priests in modern society, the diocese’s priests talk about how the church can continue to serve people with over half of practising priests aged over the normal retirement age for workers, and only one person training to be a priest.
Would allowing priests to marry make a difference? Are women priests the answer? Will your local church have to close due to the lack of priests? Over the coming weeks, priests – many of whom are cocooning – share their thoughts.
There was a time when the parish priest for Cushinstown which – has two curacies: Rathgarogue and Terrerath – had a priest for each church.
Fr Sean, 56, is busy managing the workload of three priests but says it is not too onerous for him. ‘I don’t find it too draining unless you get a big run of funerals and weddings. It’s a matter of a pacing myself.’
Fr Devereux previously ran a massive parish in The Gambia. ‘I am coming at this from a different perspective having had a parish the size of Wexford in The Gambia. I am 56 and have a lot of energy, but as I get older and I know priests who are in their 70s, I do know it becomes a strain. Within our own diocese there needs to be more radical thinking. It is a problem which requires a solution to come from not within ourselves specifically in the clergy but within the family of the parish.’
Fr Devereux recalled a public meeting he called a few years ago in the parish, which saw numerous people offer to get involved in assisting him with his workload, if needed. ‘People could get involved in different areas if I did become sick. People could be trained to lead a Communion service or liturgies of the word where people could pray. I got a huge response here. The demographics surprised me as a lot of young people came along and offered themselves to be trained in different aspects. It has to happen.’
Fr Devereux said: ‘I was a bit ahead of the curve but this needs to happen sooner rather than later. A parish by parish response is needed. Having spent 17 years in West Africa where we were very scarce on the ground, we found ways.’
He said bereavement groups in places like New Ross and Wexford are already providing an excellent service.
‘In Africa we had people trained to say prayers at funeral homes. We had to because there were no priests to do it. People discover their own ministries within the church. We just have to act now as a nation and as a family by all being responsible.’
Fr Butler said radical thinking is needed if priests are to be able to continue to provide the service they do across the diocese, but questioned where this will come from. ‘We haven’t done much thinking so far. We have been working out of an old model of thinking that the Lord will send but he won’t send. Only two priests in the diocese are aged under 40.’
He said his work week varies in intensity. ‘It varies, you could be very busy one week and you could be very quiet the next week. The summer is busier but most weeks aren’t too taxing. Some priests are under massive pressure. You have full time parish priests still working at 79, 80. In any other profession they’d be 20 years retired.’
He said more than stopgap measures are needed. ‘People immediately say female priests are the solution to the problem but they didn’t solve the problems of the Church of England. Married clergy didn’t solve the problem of the Church of England either. We have lost an awful lot of priests (in the diocese) purely from marriage. Even in my time over the past 30 years we would have lost 30, 40 priests who purely left to get married.’
42 years a priest, Fr Butler said he still enjoys his work immensely. ‘I was in St Peter’s College on the staff there teaching and was dean of discipline which added variety to my work. Working with young people always does.’
There are two priests covering Wexford town where there were eight 25 years ago, he said. ‘When I was a student in Wexford in the 70s there were 25 student priests in the Diocese of Ferns. Today there is one in Maynooth for the entire diocese. The best support we get is from our loyal parishioners. Amid the hostility (against the Catholic Church) the core parishoners have stood by us through all that. Most people don’t see the international or the national church, they see the church as their own local priest.’
‘I am a priest since 1955. My workload is much the same every week. You have your masses every morning and two on weekends. I am 90, but I’m not the oldest in recent times. Fr Wall in Bunclody is 95 and he still celebrates Mass privately for occasions.’
Fr Byrne said there are not enough trainee priests to fill the vocations springing up across the diocese.
He said he finds his work very rewarding. ‘I started in Bree and moved to Askamore, Kilmore Quay, Rathangan, Monaseed, Rathangan and Cleariestown would have been a very big parish. After getting a heart attack I thought I needed to take it easier. I never thought I’d still be a priest when I was 90, but it’s my choice. I thank God every day that I am able to get up and do it and I will continue to do it if this virus doesn’t take me.’
Fr Byrne said his workload is nothing he can’t cope with. ‘I used to look after four churches. We have great help with the people. We have a good parish which is part of a cluster that involves Clongeen and Adamstown. It’s no great issue once you are organised. You are busy as you get to my age.’
Eventually some of the churches will be in trouble, unfortunately some might be closed, he said. ‘Marrying priests is not the answer either. It’s a crisis of faith more than anything else. I have no problem with married priests. My counterpart in Wicklow was a lady in the Church of Ireland. I heard there were 32 priests retired out of the diocese in recent times but people leave for all different reasons, including marriage. Marriage is not utopia either.’
On the workload front, Fr Byrne said the biggest problem is the new regulations regarding childcare protection guidelines, and the Finance Act. ‘We had a piggy bank facility but then they thought people were going to be laundering money. It’s crazy and the regulations are a bigger concern for a lot of us. We are not trying to be accountants but we do look after the money as best we can and this micro management is not helping.’
Fr Byrne said in some Church of Ireland parishes mass is only celebrated once a month.
‘People are understanding that there are less of us,’ Fr Carroll said. ‘Just doing what we have to do is onerous enough. It’s very hard to find the time for an type of initiative. The back up and supply is less and less and sometimes you are relying on people who are retired to help you out.’
He said the amount of administrative work is becoming increasingly onerous.
‘There’s the oversight on school boards of management, GDPR, safeguarding legislation, accounting. There is more and more of that. You’re on the phone 24/7. Basically the harvest is rich but the labourers are few.’
Fr Carroll said if not for the support of parishoners priests would have an insurmountable task on their hands.
‘People are very good to us. A lot of them are very busy with fulltime jobs. The numbers of people involved across the diocese are huge. We have up to 800 people involved in the boards of management of schools and we have readers, people on Eucharistic and financial committees, ministers and people involved in the general voluntary effort. There are a huge number of people there; more and more’
Fr Carroll said the solution to the lack of priests is canvassing for vocations.
EVEN IN MY TIME OVER THE PAST 30 YEARS WE WOULD HAVE LOST 30, 40 PRIESTS WHO LEFT PURELY TO GET MARRIED