PRIESTS TAKE THEIR MISSION ONLINE
IN PART II OF OUR NEW SERIES, PRIESTS SAY THE COVID CRISIS CAN BOOST MASS ATTENDANCES WITH NEW FOLLOWERS AND SPEAK ABOUT HOW CRUEL TRAINING WAS. DAVID LOOBY REPORTS
Easter was different for many of Co Wexford’s priests this year as half were cocooning due to Covid-19 restrictions. In the second part of the series, a south Wexford priest describes how priests’ spirits were broken when they started out in their vocations. Priests call for the church to encourage lay people to say prayers at funerals, with one priest identifying the Covid-19 crisis as an opportunity for the church to grow vocations and Mass sizes as people turn to God for solace following a period of existential crisis.
FR JIM COGLEY
Our Lady’s Island, Tacumshane
For Fr Jim Cogley 2020 is a landmark year as he celebrates 40 years in the priesthood. ‘My first appointment was to Cushinstown.
I was 28 years in Kilmore Quay and seven years in Oilgate and recently I have been working in the Our Lady’s Island community. It’s a busy place here because I have two areas and the Pilgrimage every August which is a major commitment all summer.’
He has a live-stream on Facebook which attracts up to 15,000 viewers from across the globe. ‘I preach every day. There are a lot of people tuning in, upwards of 15,000 on Facebook when there would have been 15 at Mass. It seems to be mushrooming every day. Our Lady’s Island would be reasonably well known so when something comes form here it seems to catch people’s attention.’
Fr Cogley does a daily reflection. ‘ They are against the backdrop of the coronavirus to lead people into a deeper understanding of it. It was never such a teachable time. People were never as open to deeper truth. It’s only when we are pulled out of our comfort zone that we experience a deeper awakening; there is a hunger out there today. At the beginning of Lent people took ashes and never realised that very shortly that everything was going to turn to ashes. It’s a time when labels were never as important as they were; survival is the name of the game. The old question was “to be or not to be”. Now we are just being.’
He said: ‘ We are lucky to be ahead of the curve in Co Wexford. There are frightening reports coming out of Italy and Spain.’
Fr Cogley said seminary training has to be radically rethought and retaught if vocations are ever to rise. ‘ The traditional model has been a fella goes into a seminary for six or seven years of training in theology and philosophy; neither of which are of any use of they want to leave. I believe people should be given basic training in counselling and psychotherapy which would help them mature themselves. If they left they would have more to offer. There is a resistance at looking at that.’
Celibacy is another bugbear of Fr Cogley, who is a qualified psychotherapist. He said unless lay people are empowered to have different religious functions within communities churches will close. ‘Unless lay people are empowered to take on a lot of different types of roles ministries will close up shop in the future. The time is now to prepare people for ministry before the time comes when priests are gone from parishes and cannot be replaced. An established pattern needs to be in place so they can automatically take on board their role.’
Fr Cogley acknowledged that the Church has had a bad reputation of care. He said young priests have traditionally been given lonely outposts in rural Co Wexford, adding that instead of being encouraged they were more likely to have been reprimanded by their superiors.
‘ The isolation element is not healthy for anyone. It’s not good for a man to be cut off and to be put in an isolated parish. For a man who is used to living with a family or being in secondary school – to move into a parish completely on his own with no experience can be quite devastating. That was a practise that was practised. It was a way of breaking your spirit. The first place I was put was into a rat infested presbytery in Cushinstown. You put up with it at the time.’
He said celibacy didn’t help some priests. The church now has a window to make the most of the pandemic, he added.
‘ This is a glorious opportunity for the Word to go forth. It’s a time to be grasped by the Church with both hands. The Chinese word for crisis means a dangerous opportunity. The Greek word means to sift out of lot of dross. Today people are sifting out what was important in their live to reveal deeper truths.’
FR MARTIN BYRNE Ballymore & Mayglass
Fr Byrne was ordained in 1976 and is coming up to priest retirement age (75) in the coming years.
He realises the time will come when there are not enough priests within the Diocese of Ferns to keep church doors open.
Currently he looks after his parishoners in Ballymore, but also in the curacy of Mayglass. He has also covered Kilrane and Kilmore on occasion.
‘We use a thing called clustering where parishes close to one another help each other out when a priest goes on holiday or is sick.’
He began his working life in Essex, having been ordained in his native Rathangan.
‘I worked in the parish in Essex for eight years. It was very busy. I went back to Co Wexford in the 80s and worked in Wexford town which was lovely.’
Fr Byrne moved to Raheen and then on to Ballymore. He said the role of the priest has changed, adding that the basic functions are still the same.
‘ There is much more administrative work these days. We have to be answerable to everyone with GDPR.’
Between weddings, funerals and roles in local schools his days are busy for the most part.
‘People are very helpful and offer a deep level of care.’
Like many priests Fr Byrne is concerned about the future of the church: ‘I don’t think we’ll be able to hold on the way we are going with the structure that is there now. It would be very difficult to uphold that much longer. There will be a cut down on masses anyway, for example. They may happen every second week. At present I only have one Mass a week in each church. I think you can find a parallel in this virus which is rampant at the moment. They speak of underlying illnesses; the most underlying thing for us is to realise the importance of faith.’
FR WILLIAM COSGRAVE Monageer
Having been ordained in 1965 and worked in a variety of areas, including in London, Fr Cosgrave has an informed knowledge of the Church and its role in societies.
Following a teaching career in St Peter’s seminary and in Maynooth where he was director of formation, Fr Cosgrave returned to St Peter’s where he taught theology to seminarians. He also worked in London, Gorey, St Peter’s, where he returned to teach moral theology and ethics in the 1990s and England, prior to returning to Co Wexford to work in Monageer where he has been based for 26 years.
Fr Cosgrave said he keeps himself busy trying to keep faith alive in Monageer.
He said societal changes have seen the power of the church diminish significantly over recent years.
‘It’s a much more secular society at the moment so we are struggling. Churchpeople are carrying it on but the numbers of young people attending masses are well down. There were people who went to mass every Sunday for 20 years who don’t go now because there is no societal pressure.’
Fr Cosgrave is 79 and plans to continue serving the people of Monageer who are willing to listen.
He said: ‘I could be retired