Clerics’ lockdown fears over wages

PRIESTS fear the loss of Mass-goers from the shutdown of churches will mean dioceses will soon run out of cash to pay their modest wages.

In the six months after the pandemic hit in mid-March to mid-September, donations have fallen by more than two-thirds from just over €4.6million last year to almost €1.5million this year in the Dublin Archdiocese, according to the newspaper The Irish Catholic.

Priests are paid just over €24,000 a year, but troubled Church finances forced them to take a 20% cut in 2009. That brought their salary down to less than €19,300, and the cut was never restored.

Priests, who live rent free, then suffered a further 25% cut in May because of the Covid hit to collections which took their annual pay to less than €14,500.

However, the Church plans to reverse that cut next month if finances recover.

There are currently around 2,000 priests across the whole country and their average age ‘hovers around 70’, according to the Church, while the number of priests dying or retiring far outweighs those joining the ranks. One Dublin parish priest said he and colleagues are reluctant to raise concerns ‘because we know that so many people are suffering financially’.

‘But at the same time our pay is modest, and we are fine with that – but it does mean most priests live month-to-month and have no savings to rely on,’ he said.

Another priest said he knew of clerics who were concerned about having to ask their own families for support.