Priest shortage means no Mass for first time in 1,500 years

SUNDAY Mass has not been said in one Irish village for the first time in 1,500 years, due to a recruitment shortage for Catholic priests.

The Church of the Sacred Heart, in Boho, County Fermanagh, stands on the site of an early Christian monastery that dates back to the sixth century. But two weeks ago, the service was cancelled there after the Diocese was forced to alternate weekly Mass between the church in Boho and another in neighbouring Monea village.

Parishioners were not consulted on the changes and many fear it will undermine people’s sense of local identity. One man in his 90s, who has walked to church every Sunday in Boho, will now have to find a lift in order to go to Mass at the other church.

The situation is expected to worsen, local clergymen revealed, because the number of Catholic priests being trained and ordained has failed to rise.

Monsignor Joseph Mcguiness said that the situation had become critical and the Church had to deal with the reality that the number of priests will

‘The idea of compulsory celibacy is dwindling and not meaningful to many people any more’

reduce still further. He said: “It’s understandable that some people will find this very difficult, and there will, in some cases, be almost a great sense of loss to people that the kinds of celebrations that there were in their churches previously may no longer be possible.

“Given the falling number of priests, the convenient Mass may not necessarily be in their own parish, it may be within a church elsewhere in the area,” he said.

“However, we have to look again at the opportunities that this presents to us to do things in a different way, but in a way that keeps our churches alive as places of praise and worship.”

Father Brian D’arcy, a priest from Northern Ireland, believes that reducing Masses is only going to result in closing churches permanently.

He said: “Eventually it will come to closing churches if we keep on doing the same thing. We have to understand that perhaps this was the problem they had in Acts of the Apostles in the old days. And what did they do? They let each community choose its own priest.

“The idea of compulsory celibacy, that a priest is living on his own, is dwindling and not meaningful to many people any more,” he added.