Raphoe is a suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of Armagh, located in one of the counties of the province of Ulster belonging to the Republic of Ireland. It extends over approximately 4,000 km2, with the Cathedral of Saint Adomnan in Letterkenny as its center.
Bishop Alan McGuckian, who presides over the destiny of Raphoe, commissioned a diocesan investigation between February 13 and March 5, 2023. The results have just been published, causing shock waves among the faithful.
And there is reason: the diocese has 71 churches, grouped into 33 parishes, served by 48 active priests. Most of these priests celebrate three Sunday Masses in order to respond, as much as possible, to the spiritual needs of the faithful.
During the week, priests are often called to “biner,” that is, to celebrate two Masses a day in the event of funeral services or other religious events. There is also the issue of taking care of the faithful, who are fewer and older, to sanctify the Lord’s Day, since the survey shows that now only 35.4% of those who attend Sunday Mass are under 40 years old.
At present, the Diocese of Raphoe has only 4 seminarians in formation, and it should be added that of the 48 active priests, 11 are over 70 years old, which leads the bishop to say that a “new shortage is looming over the next ten years.”
Indeed, if the current trend continues – and it cannot be seen how it could be reversed given the wave of secularization that is affecting the Island of Saints – “there will be more parishes than priests,” warns Bishop McGuckian.
“When I look at these figures, I hope that our future prospects are not limited only to managing an inevitable decline,” concludes the prelate, a bit fatalistically.
Realistically, the bishop wonders if it will be possible in the future to have “Masses celebrated in a dignified liturgy if the priests are overloaded in their ministry with an ever smaller number of faithful.” A way of preparing lay people to have to do without Sunday Mass in their parish.
By comparison, in France, in 2023, there are 42,000 steeples grouped in just over 10,000 parishes. There are about 13,000 priests in France, many of whom are no longer active, the average age of those still exercising a ministry being 75 years old. The Church in France, which completed a secularization of which Ireland is experiencing the first effects, is losing 600 priests a year.
It definitely appears that the conciliar aggiornamento did not give the expected results and the springtime of the Church is not really topical. It is to be hoped that the ecclesiastical authorities do not count on the synod, whose first episcopal assembly is announced for the month of October, to solve this problem, because it can only make it worse.
The episcopal see of Raphoe, Ireland, is sounding the alarm. An investigation has just highlighted the growing shortage of priests. A projection shows that within ten years there could be more parishes than priests in the diocese.