THE COMING years will be challenging for the Catholic Church in Dublin as changes to the daily running of parishes will have to take place due to declining numbers entering the priesthood, the Archbishop of Dublin has indicated.
Dr Diarmuid Martin said the church is facing more trying times, but that ministry in his diocese will be "enriched" in the near future through a new service of laymen and laywomen who will engage in full-time ministry.
Speaking at an ordination ceremony in St Mary's Pro-Cathedral in Dublin, Dr Martin said there was a need to build and maintain "vibrant, dynamic parishes", but that there was no intention to close churches nor to suppress or unite parishes, except where there was a wish to do so.
"We must look at new ways in which we can group parishes into broader pastoral units, within which each parish will retain its identity, but where groups of parishes will be served by a single pastoral team," he said.
"This will mean change and challenge for many, not least for priests. But we must all remember that bearing fruit always requires a dying to some of the things to which we might be most attached in order to allow the church to grow anew and renewed."
Dr Martin also said a renewal programme which the diocese is beginning to undertake must include special provisions to reach out to young people "to bring them to be active sharers in our eucharistic communities".
"We see very few young people in our churches. We have to ask why so many good, idealistic and generous young people seem to find the motivation for their goodness apparently from sources other than the message of Jesus Christ," he said.
The comments came as three new priests were ordained into the diocese of Dublin.
The men, Fr Richard Shannon (58), Fr Michael Kelly (33) and Fr Dan An Nguyen (37), worked in the voluntary, hospital and veterinary sectors respectively prior to their ordination.
The priests are the first to be ordained in the diocese in two years and they join over 600 other priests in the service of the Catholic people of Dublin.
They are among 11 trainee priests who will be ordained in Ireland this year.
The 11 ordinations are one of the highest numbers for several years. In 2003, there were nine ordinations; eight the following year; seven in 2005, eight in 2006 and two last year.
Dr Martin said the three new priests had been sent at a "great but challenging time" and appealed for them to reach out to young people in their parishes.
