A SHORTAGE of priests and falling rural populations have led to the Catholic Church selling some priests' residences. It is also raising the prospect of church closures in the future.
The situation was put in focus in the Broadford, Kilbane and Kilmore parish in Co Clare on Sunday when the parish priest, Father Tom Seymour, announced in the parish newsletter that for the first time in more than 100 years there was no resident priest in Kilbane.
The parish priest has taken up residence in a new parochial house in Broad ford, but stressed he was available to all the people in the parish at all times. He told The Irish Times that the parish has a population of 700 in pre Famine days, it had 8,000.
He said "As our numbers decrease, more house closures will follow, and unfortunately churches, too, will have to be looked at regarding the level of service provided as we move towards the next century.
"Here in our parish, when our churches were built, the population was 10 times its present population, with no cars, telephones or any of the other modern means of travel and communication. The 21st century will be a different age and with different needs, and the diocese would be remiss were it not to gear itself to meeting the challenges facing it.
"However, these are issues for another day, and who knows what the next century will bring?"
This is the sixth priest's house to be closed in the diocese of Killaloe. The others were at Cross, Killanena, Ruan, Kilbaron and Puckane.