In recent correspondence with this newspaper, Gerry O’Hanlon SJ (Letters to the Editor, March 29th) gently reminded Diarmaid Ferriter that, in the latter’s column of March 21st assessing Pope Francis’s pontificate, there was no reference to the pope’s signature project of reform and renewal under the rubric of synodality.
Part of the reason, I suspect, is what the famous Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin once called “the slow work of God”. Change in the Catholic Church is usually a dance of two steps forward and sometimes one (or two or even three) steps back. Even the looming spectre of “the last priests in Ireland”, now a mathematical inevitability in a short number of years, has to date failed to move mountains of resistance. Yet, against all the odds, change is beginning to percolate out of sheer necessity as inviolable defences thought to be proofed against reform are coming under siege.
Bishops have received a curt letter from Rome telling them that they need to get their act together in responding to the synodal reforms – effectively another version of Vatican II. The clear message from Pope Francis is that bishops cannot choose not to be synodal. Priests are being reminded that parish pastoral councils are now mandatory and no longer at the mercy of a parish priest’s veto. Dioceses, bishops’ conferences and parishes, hoping that the demand to receive and embed synodality would go away, are beginning to realise that there’s no opt-out clause.
Suddenly, in terms of much-needed reform, a reluctance to name difficult truths is giving way to a more realistic assessment of the need for a more determined response to critical issues. As with the comment of Bishop Kevin Doran, at his installation as Bishop of Achonry last Sunday, that “structures appropriate to the needs of the 21st century” are now needed.
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An example of sorting out one such anomaly is the robust effort now to reform the outdated borders of Irish dioceses. At present, a series of neighbouring dioceses are being unashamedly shoved together even if it upends more than 900 years of immovable boundaries sacrosanct since the Synod of Ráth Breasail in the noteworthy year of 1111.
As recently as 2022, when the dioceses of Galway and Clonfert were being united under one bishop, care was taken not to ruffle any feathers so everyone involved had to be reassured that, God forbid, nothing as outrageous as an amalgamation was taking place.
However, just a year later, in 2023, when a new papal nuncio, Luis Mariano Montemayor, arrived at the Bishops’ House in Killala to discuss the appointment of a successor to John Fleming, who had retired, I was among a number of priests, grandly though inaccurately called the “consultors”, who were informed gently but very persuasively that our diocese would be “merging” (ie a synonym for “amalgamating”) with either Achonry or Tuam.
Someone asked would either union be along the lines of Galway and Clonfert? The firm answer was “no”.
Now the clerical grapevine is buzzing with confident predictions that Raphoe and Derry, due to the expected retirement of Bishop of Derry Donal McKeown in a matter of weeks, are running favourites to become the next merger to be blessed. This is despite the visit to Rome of a high-powered episcopal delegation seeking special exemptions for Northern dioceses.
Other mergers are listed for Ferns and Ossory, Clogher and Kilmore, Armagh and Dromore, though a rumour that an effort was being made to merge Cork and Kerry is regarded, unsurprisingly, as a bridge too far.
What has happened is that, as Gerry O’Hanlon explained to Diarmaid Ferriter, the operative image of the Church as a pyramid, with the pope, bishops, priests and lay faithful in descending order of priority, has been flipped by Pope Francis, with the people (the baptised) at the top of an inverted pyramid and below them pope, bishops and priests in the service of a People’s Church.
This, as might be expected, is welcomed by the vast majority of Catholics, and where “the laity” are given a fair wind, almost everything becomes possible.
An example of this is in the diocese of Killala where a week ago 64 women and men graduated after a two-year course in Theology, Culture and Ministry.
Of them, 62 are to be commissioned in a number of lay ministries, one of which is as funeral ministers. This will involve lay women and men co-leading with priests all of the standard funeral services with the exception of the funeral Mass.
Funeral ministers will accompany the priest to the wake house or funeral home; they will co-lead the prayers for the reception of the remains at the church; they will co-lead the final prayers at the end of the funeral liturgy; and they will co-lead the prayers in the cemetery at the graveside.
In Holy Week, as part of the Mass of Chrism on Tuesday, April 15th at 6.30pm in St Muredach’s Cathedral in Ballina, Co Mayo, these 62 lay leaders will be commissioned by Archbishop of Tuam Francis Duffy.
In preparation, pastoral placements were undertaken in six host parishes over the two-year course period, and the lay leaders will commence their ministries in a voluntary capacity at parish level over coming weeks.
It is a matter not just of regret but shame that it took 60 years after the close of the Second Vatican Council for the vision it proposed for the Church to get a fair wind and a following sea.
Brendan Hoban is a priest of the Diocese of Killala.
