No Mass to take place in Limerick diocese next Tuesday

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irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/no-mass-to-take-place-in-limerick-diocese-next-tuesday-1.3056560
Masses will not be said at any church in the Diocese of Limerick next Tuesday, April 25th – the first time since Catholic Emancipation in 1829 that this has happened in any Irish diocese.
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Instead, there will be only lay-led liturgies of the Word (readings) and public prayers in churches, with no Mass and no Communion on that day. The lack of services in the Limerick diocese is directly related to the fall-off in priestly vocations, despite major efforts by the diocese to best use existing priests.
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Communion will not be distributed on Tuesday, but this is not to suggest it might never be so distributed at future lay-led liturgies, especially, for instance, on Sundays in nursing homes, said a diocesan spokesman.
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Last November, Bishop Brendan Leahy warned that a chronic shortage of priests, coupled with falling Mass attendances, could lead to “some churches” having Mass “every second Sunday or one Sunday a month”…
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The article is not entirely accurate, though. There will still be two Masses in the EF that will be said in Limerick on Tuesday by the Institute of Christ the King (ICKSP):

institute-christ-king.ie/location

This may be one of the first times in the past 50 years that the only Masses in an entire diocese will be said in the EF.
 
Um, why is it on a specific day? They make it seem like it’s a planned event or something. Where are they all going? Is there like a conference or something they need to go to?
 
JPUSC said:
Um, why is it on a specific day? They make it seem like it’s a planned event or something. Where are they all going? Is there like a conference or something they need to go to?
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I was thinking the same thing. Are all the priests off that day or something?
 
larsont7 said:
irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/no-mass-to-take-place-in-limerick-diocese-next-tuesday-1.3056560

The article is not entirely accurate, though. There will still be two Masses in the EF that will be said in Limerick on Tuesday by the Institute of Christ the King (ICKSP):

institute-christ-king.ie/location

This may be one of the first times in the past 50 years that the only Masses in an entire diocese will be said in the EF.
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I can only think of Campos, Brazil as the other.
 
Well, our parish in the West of Ireland is Ballintubber Abbey. Continuous masses daily for 800 years.
They must be having some sort of ecclesial conference.
 
JPUSC said:
Um, why is it on a specific day? They make it seem like it’s a planned event or something. Where are they all going? Is there like a conference or something they need to go to?
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tseleehw said:
I was thinking the same thing. Are all the priests off that day or something?
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Exactly.

According to the article, the priests will be attending a 1-day training course.

Not to dismiss the shortage of priests, but this is not as much of an issue as the article implies. If the bishop has decided that all active priests need to be in one place at one time for some reason, that’s his prerogative. These things happen. Apparently, the bishop has said “no excuses, I want all of you to be there.” That’s fine.

I wonder if there will be a Mass with the bishop presiding and all the priests concelebrating on that day?
 
No weekday masses in our diocese all week - a priest retreat. Our present priest doesn’t, for some reason, like communion services, so the parish churches will be locked up all week.
 
FrDavid96 said:
Exactly.

According to the article, the priests will be attending a 1-day training course.

Not to dismiss the shortage of priests, but this is not as much of an issue as the article implies. If the bishop has decided that all active priests need to be in one place at one time for some reason, that’s his prerogative. These things happen. Apparently, the bishop has said “no excuses, I want all of you to be there.” That’s fine.

I wonder if there will be a Mass with the bishop presiding and all the priests concelebrating on that day?
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The headline is a little misleading. It is hard to sell newspapers with long term trends.
Apparently the conference is only for the bishop’s diocesan clergy. Since the newspaper overlooked the Institute of Christ the King, there may be other religious orders with Masses at parishes, or other places in the diocese. Hopefully there is a back up plan for Last Rites.
 
Bonnie said:
No weekday masses in our diocese all week - a priest retreat. Our present priest doesn’t, for some reason, like communion services, so the parish churches will be locked up all week.
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There you go. There’s less here (or there) than meets the eye.

My current diocese of residence is the size of a minor state; so it would be hard to call all its priests together. But approximately once a year, all the priests in town get called out on retreat. It happens.

Methinks the headliner wanted to gin up some controversy.

ICXC NIKA
 
FrDavid96 said:
I wonder if there will be a Mass with the bishop presiding and all the priests concelebrating on that day?
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That was my first thought as well. Is the conference not going to involve a Mass, or will the conference be held outside of the diocese?
 
FrDavid96 said:
Exactly.

According to the article, the priests will be attending a 1-day training course.

Not to dismiss the shortage of priests, but this is not as much of an issue as the article implies. If the bishop has decided that all active priests need to be in one place at one time for some reason, that’s his prerogative. These things happen. Apparently, the bishop has said “no excuses, I want all of you to be there.” That’s fine.

I wonder if there will be a Mass with the bishop presiding and all the priests concelebrating on that day?
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My question: is the Bishop representing the cause being the shortage of priest as opposed to his requirement for all priests to attend the training. Its not exactly clear from the article, but he does appear to do so. If so, that seems rather disingenuous on the part of the Bishop.
 
tafan said:
My question: is the Bishop representing the cause being the shortage of priest as opposed to his requirement for all priests to attend the training. Its not exactly clear from the article, but he does appear to do so. If so, that seems rather disingenuous on the part of the Bishop.
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It makes no difference.

The bishop does not need any justification. If he wants all priests (all active priests, of course exempting retirees) to attend a meeting or function, then that’s his prerogative as bishop. There is nothing disingenuous about it.

Whether they have a shortage of priests, a surplus, or just where they need to be; if he wants “all priests” to be there, then they will all go, and the consequence of that is that there will not be daily masses in parishes on that particular day.

The “cause” is the simple fact that he wants all the priests to be in the same place at the same time. That means everyone. If they had 200 extra priests, everyone would still mean everyone, and the end result would be the same.
 
Rosebud77 said:
…

Why cannot they distribute pre-consecrated ? They do this for communion in hospital where the LEMs bring it
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Because these services are very specifically not-intended to be done as substitutes for daily Mass. The priests will only be gone from their parishes for one day (depending on their travel, most probably less than a full day), so it would be inappropriate to hold Communion services as substitutes.
 
What people do not realize is that diocese do this sort of thing all the time.

There is really nothing unusual or remarkable about it.
 
FrDavid96 said:
It makes no difference.

The bishop does not need any justification. If he wants all priests (all active priests, of course exempting retirees) to attend a meeting or function, then that’s his prerogative as bishop. There is nothing disingenuous about it.

Whether they have a shortage of priests, a surplus, or just where they need to be; if he wants “all priests” to be there, then they will all go, and the consequence of that is that there will not be daily masses in parishes on that particular day.

The “cause” is the simple fact that he wants all the priests to be in the same place at the same time. That means everyone. If they had 200 extra priests, everyone would still mean everyone, and the end result would be the same.
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I agree, but one should be upfront about the cause
 
tafan said:
I agree, but one should be upfront about the cause
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What makes you say that?

Why do you imply that anyone is being less than upfront about anything?

I’ve gone back and re-read the article.

You’re being entirely unfair to the bishop.

Here is more information from the diocese directly
limerickdiocese.org/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=313&cntnt01origid=196&cntnt01returnid=166

There is nothing about this that is not “upfront.” It’s unfair to claim that there is.
 
FrDavid96 said:
What makes you say that?

Why do you imply that anyone is being less than upfront about anything?

I’ve gone back and re-read the article.

You’re being entirely unfair to the bishop.

Here is more information from the diocese directly
limerickdiocese.org/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=313&cntnt01origid=196&cntnt01returnid=166

There is nothing about this that is not “upfront.” It’s unfair to claim that there is.
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I didn’t say that. I asked the question:
My question: is the Bishop representing the cause being the shortage of priest as opposed to his requirement for all priests to attend the training. Its not exactly clear from the article, but he does appear to do so.
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To which you simply replied it didn’t make any difference, so I tried to explain my question. I apologize to the Bishop for appearing to be unfair.
 
FrDavid96 said:
It makes no difference.

The bishop does not need any justification. If he wants all priests (all active priests, of course exempting retirees) to attend a meeting or function, then that’s his prerogative as bishop. There is nothing disingenuous about it. .
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That would certainly be true of diocesan priests, But I do not think that it is true of religious order priests operating within their foundation.

A bishop could not compel an Abbott to leave his monastery, nor regulate the liturgy said within the abbey walls to the extent that the Abbott could not say Mass.

Even for religious orders who are entrusted with a parish, they would be subject first to their religious superior.
 
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