No Mass in Irish diocese for a day
April 21, 2017
In the Diocese of Limerick, the faithful will have no opportunity to attend Mass next Tuesday, April 25.
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The priests of the Limerick diocese will gather for a “formation gathering” on that day, leaving lay people to gather in parish churches for prayer services.
Bishop Brendan Leahy said that the day without Mass will be useful preparation for a future in which the diocese—which currently boasts 184,000 faithful in 60 parishes—will need to rely on lay people to lead servcies because of an acute shortage of priests.
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Posted by: Lucius49 -
Apr. 24, 2017 6:33 PM ET USA
Well this is some fake news and a fake headline in the Irish Times. The no-Mass is manufactured because all the priests are required by the diocese to be at some formation program. But even with that, the extraordinary form is being offered in Limerick on that day so Mass is available for the faithful the same form of the Mass that nourished Catholic Ireland for centuries.
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Posted by: [email protected] -
Apr. 22, 2017 11:59 PM ET USA
St Patrick is probably grinding his teeth and asking St Peter for big stick on these cowardly Bishops. Pray and pray some more for vocations . Don't chastise the faithful with lack of Mass. I would like to believe there are many retired priets who would be happy to help and say Mass.
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Posted by: -
Apr. 22, 2017 12:57 PM ET USA
Here in Phoenix in my parish, we have a weekly rosary for vocations. Maybe all parishes need to become engaged in this great activity. This is our 8th year of doing this.
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Posted by: FredC -
Apr. 22, 2017 10:58 AM ET USA
Outrageous. There is no need to prepare people for too few priests. If it happens, they will simply endure it. The bishop would do better to devote the day to priestly vocations.
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Posted by: TreeRing -
Apr. 21, 2017 10:44 PM ET USA
Our diocese has done this for a number of years. We even had the stunt of priestless Sunday one year. All the priests were sent out of the urban areas of the diocese to the rural areas so that we could experience the Communion service led by lay people which are common in our small rural communities. At first the formation retreats were for three days so there was no daily Mass for those three days. More recently we have one Mass each day with all the priests attending.
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Posted by: ElizabethD -
Apr. 21, 2017 8:19 PM ET USA
This happens once a year in my diocese when there is a presbyteral assembly for 3 days. There's not a TOTAL lack of Mass though since there are some religious order priests and retired priests not at the presbyteral assembly. They CERTAINLY do not have lay people do Word & Communion services to "replace" Mass. That is not done in my diocese at all except specific circumstances such as nursing homes that a priest can't visit regularly. My diocese has lots of vocations btw, Madison WI, Bp Morlino.
