Lay people need to play greater role at burials, bishop says

The continued decline in the number of Catholic priests means lay people will have to play a bigger role leading prayers at burials and removals into the future, the Bishop of Limerick has said.

Brendan Leahy said the church would more frequently need lay people to take the place of priests in such situations and in visiting schools.

In a statement, Bishop Leahy said “rapid changes” would be necessary to deal with the continued decline in the numbers of priests. The result would be parishes having to rely more and more on lay people to assist the clergy.

“We will need lay people to lead prayers at funerals, at gravesides, to visit schools on behalf of the parish, to be involved in pastoral councils and baptismal teams, to help with the practical administration of parishes,” he said.

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Sacraments and house visits

The bishop said lay people would also assist priests in their work preparing people to receive sacraments, as well as co-ordinating house visits.

Bishop Leahy said it was no longer news that the number of active priests was “declining rapidly”.

“The ageing profile of clergy is also now very evident. It is clear at this stage that we can no longer guarantee the celebration of a Mass in each church in the diocese each Sunday,” he said. “The rapid changes are calling us to envisage and work towards putting in place new forms of lay leadership in our parish communities.”

The bishop said the clergy needed to work “urgently” to prepare for new arrangements in the coming years, such as an increasing role for lay people.

Speaking last month, Archbishop of Dublin Dermot Farrell similarly called for more lay people to come forward and take up roles in the church to help support priests. He said in situations where parishes no longer had a resident priest, the diocese would appoint “pastoral leaders” who could be deacons, religious or lay people. These roles would be to support priests who had pastoral responsibility for the parish, he said.