Five priests are expected to be ordained for the Dublin archdiocese this year, four of them at a ceremony on Pentecost Sunday, June 8th.
On May 1st Father Paul Coyle was ordained for Dublin by Cardinal Connell at his home parish church in Glasgow. Father Coyle, who is in his late 20s, began with the Sacred Heart Fathers in Ardlea parish near Artane in north Dublin.
He left the congregation after about two years and continued his studies as a lay student at the Milltown Institute. He was accepted for priesthood in Dublin as he was about to enter the final year of studies there.
He worked in St Therese's parish, Mount Merrion, from 2000 to 2002 and ministered as a deacon in St Agnes's parish, Crumlin, from autumn 2002 to the present. He will be given his first appointment as a Dublin priest in a few weeks.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that the share collection in the Dublin archdiocese was up by 6.2 per cent last year.
Family offerings grew by 9.5 per cent, and the collection for the support of priests by 10 per cent.
This continues the upward trend of church collections in Dublin. The share collection rose by 2 per cent in 1999, 3.8 per cent in 2000, 7 per cent in 2001 and now 6.2 per cent in 2002.
In a recent letter to Mass-goers in Dublin, Cardinal Connell thanked the people for their continued generosity. With their help a new church in the parish of Huntstown, near Blanchardstown, was recently opened, he said.
In the year ending June 2003, substantial restoration, repair and renovation work, costing about € 10 million, will have been carried out on about 30 churches in the archdiocese, he disclosed.