The leader of the country’s largest Catholic diocese has said the catholic church's current model in Ireland is “unsustainable” and that the major decline in the number of people actively practicing their faith is a “crisis”.
"The numbers of priests have dwindled, the number of seminarians has dwindled and that can be traced back to the lack of practice of faith among young people,” the Archbishop of Dublin said.
“We have an ageing clergy and very few vocations to the diocesan priesthood or religious life.
There is a major decline in the number of people who actively practise and live their faith.”
“Today the visibility of faith has for all intents and purposes vanishes.
I am also dealing with the legacy of sexual abuse scandals which have damaged the Church’s credibility.
Since finance is a function of numbers, financial issues will arise which will be accelerated by the global pandemic and its aftermath.”
In the same interview, he said members of the clergy needed to “encourage a participatory institutional model of Church with a leadership of service”.
