{"id":322836,"date":"2026-03-01T03:34:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T03:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/322836\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T03:34:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T03:34:13","slug":"order-which-owns-corks-st-augustines-church-describes-its-closure-as-akin-to-a-death-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/322836\/","title":{"rendered":"Order which owns Cork&#8217;s St Augustine&#8217;s Church describes its closure as &#8216;akin to a death&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The decision to close one of Cork city centre\u2019s best-known Catholic churches has been described by the head of the religious order which owns the building as \u201cakin to a death\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Parishioners at St Augustine\u2019s Church, which is located at the corner of Washington St and the Grand Parade, were informed on Saturday afternoon that the church <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/news\/munster\/arid-41801645.html\">will close permanently later this year<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The church is owned and run by the Augustinian friars, with the consent of the diocese of Cork and Ross.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">St Augustine\u2019s was built in 1942 on the site of an earlier chapel dating back to 1872. The adjoining priory was built in 1982.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The church\u2019s closure will bring to an end the order\u2019s presence in Cork, which dates back 755 years to the foundation of Red Abbey in the South Parish.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"> The ruin of the old medieval belfry tower still stands on the site.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Fr Paddy O\u2019Reilly, Vicar Provincial of the Augustinian Order in Ireland, told the congregation at a vigil Mass in the church on Saturday that the decision to withdraw from Cork had been made with \u201cgreat pain and sadness\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/4985873_7_articleinline_785773_785773.jpg\" alt=\"St Augustines Church on Cork's Washington Street being by Monsignor J Scannell in 1950. Picture: Irish Examiner Archive\" title=\"St Augustines Church on Cork's Washington Street being by Monsignor J Scannell in 1950. Picture: Irish Examiner Archive\" class=\"card-img\"\/>St Augustines Church on Cork&#8217;s Washington Street being by Monsignor J Scannell in 1950. Picture: Irish Examiner Archive<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Fr O\u2019Reilly said that from the mid-1970s the order had witnessed \u201ca slow but accelerating decline in vocations\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cIn the early \u201870s we would have expected at least 12 novices and three to four ordinations every year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cToday we would be lucky to have one novice and most years we have no ordinations. We are also getting older and less able.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u00a0In 2026, the order in Ireland has only 10 friars who are under 70, and more than half of all of its priests are over 80, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Fr O\u2019Reilly said one of the considerations informing the order in its decision to close its Washington St church was the knowledge that \u201cCork city centre is well-served by Franciscans, Capuchins, Dominicans, and by an abundance of diocesan churches\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">He said the order empathised with, and shared, the pain and loss felt by Cork\u2019s Catholic community, and said the closure was \u201cas though a member of the family has died\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">St Augustine\u2019s will close permanently after 11.30am Mass on Sunday, July 12.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Saturday afternoon\u2019s Mass was well-attended, and Fr O\u2019Reilly\u2019s announcement was met first with silence from the congregation, and then applause.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">A spokesperson for the diocese of Cork and Ross said the future of the church is primarily a matter for the order.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Pope Leo XIV visited the Augustinian church in 2005, when he was Bishop Robert Prevost, prior general of the Order of St Augustine, the global head of the order.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">In the late 1950s, a very young Rory Gallagher played in the parish hall at the back of the church.<\/p>\n<p>41754420;<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">41628805[\/readmore]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The decision to close one of Cork city centre\u2019s best-known Catholic churches has been described by the head&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322837,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[12780,79,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-322836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-catholic-church","tag-cork-news","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}