{"id":622225,"date":"2026-09-12T07:40:35","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T07:40:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/622225\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T07:40:35","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T07:40:35","slug":"my-proposal-was-to-stop-confirmation-irelands-ageing-priests-under-pressure-as-numbers-drop-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/622225\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018My proposal was to stop Confirmation\u2019: Ireland\u2019s ageing priests under pressure as numbers drop \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fr Seamus Ahearne is turning 80 in November but shows no signs of slowing down and continues to serve in Greater Finglas Parish in north Dublin<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve not fully amalgamated the three parishes here,\u201d he says, referring to the St Canice\u2019s & St Margaret\u2019s, The Annunciation and Rivermount parishes.<\/p>\n

This means \u201cabout 70,000 people, with 22 schools and about 300 funerals in the year\u201d.<\/p>\n

Many of the 70,000 residents \u201cwould claim to be Catholic\u201d, particularly when it comes to funerals, he says.<\/p>\n

Four priests serve in the parish: Fr Richard Hyland (66) is parish priest, assisted by curate Canon Martin Hogan (75), curate Fr Michael Shiels (77) and Fr Ahearne (79), a \u201cteam assistant\u201d. <\/p>\n

Fr Eamon Cahill (81), retired parish priest of the Church of Annunciation and another \u201cteam assistant\u201d in the parish, helps with a Mass at weekends, while parish chaplain and returned missionary Fr Frank Gallagher (78), a member of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart order, \u201cwould come and do a weekend and do a funeral as well,\u201d says Fr Ahearne.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe work extremely well together. It\u2019s a marvellous team. We rotate all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are funerals every day: \u201cThere\u2019s six funerals I\u2019m dealing with at the moment,\u201d says Fr Ahearne, noting he had \u201cjust came from three homes in the last few hours\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the most privileged place to be: the stories and the honesty. The families are wonderful. We\u2019re the ones who are used to doing it, so I say my job is to co-ordinate a kind of a scaffolding for the occasion,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The priest speaks of a new widow he met the previous day \u2013 \u201cwe buried her husband last Saturday\u201d \u2013 and recalls sitting alone in the funeral home with the remains, preparing prayers when the woman entered.<\/p>\n

\u201c[She] started talking to her husband and, do you know what, it was beautiful, it was just so spontaneous,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt I shouldn\u2019t be there, this was too intimate, and then she started talking about him. That\u2019s where holiness happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fr Ahearne says he will be 30 years in the parish next June. In his first few years in the parish, he handled 20 funerals resulting from murders.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been through everything. I\u2019m totally accepted in the homes,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

There is a funeral team in the parish with plenty of work involved.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not sanctuary puppets,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing about funerals, as people say to me \u2013 we have to be going to the houses, you have to make yourself known, just to be seen as a homely person, never mind all the formal stuff. People must feel comfortable \u2013 it\u2019s our job. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe know how to do the thing, how to carry it, you have to do that very gently,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"FrFr Seamus Ahearne. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw <\/p>\n

The decline in the numbers joining the priesthood means the prospect of there not being enough priests for funerals and other religious services is very real in Ireland.<\/p>\n

Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin Denis Nulty warned last week that a shortage of priests could mean funerals, baptisms and weddings having to be led by lay people in parishes.<\/p>\n

Nulty said in a pastoral letter he was \u201cvery conscious of the age profile of our priests, many of them serving parishes long beyond the acceptable retirement age in the secular world\u201d and that \u201clay involvement\u201d was one way to continue the work in parishes.<\/p>\n

He noted how, of 45 priests who were past the retirement age of 75 in his diocese, 27 still held posts in parishes with 10 of them working as parish priests or administrators. <\/p>\n

Other bishops have spoken about the issue.<\/p>\n

Martin Hayes, Bishop of Clogher, which covers mainly Monaghan, said last month that just nine priests in his diocese, including foreign-born priests, were under 40, with almost half \u2013 47 per cent \u2013 being over the age of 70.<\/p>\n

Larry Duffy, Bishop of Kilmore, which covers mostly Cavan, said in recent weeks that 53 per cent of priests in his diocese were over 70, with just nine under 60. <\/p>\n

Killala diocese in Mayo has just one priest under 50. Fr Brendan Hoban, who is based in the diocese, recently wrote how \u201cit has been officially estimated that in six years\u2019 time \u2013 in 2032 \u2013 there may be as few as six priests for the 22 parishes of the diocese.\u201d<\/p>\n

I just can\u2019t believe that an old fellow of 80 is as young as I am and that I have the energy that I have<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u00a0Fr Ahearne<\/p>\n

In Dublin, the statistics on the older age profile of priests are also stark.<\/p>\n

Of 408 priests listed on the Archdiocese of Dublin website, 178 are retired, are not in service in Dublin, are \u201cteam assistants\u201d \u2013 usually priests who have passed the retirement age of 75 but continue to serve in parishes \u2013 or are chaplains, most of whom are also over 75. <\/p>\n

In addition, a significant number of priests listed as \u201ccurates\u201d on the website carry the title \u201cvery reverend\u201d, indicating they previously held senior positions in the church and are now serving in postretirement roles.<\/p>\n

Of those priests under 75 and serving in Dublin, 67 are foreign-born priests.<\/p>\n

The archdiocese\u2019s financial statements for 2024, published last October, said it was served by 361 priests, most of whom were elderly. It projected the number of its priests would fall by 70 per cent within 20 years.<\/p>\n

Its 195 parishes have been grouped into 53 partnerships, with priests \u2013 as in Greater Finglas Parish \u2013 now serving multiple parishes, and many of them appointed parish priest to more than one parish. <\/p>\n

The work extends beyond parish tasks.<\/p>\n

These priests must also serve Dublin\u2019s 449 Catholic primary schools as well as 178 Catholic secondary schools, with an additional 45 secondary schools where the church is represented on the boards of management. <\/p>\n

In Finglas, Fr Seamus Ahearne says when it comes to involving the laity in the work of the parish, it is \u201chard enough to get people who are suitable\u201d to serve on funeral ministry teams. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople go in and read the book, that\u2019s fine, but who wants it? Who wants the ritual?\u201d he says, nothing that nowadays people are not accustomed to being in a church or at Mass.<\/p>\n

He singles out one woman on the parish funeral ministry team who \u201ccould go into any home \u2013 she\u2019s great, the people are at home with her, she\u2019s at home with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are few church marriages in the parish these days. <\/p>\n

However, he is \u201cdoing a convalidation\u201d \u2013 where a Catholic couple married outside the church wants their marriage recognised by the church \u2013 this evening.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this stage in their lives, they wanted to celebrate their 10th anniversary by coming to church and having a ceremony in church,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

With 22 schools, Communion and Confirmation are big events involving a huge amount of work. This morning Fr Ahearne attended a meeting to decide on dates for both. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy proposal was [to] stop Confirmation completely; it doesn\u2019t make any sense. I\u2019m not being dismissive, but the work involved in the schools alone, it takes too much time,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

To help, they have a faith formation person and, before that, a pastoral worker. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey do great work with the schools. They carry some of this for us,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

But, he says: \u201cDon\u2019t overwhelm, don\u2019t mind all these meetings \u2013 be careful what we spend our time at.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finglas has a large immigrant community and Fr Ahearne says young immigrants such as Africans, Indians and Filipinos would \u201cwear you out\u201d with Confession as they adhere to a traditional 1950s Catholicism.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s lovely to see that kind of faith \u2013 it\u2019s devotional \u2013 but the general population would have no interest in that kind of stuff at all,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Fr Ahearne says he is tired, but still has the energy to keep going.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just can\u2019t believe that an old fellow of 80 is as young as I am and that I have the energy that I have,\u201d he says, noting that he never takes days off.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the kind of person I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

He believes this is probably more rooted in personality than vocation. <\/p>\n

\u201cI just love what I do. I enjoy it. I meet all kinds of issues, and problems, and homes and families. <\/p>\n

\u201cTo be able to do that is just wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n

An Augustinian priest, Fr Ahearne served 20 years in the UK, where he was also provincial for a time, before coming to Finglas. He says he knows Pope Leo XIV<\/a>, or \u201cBob\u201d as he refers to the fellow Augustinian Robert Francis Prevost. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a lovely man. I wrote to him when he was elected and I said: `Bob, I just didn\u2019t want you getting this role.\u2019 I said: `You\u2019re almost too good for it.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

In addition to all his work in the Finglas parish, Fr Ahearne is also on the leadership team of the Augustinians in Ireland. He is unfazed by his overall workload.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll keep going as long as I can,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fr Seamus Ahearne is turning 80 in November but shows no signs of slowing down and continues to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622226,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[12780,61,60,43,6318],"class_list":["post-622225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-catholic-church","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-pope-leo-xiv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622225","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=622225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}