IRELAND'S CATHOLIC bishops need to arrive at agreement on an island-wide basis on the issues facing the future of the Catholic Church here, former Northern Ireland ombudsman Nuala O'Loan has said.
She has also called for the setting up of a general assembly of priests, "of their own choosing rather than by bishops' appointment", which could be organised on a diocese by diocese basis.
Ms O'Loan was speaking to The Irish Times as sources indicated disquiet among Irish Catholic priests, particularly in the Dublin archdiocese, at how appointments to parishes are made and at reorganisation of parishes.
She said there was "no concerted action" by the Catholic Church in Ireland to address its problems, adding that what was necessary was a much more pro-active approach following "major, major consultation".
A first question which ought to be addressed was "How many dioceses do we need?" she said, and "when that's decided we can look at the number of parishes needed". In the process, where church buildings were concerned, she felt that, once ownership issues were sorted out, these could provide financing when it came to the rationalisation of services.
All of this "has to be done in a consultative way", she said. "There are talents available" among lay people who could help with administrative, recruitment and audit control functions, she said. She suggested the bishops might adopt an approach to change similar to that employed by the Patten Commission in Northern Ireland.
"Its essential principles are transferable," she said. There could be consultations with dioceses which could come back to the bishops with recommendations, she said, going on to quote the civil service maxim that "what's measured gets done". And whereas "the laity are going to have to be more proactive", she warned against the "busybody lay person".
She disputed whether there was a personnel crisis facing the Catholic Church in Ireland and repeated what she wrote in a recent Irish Catholic article that "even with 1,500 priests in Ireland (currently there are 4,402, including secular priests and members of religious congregations) we would still have one priest for every 3,000 or more people. Compare that with the priest I met recently, in rural Timor Leste, who has a parish of 30,000!''
She said "personnel is not a major issue [in the Irish Catholic Church] but morale is, as is a sense of isolation, lack of appreciation and low income". She also felt that "some priests carry a tremendous administrative burden".
Catholic priests who had left to marry should be allowed back into the ministry, she said, while the decisive factor on celibacy was "what is the right thing to do, then find the way to do it". She believed a married priesthood had practical implications, such as income support, which would also have to be addressed.
An illustration of the frustration felt by priests in the Dublin archdiocese is contained in the current issue of the Irish Catholic, where a a letter signed "a priest of Dublin. Name and address with the editor" is highly critical of Archbishop Diarmuid Martin.
It said that "if one wanted to devise a scheme to offend, belittle and sow the seeds of dissension among the clergy it would be difficult to come up with anything better than His Grace of Dublin has managed to concoct in the manner of the Dublin diocesan appointments 2008".
It accuses him of "arrogance worthy of a feudal overlord" in his treatment of his priests and of showing "a worrying disregard for the foot soldiers on which the Church in Dublin depends."
No one was available from the archdiocese to comment on the letter.
