‘My proposal was to stop Confirmation’: Ireland’s ageing priests under pressure as numbers drop

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. “We’ve not fully amalgamated the three parishes here,” he says, referring to the St Canice’s & St Margaret’s, The Annunciation and Rivermount parishes.This means “about 70,000 people, with 22 schools and about 300 funerals in the year”.Many of the 70,000 residents “would claim to be Catholic”, particularly when it comes to funerals, he says.READ MOREFour 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 “team assistant”. Fr Eamon Cahill (81), retired parish priest of the Church of Annunciation and another “team assistant” 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, “would come and do a weekend and do a funeral as well,” says Fr Ahearne.“We work extremely well together. It’s a marvellous team. We rotate all the time.”There are funerals every day: “There’s six funerals I’m dealing with at the moment,” says Fr Ahearne, noting he had “just came from three homes in the last few hours”. “It’s the most privileged place to be: the stories and the honesty. The families are wonderful. We’re 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,” he says.The priest speaks of a new widow he met the previous day – “we buried her husband last Saturday” – and recalls sitting alone in the funeral home with the remains, preparing prayers when the woman entered.“[She] started talking to her husband and, do you know what, it was beautiful, it was just so spontaneous,” he says.“I felt I shouldn’t be there, this was too intimate, and then she started talking about him. That’s where holiness happens.”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.“I’ve been through everything. I’m totally accepted in the homes,” he says. There is a funeral team in the parish with plenty of work involved.“They’re not sanctuary puppets,” he says. “The thing about funerals, as people say to me – 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 – it’s our job. “We know how to do the thing, how to carry it, you have to do that very gently,” he says.Fr Seamus Ahearne. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw 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.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.Nulty said in a pastoral letter he was “very conscious of the age profile of our priests, many of them serving parishes long beyond the acceptable retirement age in the secular world” and that “lay involvement” was one way to continue the work in parishes.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. Other bishops have spoken about the issue.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 – 47 per cent – being over the age of 70.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. Killala diocese in Mayo has just one priest under 50. Fr Brendan Hoban, who is based in the diocese, recently wrote how “it has been officially estimated that in six years’ time – in 2032 – there may be as few as six priests for the 22 parishes of the diocese.”I just can’t believe that an old fellow of 80 is as young as I am and that I have the energy that I have— Fr AhearneIn Dublin, the statistics on the older age profile of priests are also stark.Of 408 priests listed on the Archdiocese of Dublin website, 178 are retired, are not in service in Dublin, are “team assistants” – usually priests who have passed the retirement age of 75 but continue to serve in parishes – or are chaplains, most of whom are also over 75. In addition, a significant number of priests listed as “curates” on the website carry the title “very reverend”, indicating they previously held senior positions in the church and are now serving in postretirement roles.Of those priests under 75 and serving in Dublin, 67 are foreign-born priests.The archdiocese’s 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.Its 195 parishes have been grouped into 53 partnerships, with priests – as in Greater Finglas Parish – now serving multiple parishes, and many of them appointed parish priest to more than one parish. The work extends beyond parish tasks.These priests must also serve Dublin’s 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. In Finglas, Fr Seamus Ahearne says when it comes to involving the laity in the work of the parish, it is “hard enough to get people who are suitable” to serve on funeral ministry teams. “People go in and read the book, that’s fine, but who wants it? Who wants the ritual?” he says, nothing that nowadays people are not accustomed to being in a church or at Mass.He singles out one woman on the parish funeral ministry team who “could go into any home – she’s great, the people are at home with her, she’s at home with them.”There are few church marriages in the parish these days. However, he is “doing a convalidation” – where a Catholic couple married outside the church wants their marriage recognised by the church – this evening.“At this stage in their lives, they wanted to celebrate their 10th anniversary by coming to church and having a ceremony in church,” he says. 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. “My proposal was [to] stop Confirmation completely; it doesn’t make any sense. I’m not being dismissive, but the work involved in the schools alone, it takes too much time,” he says.To help, they have a faith formation person and, before that, a pastoral worker. “They do great work with the schools. They carry some of this for us,” he says.But, he says: “Don’t overwhelm, don’t mind all these meetings – be careful what we spend our time at.”Finglas has a large immigrant community and Fr Ahearne says young immigrants such as Africans, Indians and Filipinos would “wear you out” with Confession as they adhere to a traditional 1950s Catholicism.“It’s lovely to see that kind of faith – it’s devotional – but the general population would have no interest in that kind of stuff at all,” he says.Fr Ahearne says he is tired, but still has the energy to keep going.“I just can’t believe that an old fellow of 80 is as young as I am and that I have the energy that I have,” he says, noting that he never takes days off.“It’s the kind of person I am.”He believes this is probably more rooted in personality than vocation. “I just love what I do. I enjoy it. I meet all kinds of issues, and problems, and homes and families. “To be able to do that is just wonderful.”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, or “Bob” as he refers to the fellow Augustinian Robert Francis Prevost. “He’s a lovely man. I wrote to him when he was elected and I said: `Bob, I just didn’t want you getting this role.’ I said: `You’re almost too good for it.’” 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.“I’ll keep going as long as I can,” he says.