My mother grew up in Ennistymon which is in Kilfenora diocese. Except Kilfenora diocese hadn’t really existed for over two centuries having merged with Galway diocese. She enjoyed sharing memories from her teenage years of helping with collections to fund the construction of the new cathedral in Galway and people’s bewilderment at being asked to contribute to the building of a church in another county in a different province, in a city they rarely visited.
Our Church is organised in parish communities which in turn form pastoral areas and dioceses. The boundaries dividing dioceses appear random to our contemporary eyes. A good example is Sixmilebridge. Most of the village is in Killaloe diocese but a goodly part is in Limerick diocese. A humorous consequence of this division occurred several decades ago. A local businessman decided to engage with the showband boom and open a dancehall in the village. He chose a site in the part of the village in Limerick diocese to avail of the less stringent rules regarding dancing during Lent in that diocese. We live in a very different world today.
There was a time when church structures were centred on monasteries. Those old monasteries became ruins and today many of them serve as burial places. Our key structures today are parishes, pastoral areas and dioceses. Our dioceses were mostly established at a series of twelfth century synods. These synods reflected the political realities of their day in their placing of diocesan boundaries. While the civil administrative boundaries evolved over succeeding centuries, the diocesan borders have changed little. The English divided the country into counties which gradually became central to Irish people’s identity and loyalty. However, they bore little relationship to the dioceses.
Compared with most other European countries, Irish dioceses are small. The average Irish diocese has a Catholic population of 176,813. In Germany the equivalent figure is 926,000 and 600,000 in Spain. Some people maintain that small dioceses permit bishop, priests and people to know each other well and not be separated by layers of bureaucracy. The contrary argument holds that small dioceses struggle to comply with statuary regulation in areas such as data protection, education, safeguarding and charity law. Small dioceses find it difficult to identify or resource people to serve in specialised ministry (e.g. ministry to the sick, military, young, minority languages, education, liturgy etc.). Consequently, their ability to assist their parishes is limited. The sharp decline in ordinations has resulted in fewer suitable candidates being available to serve as bishops. The advocates of the existing structure respond that ministries and resources could be shared between dioceses as already happens in areas such as marriage tribunals and school management.
Church structures are at the service of pastoral care. The raison d’être of parishes, pastoral areas and dioceses is the promotion and living of the gospel and the celebration of the sacraments so that Christ may find a dwelling place in our hearts. These structural arrangements are not part of divine law. They are a strategy, a choice the Church has made as part of our mission to preach and live the Gospel.
In recent times, we have begun to see a process of restructuring of Irish dioceses to reflect the new reality of the Irish church. The four smallest dioceses no longer have their own individual bishops but instead are led by the bishop of a neighbouring larger diocese. This is the first step in a process that will lead to the smaller dioceses being amalgamated with the larger dioceses. It is also expected that the new arrangements concerning the four smallest dioceses will be extended to other dioceses. However, there is no clarity regarding how many dioceses we will have at the end of the process. Some suggest that a Catholic population of 200,000 is the minimum required to make a diocese viable. The Catholic population of Killaloe diocese, which includes most of county Clare, is calculated to be about 120,000.
Uniting our existing dioceses will leave the twelfth century boundaries largely intact. Diocesan boundaries will continue to divide counties, towns and villages in a manner that seems arbitrary to our eyes. Starting with a tabula rasa to redraw diocesan boundaries to better reflect county borders and other contemporary priorities would require far greater effort. Complex decisions would be required regarding the allocation of personnel, resources and liabilities. The presence of two political jurisdictions in Ireland creates its own sensitivities.
Structures, diocesan or otherwise only have value in so far as they promote the living of the Gospel. Celebrating the charisms and responding to the needs of every person matters above all else. No matter how we organise ourselves as Church, only Christ can illuminate our steps. New realities call for new structures in the service of the people of God.
Fr. Albert McDonnell is Vicar Forane of Tradaree Pastoral Area.
Clare Champion Article Friday 17th of January 2025