Parishioners to take on leading funeral rites

Church leaders are hopeful that more and more parishioners will step up and preside at funerals to ease the burden on overworked priests, with two dioceses already commissioning laypeople to take charge where there is no priest. More than 70 new lay leaders in Clogher and Down and Connor dioceses are undertaking training to preside…

Downsizing the future for Irish Franciscans

The order is working to maintain its presence but vocations are dwindling, Fr Aidan McGrath OFM tells Ruadhán Jones Earlier this year, the Irish Franciscans closed two of its houses in Ireland, one in Clonmel, another in Waterford. The order continues to maintain eight houses around the country, but with vocations dwindling and an aging…

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