Diocesan shake-up: What do these changes mean?

As with most things ecclesiastical, change comes slowly and the last three papal nuncios pushed the Irish hierarchy to reduce the number of dioceses as priests numbers collapsed and attendance began to dwindle.

The bishops for the most part resisted and the Vatican had a long running stand-off with them.

This new nuncio, Archbishop Luis Mariano Montemayor, seems to have had one mission: get this over the line. He has.

An amalgamation of dioceses has long been advocated in Ireland too by many priests and commentators. Priest, theologian and author Fr Vincent Twomey SVD who was close to Pope Benedict XVI and taught in Maynooth, wrote in his book The End of Irish Catholicism? that the dioceses should be reduced. He said that “26 dioceses are too many for such a small Catholic population. At the very most, 12 dioceses would be sufficient in Ireland, including a reduction of the size of the Archdiocese of Dublin to the present county boundaries”.

In 2011 it was reported that Rome was planning a radical restructuring in Ireland in response to the abuse scandals but that came to nothing. For some it would have seen like a punishment to the bishops and for others it would have seemed like the start of some kind of renewal.

Thirteen years later, it seems like neither, rather the necessary down-sizing of a Church that is struggling to find a new vision in an increasingly hostile environment. It seems the Church has been forced by statistics and circumstances to take these measures.

With Bishop Dempsey of Achonry going to Dublin – perhaps on paper it could be viewed as a demotion from bishop of a diocese to an auxiliary (assistant bishop) to Dublin’s Archbishop Dermot Farrell – it may also signal that Dublin is being prepared for an eventual splitting of this massive diocese into two. One thing we can be sure of, today is just the start of this process and in time, Fr Twomey’s prediction of 12 diocese being sufficient may well prove prophetic.