‘Inevitable’ more religious orders to hand over parish admin says Jesuit

Unless there’s an “overnight surge in vocations” more religious orders will relinquish parishes to dioceses, according to the PP of Gardiner Street Parish in Dublin which will soon become part of the Pro Cathedral parish.

Speaking to The Irish Catholic Fr Niall Leahy SJ said the Jesuits’ decision regarding Gardiner Street Parish is part of a plan to focus their resources on the fundamentals of their charism.

Asked whether he believes more religious will make a similar decision, Fr Leahy said: “They will have to, it comes down to numbers. They don’t have the manpower. It’s going to happen, it’s inevitable.

“Unless there’s literally an overnight surge of vocations to religious congregations it’s going to happen. I think this is a rude awakening, we’ve known for so long that this was going to happen and yet when it happens it comes as a shock to everyone. It always happens suddenly, so I get it when people are shocked or saddened. But I think in our case at least we can still say we’re still here, we’re not closing our church. Some churches will just have to close and that’s really going to be a shock,” he said.

The Church of St Francis Xavier will no longer be a parish church from August 1 but will continue to be run by the Jesuits with parishioners most likely not noticing much of a difference.

Currently there are only five Jesuits under the age of 50 in Ireland.

Correction: In the April 25 edition of The Irish Catholic the headline ‘Jesuits hand back Gardiner Street Church to Dublin diocese’ was incorrect and should have read ‘Jesuits hand back Gardiner Street Parish to Dublin diocese’.

Read a feature piece on this topic – Youth focus at heart of Jesuits decision to end parish admin