It is becoming ever more challenging to find priests to fill vacancies in parishes, the Bishop of Achonry and Elphin, Dr Kevin Doran, has said. He is urging parishes to build up administrative and lay support to ease the workload of priests who often have to minister to several parishes at once. Speaking to Shannonside News as he announced the appointment of Fr Alan Conway, parish priest of Croghan, to PP of Ballinameen and Breedogue, Bishop Doran was asked about the priest’s workload.
Although he will be helped by a curate, Fr Conway’s new appointment will leave him in charge of five churches. In his response, Bishop Doran said he is encouraging parishes today to have robust administrative support.
“Often a good parish secretary can take on a lot of the administrative work associated with five communities just as easily as with three,” the bishop pointed out. “Ordering a refill of oil, or doing the property tax, whatever it might be,” he continued. “Some of those things are not jobs that priests need to be doing.”