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Dominican Order to depart Athy...

Dominican Order to depart Athy...

The Dominican Order is to withdraw from four Irish parishes due to declining numbers of friars.

Parishioners attending Dominican parishes in Athy, Drogheda, Waterford and Limerick were shocked to learn on Sunday that the Order has decided to withdraw from these churches.

The radical decision was taken at a meeting of leading members of the Dominican Order in Ireland at their headquarters in Tallaght over three days last week. A spokesman for the order told the Irish Independent newspaper that the decision was due to declining numbers and an ageing membership.

The planned withdrawal from the four parishes will be implemented as part of a long-term process of consolidation of the order's personnel. It is not clear if this will result in these churches having to close.

Fr Bernard Treacy told the Irish Independent that as yet, the process had no timetable. He said the withdrawal required planning and "won't happen overnight".

A statement issued on behalf of Dominican Provincial Fr Gregory Carroll confirmed that the Dominicans had "embarked on a process of re-organising their commitments in Ireland, in view of falling numbers of friars to staff their existing commitments and the ageing profile of their members".

Fr Carroll said the ordination of three priests this summer and six men entering the order to live as Dominican friars in early September were moments of real hope, but he added that the fact was there are now only 125 Irish Dominicans in the country.

Just 51 of those 125 friars are under the age of 65 and some of these are still in training and "not all are in robust health".

The average annual intake in Ireland remains less than three and the average number of ordinations for the same period remains slightly more than just one per year.

"The purpose of the reorganisation is to help make the work of the 125 more effective in the core ministries of itinerant preaching, primary pastoral care, and youth faith formation while providing for the formation of those joining the Order, and at the same time respecting traditional apostolates," Fr Carroll said.

The Order runs 20 centres in Ireland, with a strong concentration on the eastern side of Ireland. The Dominicans feel its members are stretched across so many centres.

Source: Irish Independent- 22 September, 2014

Dominican's Ireland http://www.dominicans.ie/

Seven centuries of service on the banks of the Barrow in south Kildare - by Liam Kenny http://www.kildare.ie/library/ehistory/2008/07/dominican_order_in_athy_seven.asp

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