IRELAND
Kilkenny People
Published on Wednesday 11 April 2012
WITHIN ten years, a significant number of existing Catholic parishes in the Diocese of Ossory, will be without a full-time priest. Not so long ago, the diocese boasted 140 clerics and that number is now down to 65 and will shrink further with a number of senior clerics expected to step down in the next two years.
The lack of vocations is already beginning to bite with less Masses, especially in rural areas with only one person in the last seven years opting for life in the clergy
And the failure of the Vatican to appoint a new Bishop in the adjacent Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin has fuelled speculation that the current Bishop of Ossory, Dr Seamus Freeman will be asked to take over the diocese that includes Paulstown, Graignamanagh, all of Co Carlow, Co. Kildare and parts of Co. Offaly.
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