SCOTLAND
The Tablet
12 February 2015 by Brian Morton
A proposed restructuring of parishes in the Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh will lead to a reduction in the number of full-time priests to about 30 by 2035.
Making the prediction, Archbishop Leo Cushley described the restructuring process as “painful” and “unpleasant” but essential in light of falling attendance at Mass, fewer baptisms and weddings, and a dramatic stall in the number of vocations to the priesthood.
Those close to the archdiocese deny that there has been any “O’Brien effect”, as reported in some media, or direct fall-out from the admission of sexual misconduct by disgraced Cardinal Keith O’Brien in 2013.
The archdiocese has a Catholic population of around 110,000 and has 129 priests, including some who are retired. But the process of restructuring, for which proposals have been canvassed from deaneries and which will be discussed by clergy and lay representatives in a consultation process beginning at Easter 2015, has already begun.
Since 2008 the 109 parishes in St Andrews and Edinburgh have been organised into 31 parish “clusters” by which clergy minister to more than one parish within a particular locality.
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