IRELAND
National Catholic Reporter
Sarah Mac Donald | May. 13, 2015
DUBLIN The leaders of 24 international reform groups who met in Limerick, Ireland, in April are urging Pope Francis to call for a halt to the church’s policy of clustering parishes into megaparishes as a response to the decline in priest numbers.
In an open letter, the 32 signatories — from groups such as Catholics for Renewal in Australia, A Call to Action in England, and the Society for Open Christianity for the 21st Century in Slovakia — tell Francis that the future of parish life is “massively threatened.”
Bishops seeking to address the priest shortage are “merging active and vibrant parishes into anonymous and unmanageable superstructures,” the letter said.
While merging seems to be “the formula of the hour,” the reform leaders warn that in these new megaparishes, personal contact between people and ministers is being lost as the sacraments are removed ever further from the everyday life of church citizens.
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