CLOGHER DIOCESAN CHANGES ANNOUNCED

58 PRIESTS TO SERVE 37 PARISHES AND 85 CHURCHES

Michael Fisher

The Administrator of the Diocese of Clogher, Monsignor Joseph McGuinness, has announced changes in clergy to take into account the reduced number of priests available to officiate at Sunday and weekday Masses. There are now 58 priests to serve 37 parishes, taking in 85 churches in the diocese, which extends from Inniskeen close to Dundalk, to Pettigo and Bundoran in Co. Donegal, incorporating most of Monaghan and Fermanagh and part of Tyrone.

This represents a reduction of one third in the number of active priests in the diocese in just twenty years. A Pastoral Letter entitled “The Future Mission of Our Parishes,” was read out at Masses last Sunday in which Mgr McGuinness outlines the background to the…