Tuesday, April 25, 2017
Serving Cork for 120 years
Edition No: 36504
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Celebration time Scoil Mhuire Naofa marks 60th anniversary: P22 & 23
No priests to say Mass Cork homes crisis aired
THE LONG ARM OF THE (SELFIE) LAW
■ Rob McNamara
■ Audrey Ellard Walsh CORK city is facing an unprecedented homelessness crisis this summer if urgent action is not taken, City Hall officials were told last night. Following the publication of March figures for social housing stock, councillors highlighted the decreasing number of vacant properties available for people on the housing waiting list, while numbers in emergency accommodation continue to soar. There were 352 people in emergency accommodation in the city in March, an increase of 21 on the previous month. Thirty-three new individuals presented for emergency accommodation in the same period. Councillor Thomas Gould said: “There were 45 houses allocated in the month of March but 140 new applications came in the same month, so for every house we allocated, t h re e n ew i n d i v i d u a l s o r families, came on the list.” ■ Continued on Page 2.
■ One diocese goes without service today THE diocese of Cork and Ross is facing a priest shortage crisis and some Masses could be replaced by public prayers with no communion in the years ahead.
Orla Moriarty, Anglesboro, Limerick, Nikki Cogan, Glanmire, and Ellen Crowley, Wilton, pose for a selfie after their Garda Graduation Ceremony at the Garda College, Templemore, County Tipperary. Picture: Don Moloney/Press 22
Father Charlie Kiely, Director of Pastoral Development in Cork and Ross, revealed the extent of the problem as it emerged that Mass will not be said at any church in Limerick today — the first time that this has happened in any Irish diocese in the 188 years since Catholic Emancipation in 1829. The Bishop of Limerick, Brendan Leahy, has also warned that Mass may not take place every Sunday in some parishes due to a lack of priests. In the diocese of Cork and Ross, Father Kiely acknowledged that the lack of ordinations and age profile of priests meant a shortage was inevitable here in the years ahead. “We will have a problem in a number of years because of the number of priests we have working in our parishes who are in their sixties and seventies, and the retirement age is 75,” he said. “We had one ordination this year and last year and we had one the year before. It takes seven to eight years for a guy to be ordained from the time he enters seminary and there’s no guarantee he’ll go all the way through.” ■ Continued on Page 2.
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