VS’is an alarming observation which does not fail to worry many faithful of the Church. As reported The Parisian, the increasingly limited number of priests in the department of Manche will lead to a drastic reduction in the celebrations of Masses in many places of worship. The daily stresses that half of the 50 priests currently in office will have reached the age limit by 2026, forcing the dioceses to reorganize.
“You have to get used to the idea that the time when you had one parish priest is long gone. Even the current situation is not sustainable. Some find it difficult to admit it, but it is a principle of reality ”, regretted Bishop Le Boulc’h to the Parisian, before drawing up the alarming situation of his diocese of Coutances-Avranches.
“So we cannot do otherwise than reduce the number of Eucharistic places, that is to say the places where Masses are celebrated. In our department, we now have around fifty. We will gradually organize ourselves so that there will only be 15 in 3 years ”, he announces.
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“The bishop’s strategy is catastrophic”
This direct consequence of the low number of priests is strongly resented by the faithful for many reasons. “People, and a fortiori our elders, are often very attached to their parish. They were baptized there, got married there. There is a strong attachment which is not interchangeable ”, underlines a faithful of the Notre-Dame-du-Travail church in Tourlaville, threatened to be deprived of his regular masses in the future.
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The latter also explains that the question of proximity is a significant factor for Catholics: “We are going to close the churches where they have always been, but in addition they would have to travel 5 or 10 km to go to town in a parish. where they have no benchmarks, ”he criticizes the daily. “The bishop’s strategy is catastrophic. It is imposed on us from above as if it were about human resources. The faithful need their parishes, their landmarks ”, regrets another faithful in the face of this reorganization which could worsen even more in the decades to come.
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