NEWLY installed Bishop of Derry Donal McKeown has warned that the provision of Catholic Church services "on demand" is not sustainable in the future.
In a significant move, Bishop McKeown used his first Chrism Mass to predict major changes in the way priests serve. Approximately 70 priests attended the Mass of the Chrism at St Eugene's Cathedral yesterday.
A key service in the church calendar, the Mass of the Chrism is an annual celebration of the priesthood.
Bishop McKeown noted that Pope Francis has called for major changes in the way the Catholic Church works. "I have no idea how we in the Derry diocese are going to grow into a missionary church that will be able to bring the Gospel message to the thousands of people in our parishes who have
never really heard the message of Jesus," Bishop McKeown said. "The current service model of providing Masses, funerals, baptism and blessings on demand is not going to be possible into the future."
The work of clergy in the future would not be the recreation of a "model of church that worked 50 years ago" but would involve a new church where "the kingdom, the power and the glory belong to God and never to us," he said. Bishop McKeown said the Catholic Church would have to be rebuilt and its priesthood would have to be remade. "We will have to move away from a customer model where most of the lay faithful were periodic consumers of the religious services provided by often over-stretched clergy. That is not a sustainable way forward," he said.
The 63-year-old bishop, who was installed on April 6, said lay Catholics would have to learn more about their faith and share that faith with others.