20 Years Since Parishioners Stood in For Priest

June 28, 2018 Bearna Beo

Front cover of the Galway City Tribune in March 1998

Bearna Parish made the front page of the Galway City Tribune 20 years ago when Mass-goers stood in for an absent priest at the midday Sunday Mass.

The practice has hit the headlines nationally this week, owing to a similar situation in which a Fine Gael Minister led the congregation in prayer in her local parish.

However, looking at the prominence given to the story by the City Tribune's editor in March 1998, this was obviously a very unusual occurrence at the time. Interesting how, these days with a significant shortage of Priests to say Mass, we don't batt and eyelid when we see lay-people standing-in.

The story, by Bernie Ní Fhlatharta, said that this was a regular occurrence in other parts of the world, but was possibly the first time it had happened in Ireland!

The congregation at the Sunday midday Mass in Barna took matters into their own hands and made history in the process. When it was obvious that no priest was going to turn up to say Mass, the Ministers of Eucharist decided to read the Gospel, sing some hymns, say the relevant prayers and distribute Communion. In doing so, the Barna congregation became the first in Galway, if not in the country, to do so. Their Parish Priest, Fr Leo Morahan, is recuperating following a stroke but he had left a rota of names of priests to say Mass. Some confusion occurred on Sunday leaving Barna without a priest at 12 noon Mass. Ironically, the Bishop of Galway, Dr James McLoughlin, drove by the church an hour earlier on his way to concelebrate the funeral Mass of retired Spiddal priest, Fr Colm Sweeney. A number of priests concelebrated that Mass, while the Barna altar remained empty. By 12.10pm, it was obvious to the 150+ in the congregation that they had been forgotten. But, rather than go home, it was decided to go ahead with the Gospel and the various readings. These were read by the pre-arranged readers, some hymns were sung, and Communion which was already consecrated was distributed. Afterwards, the congregation burst into a round of applause in appreciation, according to one local man. Nobody was willing to take the credit for pressing ahead with the service and nobody was willing to point the finger of blame, the City Tribune was told yesterday. It was pointed out by a cleric that this sort of event was a regular occurrence on the Missions, and in the USA, where there are a shortage of priests but, to his knowledge, this was the first time it ever happened in Ireland.

Galway City Tribune, March 20 1998