As in many countries, churches and other places of worship in the Irish Republic have significant restrictions. Priests are required to say mass in empty or near-empty churches.

To reach parishioners, masses have been broadcast online since restrictions on attendance were put in place to combat the pandemic.

The Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) said the expectation among parishioners that mass will be said online had produced a slew of comments and reviews.

This was putting its members under pressure to perform and causing a form of digital stage fright.

Father Tim Hazelwood, a spokesman for the ACP, said a lot of priests had felt "forced" into putting their services online. A number had subsequently stopped because of "judgment" from viewers.

"And there is a group of 'mass hoppers' who go from mass to mass, and unfortunately some of them pass comments that are very hurtful."

Fr Gerry O'Conner from the Scala Community in Cork city said priests can see how many views they have received and comparisons are being made.

"We are aware that people have their favourite online liturgies. They think some are better than others. There are reviews and analyses and comparisons being made," he said explaining why priests are abandoning online masses.

"Like anyone else, priests can be sensitive."

While the idea of priests suffering digital stage fright may sound like a Covid-compliant plotline from the television comedy Father Ted, the ACP said its members were dealing with multiple pressures caused by the pandemic.

The average age for a priest in Ireland is 72. Many live alone as the Catholic Church copes with dwindling congregation sizes and an ageing priesthood.

Father Hazelwood said his colleagues were facing issues such as reductions in church income of up to 60 per cent while also having to adjust to old age.

He told the AGM: "Our energy levels are falling. Our health and our fitness isn't as good as it was. We have to recognise that what we could do before, we can't be expected to do now."

Sources

iNews

Irish Examiner

His Funeral Mass takes place in Wanganui on Thursday, November 9.

Cumiskey was educated at Mohill Boys National School, St Mel's College Longford and All Hallows College Drumcondra, Dublin.

He was ordained a priest in All Hallows on Sunday, 30th June 1946, and celebrated his first Mass in St. Patrick's Church, Mohill.

His priestly ministry was spent entirely in New Zealand (Wellington, Lower Hutt Christchurch, Taihape, Palmerston North and Wanganui.

Cumiskey has a younger brother Dundalk, Ireland who is also a priest, Fr Cathal Cumiskey, CSsR.

Source
Leitrim Observer

The people of Whanganui, where he worked for 25 years, remember him with affection Read more

Fr Pat, 86, has been in New Zealand most of his life, since coming over from Ireland with his brother Walter in 1960.

"There was an invitation from the bishop of the Wellington diocese. I had two aunties who had been religious sisters here."

There was a shortage of priests in New Zealand at the time, and few countries that Irish priests were not going to, he said.

He is retiring to Castletown in County Laois where he will be living close to Walter, who retired three years earlier.

The Association says Dolan's report had "effectively destroyed the reputations of priests, who have given lifelong service to the Irish Catholic Church, without giving them a right of reply to the allegations made against them".

Calling Dolan's report "incompetent," and saying that it is unacceptable that a report to the Pope be conducted in such as way, they said "no court of law would treat people in such a way".

The Association pointed out that under Canon Law clerics are entitled to their good name. Quoting, Canon 220 which states that 'No one may unlawfully harm the good reputation which a person enjoys . . .'," they said "civil law also protects a person's good name through the laws of libel."

It was "ironic" they said "that it was precisely the failure of church superiors to follow either canon or civil law in abuse cases which led to the Apostolic Visitation in the first place".

Sources

• Irish Times
• Image: Irish College

During most of the past seven years, however, that anticipated upheaval has seemed a lot like the dog that didn't bark. Back in February 2006, the late Fr. Richard John Neuhaus famously voiced "palpable unease" among those most elated by Ratzinger's election, and that disappointment endured in a swath of Catholic opinion which had begun to despair that the pope would ever impose order.

Of late, however, many observers believe the "real Ratzinger" has finally come out to play. Consider the tumult of the past month:

• On April 18, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith decreed a sweeping overhaul of the Leadership Conference for Women Religious, the main American umbrella group for the superiors of women's orders, to correct what the congregation described as LCWR's "corporate dissent" on issues such as women's ordination and homosexuality, and its contamination by "radical feminism."
• At least five Irish priests have faced Vatican-inspired discipline, with implementation left to their religious orders. Two Redemptorists have seen their writings for a church magazine either withdrawn or limited (one was also dispatched to a monastery for a six-week "reflection"), a Passionist prominent in the English media is now subject to prior censorship, and both a Marist and a Capuchin have been told to stop writing and speaking on certain hot-button topics.
• On April 5, Benedict XVI included some blistering language in his Holy Thursday homily about a "call to disobedience" issued by more than 300 priests and deacons in Austria who oppose celibacy and support women's ordination. The pope called the effort "a desperate push to do something to change the church in accordance with (their) own preferences and ideas." Continue reading

Sources

• John L Allen Jr in National Catholic Reporter
• Image: NY Daily News