An example to follow Peter Carter is very involved with Killawalla’s Pastoral Council and is optimistic these type of councils can become the norm in rural Ireland
The Interview Michael Duffy IT doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the alarmingly low numbers currently joining the priesthood is going to have a knock-on effect in the not-too-distant future for the Catholic religion as we know it.
It seems we are heading for a situation where one priest will be asked to take charge of one, or possibly two, parishes – and some parishes in Mayo are comprised of three or four churches.
Being left without a priest is never an easy situation for any church area but it has already become a reality for some communities and a sense of co-operation has led to hope for the future.
Peter Carter from Killawalla has been involved in voluntary organisations all his life – from the group water scheme committee to the community council; from boards of management to the promotion of handball, but most recently he has become very involved with the work of the Pastoral Council in the Killawalla Parish, particularly since the church area was left without a curate five years ago.
“I would like to think that the Pastoral Council has worked well in the circumstances, we have tried to do our best anyway and maybe we can offer some hope to other areas who will be faced with the same prospect down the road,” said Peter, who lives in Killawalla with his wife Ann, and where their four children, Paul, Suzanne, Seamus and Sarah, were all brought up.
“There has been no priest now in the parish for five years but, luckily, the council was set up in 2001. The Killawalla church area is run by our Parish Priest Fr Jack Garvey, who lives over ten miles away, assisted by Fr Frank Fahey in Ballintubber, but around the time we lost our last priest, we sat down and talked to the priests of the parish and we came to an agreement that we as an organisation would have a role in the organisation of the parish.
“Five years down the road it looks like pastoral councils are here to stay, especially when one considers that it is expected that 15 further priests will retire over the next five years and they will not be replaced.”
The shortage of priests is not something that has crept up on those who make the decisions in the Catholic Church so Peter does feel that pastoral councils are one obvious way of keeping a community’s faith alive.
“There must be a sort of ‘think-tank’ behind the scenes at the moment, some forward planning must be taking place at present because the problem will be on the doorsteps of a lot of parishes sooner rather than later.”
Of course, key to the successful running of any organisation is the support of the wider community. Naturally, the loss of a priest is seen as an eroding of an area’s independence, much like losing a school or a local post office, but Peter feels once people realise there is no going back, they know they may as well get on with backing alternative proposals.
“Well, in order for something like the Pastoral Council to work you need support, mainly from the people themselves. There was, of course, negativity when we were left without a priest; trust had to be built from the bottom up, but we said we would look after the upkeep of the church and collections and other things involved in the day-to-day running of a parish and, generally, it has worked very well.
“The priests are happy to let us develop ideas for the parish to the best of our ability while we always keep in touch with them, and in general the parishioners are happy that their parish runs as normally as possible. Naturally, it’s not the same as having a priest in the parish, but we hope it’s a close second. We do our best to organise everything in the church, from the weekday Masses to the Sunday Mass, the weekly newsletter to the Mass intentions. Then the more important ceremonies like Christmas and Easter take a lot of organising, and we also have wedding and funerals throughout the year. Our church recently underwent a major refurbishment and it now looks as good as it has in years. It’s something to be proud of I suppose and it’s great to see people from the area still able to come home at Christmas and celebrate Mass together as a community.
“I hope the archdiocese will be forward thinking enough to let more and more pastoral councils become more and more involved. Priests are faced with probably having to run parishes all on their own in the future and both they and the parishioners have to realise that a spirit of co-operation will ultimately yield the best results for everyone involved.
“There are an awful lot of important decisions to be made by the Church itself but I think there is a willingness on the ground for people to get involved.”
Having retired from the P&T (latterly Telecom Éireann and Eircom) after 34 years of service, Peter has been able to put his energies largely into voluntary organisations over the last number of years, but outside of his work with telecommunications, he was very well known throughout the country for his tireless dedication to handball. From the time he played the sport in the ‘Old Mill’ in Killawalla, he was drawn to its simplicity.
“Well, it was a minority sport, but it was always part of my life since I was a young fella and I suppose it was through familiarity with the sport that I became involved with the administration of the game.
“The Old Mill was used for handball as far back as 1931. Pat Shaughnessy, who used to live behind where my house is here, had a barn in it but that moved and there were great games all day long there on a Sunday after Mass. There were huge crowds; it would be black with people. You had to queue up for a game, and there might be a few shillings riding on a game or two.”
Having grown up with the game, Peter then became involved in the promotion of the sport, not an easy task in Gaelic football-mad Mayo.
“When I was living in Castlebar in the early ‘70s I became involved with a fundraising drive to put a roof on the handball alley in the town, then in 1979 I became county secretary. At that time we had about eight clubs and we held county championships every year and after four years working at the grassroots level in Mayo I became Connacht Chairman and then Connacht Secretary. I then moved to England on contract work and that kind of broke the cycle but when I came back I was involved with the sport on national committees and I ended up serving as National President in 2002. I gave handball about 36 years, between playing as a young fella and administering the sport. It’s the simplest game in the world – all you need is a ball and a wall. I was honoured to have served the game at county, provincial and national level, especially since I grew up with the game.”
Having been involved with voluntary organisations in rural Ireland for most of his life, Peter is well-placed to judge just how hard it is now to get people to give up their free time for the common good.
“It definitely is much harder to get people involved in any club or voluntary organisation nowadays and it’s not easy to change people’s mindsets but where there is a will there is a way and sometimes all some people need is a bit of encouragement. It’s a challenge we must take on.”
