Scottish Catholic Observer

Bishop Keenan (right) foresees these consultations leading to a diocesan synod in 2015 and assured people that it’s important that first principles are established before any possible parish closures are considered as ‘just because a parish doesn’t have a priest that doesn’t meant it will close.’

Having used the five months since he was appointed to take stock of the diocese, the bishop says he was ‘convinced that the Holy Spirit wants us not to manage decline but to plan for a new growth of our Church in Paisley’ but this would require a commitment from the laity.

“This will come about through you, the laity—each of you without exception–—striving to be the saints of the 21st century in your homes and in the world, taking up your full responsibilities in the leadership of our parishes—shoulder to shoulder with our priests, deacons and religious, and, together, setting out on an urgent mission of new evangelisation of the lapsed, unchurched and excluded in our parish boundaries,” he said. “So, I hope you can see how my vision—which is the Pope’s vision—goes well beyond the mind-set of inevitable parish closures.”

“It is certainly the case that, for the first time since our foundation in 1948, the number of serving priests we have will no longer allow us to maintain the present system where each parish has its own priest but this calls us first to ask what is the Spirit saying to the Church in Paisley,” he said, “Yes, it could be seen as a crisis but I prefer to see it, from the point of view of faith, as a privileged opportunity for renewal. We have the grace of time to think, pray and plan in the year ahead for something genuinely fruitful.”

The bishop said his hope was the result of this reflection and consultation would be ‘a Diocesan Synod sometime in 2015.’

—[email protected]

—Pic: Paul McSherry

—Read the full version of this story in August 29 edition of the SCO in parishes from Friday.