CHANGES have come into place in Kerry, which will no longer permit funerals to be held in the diocese on a Sunday.
August 27 was the last Sunday on which funerals (Mass, liturgy or burial) could take place before the implementation of new rules, announced earlier this year by Bishop Ray Browne.
A decline in priests has been cited as the main reason for the change, with just one priest under the age of 40 serving in the 53-parish diocese.
Sunday funerals place extra liturgical demands on the over-stretched clergy, while factors in individual parishes also led to the change of regulation.
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The decision was taken after consultation with laity and clergy throughout the diocese, which serves 144,000 Catholics in the south-west of the country.
The ban applies from mid-afternoon on Saturdays, although removals to the church can take place on either Saturday or Sunday evening.
With regards Holy Days of Obligation the rule will also apply to Christmas Day and St Patrick’s Day.
On the other Holy Days of Obligation, for flexibility reasons, the decision is left to the local parish, although it is recommended they discourage such funerals for liturgical reasons.
The 2016 edition of Annuarium Statisticum, the Catholic Church’s statistical yearbook, showed that diocesan priest numbers in Ireland had fallen from 3,141 in 2014 to 2,627 in 2014 – a fall over 16 per cent.
