The three catholic parish of Lucan comprising St. Mary’s, St. Patrick’s, and Divine Mercy are now formally in partnership. This new partnership arrangement is to foster greater co-operation and mutual support across the parishes. The Archbishop has now formalised such partnerships across the 200 parishes that make up the diocese of Dublin.
The falling number of priests poses great challenges, but also offers great opportunities. Lay people in the parishes are being invited to take on a range of ministries and tasks where a priest is not essential. This includes the preparation of families for Baptism, working with families at the time of bereavement, conducting prayer services in the home of the deceased and leading the graveside or crematorium prayers. Administrative tasks can also be delegated.
One of the challenges facing the parishes is providing preparation for the Sacraments of First Penance, Communion and Confirmation. While in the catholic schools the religious education programme is taught as part of the curriculum, this is not the case for children attending non-catholic schools. The diocese has introduced a pilot programme across several parish partnerships, and the Lucan partnership has been invited to participate. This programme is to formulate a diocesan policy and a code of best practice to be implemented in all the parishes, to ensure that young people have adequate preparation for the Sacraments.
A local committee has been formed across the three parishes and we look forward to taking the project forward.
Parish Catechist
In order to ensure that all our ministries are well prepared for, the partnership has engaged the services of a parish catechist.
Schools
Cathy Burke is a catechist with a background in voluntary parish work, in education and diocesan support work. Cathy will be organising and facilitating structures and opportunities for engagement in faith formation and faith education within the parish partnership. She comes highly recommended and we look forward to welcoming her aboard: she commences her role on July 1st.
Parents with children for the Sacraments of First Holy Communion & Confirmation in 2024 are required to Register online before the end of the School year.
St. Mary’s: www.lucanparish.com
St. Patrick’s: www.stpatrickslucan.ie
Divine mercy will open registration soon
