Parishes resort to sharing priests

Auxiliary Bishop David Cremin said about 15 per cent of parishes in the Archdiocese of Sydney were carrying out the practice, officially known as partnering.

It is a practice that has been used in rural and regional parishes for a long time, but has only recently made its way to Sydney.

Bishop Cremin said it first popped up in Sydney about 20 years ago with the parishes of Peakhurst and Penshurst, but had become more prevalent in the past couple of years.

He said there was also a long-term contingency plan of partnering in place for all parishes in the archdiocese if priests were unable to perform their duty due to illness or retirement and there was no one to take their place.

``Nearly every diocese in Australia would be doing something like that," the bishop said.

``We sat down in the past 12 months and took out our maps and looked at which parishes would be likely to be partnered in the event of a shortage of priests.

``The priest population is an ageing population."

Bishop Cremin said priests had been asked to talk to their parishes about whether they would prefer merging or would resort to sharing a priest with another parish should the situation arise.

Randwick and Randwick North, Mosman and Neutral Bay, Revesby and Revesby Heights and Blakehurst and Hurstville South are among the parishes having to partner.

In the Diocese of Broken Bay, on the Central Coast, 16 of 40 parishes are having to partner.

There is some good news on the horizon for the church, though, with an increase in the number of men studying to become priests.

Auxiliary Bishop Julian Porteous, rector of the Seminary of the Good Shepherd at Homebush, said this year 39 men were enrolled in the seminary, most in their mid-20s. Five years ago there were 26.

``There's a sea change among young people," Bishop Porteous said.