Re: Re: reorganisation and destruction of irish catholic churches

This story was from 2007..doe’s anyone know what the eventual outcome of this was?
Anger at developer’s plan for church.

Three applications for purchase were lodged.
One was to a developer who wanted to turn the church into a pub and restaurant
one was for a traditionalist group who wanted to offer the Tridentine Mass there
and another was by Galway developer John O Dolan to turn it into a leisure centre complete with spa and swimming pool.

The Jesuit Order has sold the church to John O Dolan instead of the Traditionalist Catholic group. The Church will now be used as a swimming pool instead of traditional Latin Masses.
Plans to turn a Limerick church into a €12 million leisure centre have attracted the anger of local Catholics.
They have denounced as ‘‘grotesque’’ proposals to celebrate Mass around a swimming pool in the former Jesuit church.
John O’Dolan, a Galway-based auctioneer, bought the Sacred Heart church from the Jesuits in March 2006 for more than €4 million.
He is now submitting proposals for a €12 million leisure centre development to include a 20-metre swimming pool, spa, 15,000 square foot gym and restaurant. O’Dolan said he had been in pre-planning talks with Limerick Corporation and expected to submit his proposals within the next three to four weeks.
O’Dolan told the Limerick Chronicle last year that a number of ideas had been suggested for the protected building, including keeping it as a church, turning it into a restaurant or converting it into offices. His new proposals involve the retention of much of the original building, including the five altars, sanctuary and organ.
‘‘It was important that any proposals we submitted for the building were very respectful of the structure’s past as a place of worship,” said O’Dolan.
‘‘It will be a top-of-the-range development with a sauna and a beautician in the spa, a restaurant with seating for about 80 people and a fully-equipped gym. At the same time, it’s going to be reasonably priced and won’t be reserved for a select few.
‘‘There should be no reason why people can’t still come here and pray. I’m going to be talking to the Latin Mass Society about the possibility of holding Latin services here once a month.”
But Vicky Nestor, the chairman of the Limerick branch of the Latin Mass Society of Ireland (LMSI), has reacted angrily to suggestions that the leisure centre complex could be used for Mass.
‘‘It’s grotesque to think that we could fit the most sacred ceremony of the Catholic faith around a swimming pool,” she said.
There are also doubts as to whether Church law would allow Mass to be celebrated in the venue, even if the altar and the organ remained in place. Canon law only allows Mass to be celebrated in a ‘‘suitably dignified’’ place and forbids ‘‘sordid use’’ of former churches.
The LMSI has rejected the developer’s offer of further talks.
‘‘After our only meeting with him, last May, it became clear that there is nothing to talk about, unless he has retracted his previous bizarre proposal for Mass to be held on a covered swimming pool,” said Nestor.

The Dutch bishops, have a policy that no church may be sold for use for any other purpose. Superfluous churches must be demolished. The land may then be sold, why do we not have a similar arrangement for unrequired churches here?