Priestless Parishes
Per Fresno Bishop John Steinbock:
"In our nation there are seven dioceses that half of their parishes have no resident priest.”
It's not a surprise to us since we spend a good deal of our time in very small, poor, or missionary dioceses. Like Dodge City, Kansas - for which Institute teams have put on a least a dozen events - or Pueblo, Colorado which spans the entire southern portion of the state and is the third poorest diocese in the country.
More on this later when I have time.
posted by Sherry W @ 9:33 AM
1 Comments
1 Comments:
In Iowa we are experiencing a dramatic increase of "clustering" parishes. We share the same name, have a common pastor or many times a lay pastoral administrator and a "sacramental priest" who must divide his weekend Masses between 3,4, sometimes as many as 9 or 10 parish communities. If you look at the Archdiocesan Directory with an eye to the age of our priests, within 10 years well over 50% will be at or above retirement age. This, combined with the fact that we ordain on average 2 a year, strongly suggests this trend will only continue.
As painful as it is for people to give up their traditional view of what it means to be a parish, I am one that believes that this new model could signal or at least call forth a change in how the laity view their role. If we want to keep our parishes open, if we want to continue to experience the Eucharist in the Mass on a weekly basis, then we cannot live our faith as though our local community is all there is. We have to move to the world and make society our parish.
I believe strongly that there are many people being called to the priesthood who for whatever reason cannot discern the call of God from the din of our noisy culture. Being in religious education, I am ever more aware of a basic need of modern catechesis-to help people see how God is alive in their lives right now. Without the awareness and the ability to slow down to see how God is alive in and around us at all times, we will never be able to discern the small still voice of the creator calling us to our vocation, whether that vocation is to the priesthood or something else.
That being said, sometimes I wonder. I wonder if maybe the Holy Spirit is calling fewer people. WHat if God is trying to tell us- when you can be Eucharist to one another, when you can begin to take seriously your role in the world, then I will give you more priests? Maybe God is asking us, as the men in white asked the apostles at the Ascension, "Why are you standing there, looking at the sky?"
Maybe this crisis is really a call.
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