Talk about a head-scratcher. I wonder if anyone in the Vatican
recognizes the absurdity of all this?
Another case of a priest leaving to get married, being
replaced by a married priest – in this case, a former Anglican priest who with
his wife and family, entered the Catholic Church. There were several cases of
this in England
when the Anglican Church started ordaining women. Full details can be found in
the Tablet article at…
Chicago’s Cardinal George
ordained a dozen priests on May 17th – one of the largest ordination
classes in the US
this year. However, that is a far cry from the 30 to 40 that were ordained
annually a few decades ago. And they can scarcely replace the 31 Chicago priests that died
in 2013. The continued decline of traditional clergy was reiterated in the
recent newspaper article in Florida.
Perhaps a new kind of priesthood is needed.
U.S. Catholics face shortage of priests
Dave
Breitenstein, The (Fort Myers,
Fla.) News-Press7:06 a.m. EDT May 25, 2014
FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Nationally, one in five Catholic
parishes does not have a resident priest.
America's Catholic population
is rising by 1 percent annually, but seminary enrollment is flat. An inadequate
supply of priests already has forced hundreds of parishes to close or
consolidate.
Priests aren't getting any younger, either. Their average age is
63.
Something's got to give.
"These people have served the church for 30, 40 or 50
years, and now they are retiring or dying and leaving the priesthood,"
said Mary Gautier, senior research associate with GeorgetownUniversity's
Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate.
In the Diocese of Venice, Fla., though, Bishop Frank Dewane is
sitting comfortably for the 59 parishes from Bradenton
to MarcoIsland. Dewane has 111 diocesan priests
under his authority, along with 60 priests supplied by religious orders.
Additionally, between 10 and 70 outside priests, who often are retirees from
parishes up North, assist the diocese on a seasonal or part-time basis.
Dewane's focus isn't covering next Sunday's Mass; he is charged
with building the next generation of religious leaders.
"We're blessed right now, but we always have to look at
where are we in, say, 25 years or 50 years out," Dewane said.
In 1975, there were 58,909 priests in the United States.
Today, Georgetown's
CARA puts the figure at 39,600, a 33 percent drop. Meanwhile, America's Catholic
population rose from 54.5 million to 78.2 million, a 43 percent increase,
during the same period.
Although the 39,600 priests seems plenty for America's
17,413 parishes, it's not. Presiding over Mass is just one of a priest's
duties, along with hearing confessions, baptizing babies, officiating weddings,
counseling parishioners, conducting funerals, teaching schoolchildren, blessing
hospital patients, running missions and more. On Easter and Christmas, some
parishes in Southwest Florida have a half-dozen
or more Masses, often simultaneously on church campuses, to accommodate
residents, tourists and seasonal residents.
"I don't know of any bishop who believes he has too many
priests," said the Rev. John Guthrie, associate director for the
secretariat of clergy, consecrated life and vocations with the U.S. Conference
of Catholic Bishops.
Nationally, Guthrie said, the ratio of priests to parishioners
in 1950 was 1 to 652, but that climbed to 1 to 1,653 by 2010. That doesn't
account for the millions of Catholics who are not registered with a parish or
regularly attend services.
"There are fewer of us doing more and more work,"
Guthrie said.
When schoolteachers are sick or on vacation, a principal finds
substitute teachers. The same holds true for a church when priests are needed.
A long-term vacancy at school, however, poses more serious
problems: Who will teach students, and will their education suffer because of
instability and inconsistency? The same questions arise for a parish without a
resident priest: Who will provide spiritual guidance and manage the parish? In
some cases, the answer is no one.
"There are places where they only hold Mass once a month
because that's the only time you can get a priest," Gautier said.
The recent sex abuse scandals certainly had an impact on the
priesthood, damaging the reputation of priests and possibly keeping some men
from considering the priesthood.
"Did the scandals hurt? Yes they did," said the Rev.
Cory Mayer, vocations director for the Diocese of Venice and parish
administrator at Ave Maria. "There were victims, and justice needs to be
served. But the good young men see the scandal wasn't part of the church or its
teachings."
The Rev. Rafal Ligenza, parochial vicar at St. William Parish in
Naples, was raised in Poland, the homeland of Pope John
Paul II. Consequently, priests are among the most-respected professions for
Polish boys deciding what to do with their lives.
"Here, it's being a doctor," said Ligenza, 32.
"There, it was being a priest."
Mayer counsels youth and adults who are contemplating possible
roles within the church. The first and most important trait he seeks is a deep
love for God. Beyond that, a potential priest must be willing to give himself
to Christ, realize he will forever serve the church and be humble.
"The worst thing we can have is an arrogant priest,"
Mayer said.
Beyond established religions with large, permanent church
buildings are a growing number of unofficial or unsanctioned religious
gatherings in parks, strip malls, beaches and schools.
Deborah Rose-Milavec, executive director of Ohio-based
FutureChurch, said people still want to pray and religious leaders still want
to lead a congregation, but the Vatican
has steadfastly remained traditional and expressed no interest in allowing
married or female priests.
"Church is happening, and it will continue to happen,"
Rose-Milavec said. "The big question is how will the official church
respond."
FutureChurch's position is that the Vatican should consider married men
and all women for leadership positions, including ordination.
"They could be brought into roles where they aren't just
making coffee, but making decisions," Rose-Milavec said of women.
Pope Francis is at least willing to listen. In October, an advisory
board of bishops will gather in Rome
for a summit titled "The Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context
of Evangelization." There, Catholic leaders could discuss the issues of
marriage and women's roles within the Church, although change is not considered
imminent.
Fort Myers resident Gerry Mater,
74, said he's not opposed to the Vatican opening the priesthood to a
larger group.
"It's the work of the Holy Spirit that will decide that for
us," he said.
Making headlines again with some frank talk, a
couple months ago Pope Francis took on the clericalism of some priests who are
more concerned with their careers then serving people. This was not just about
clergy with aspirations to Vatican posts or episcopal positions, but also
parish priests set on becoming kings of their own parish fiefdoms.
Though widely reported, this is an article from the
New York Daily News.
VATICAN CITY — Pope
Francis has said men studying for the Roman Catholic priesthood should be
properly trained or the Church could risk "creating little monsters"
more concerned with their careers than serving people.
In comments made in November but only
published on Friday, Francis also said priests should leave their comfort zone
and get out among people on the margins of society, otherwise they may turn
into "abstract ideologists".
The Italian Jesuit journal Civilta Cattolica
published an exclusive text of the comments, made in a three-hour, closed-door
meeting the Argentinian-born pontiff had in late November with heads of orders
of priests from around the world.
"Formation (of future priests) is a work
of art, not a police action. We must form their hearts. Otherwise we are
creating little monsters. And then these little monsters mould the people of
God. This really gives me goose bumps," he said.
Since his election in 2013 as the first
non-European pope in 1,300 years, Francis has been prodding priests, nuns and
bishops to think less about their careers in the Church and to listen more to
the needs of ordinary Catholics, especially the poor.
Taking over an institution reeling from child
sex abuse, financial and other scandals and losing members to other religions,
Francis has tried to refocus on the basic Christian teachings of compassion,
simplicity and humility.
His conversation with the members of the
Union of Superiors General is important because they will transmit his wishes
directly to priests in their religious orders around the world.
Francis said men should not enter the
priesthood to seek a comfortable life or to rise up the clerical career ladder.
"The ghost to fight against is the image
of religious life understood as an escape or hiding place in face of an
'external' difficult and complex world," he told them.
He made a brief, indirect reference to the
sexual abuse crisis, saying a man who has been asked to leave one seminary
should not be admitted to another easily.
Francis said priests had to have "real
contact with the poor" and other marginalized members of society.
"This is really very important to me:
the need to become acquainted with reality by experience, to spend time walking
on the periphery in order really to become acquainted with the reality and
life-experiences of people," he told them.
"If this does not happen we then run the
risk of being abstract ideologists or fundamentalists, which is not
healthy."
The leader of the world's 1.2 billion Roman
Catholics has set a new tone in the Vatican, rejecting the lush papal residence
his predecessors used and opting for a small suite in a Vatican guest house,
where he eats in the common dining hall.
Civilta Cattolica is the same periodical that
ran a landmark interview with Francis in September in which he said the Church
must shake off an obsession with teachings on abortion, contraception and
homosexuality and become more merciful.
Francis, known as the "slum bishop"
in Argentina because of his work among the poor, said reaching out to
marginalized people was "the most concrete way of imitating Jesus". His own first visits after moving to the
Vatican were to a jail for juveniles and to the southern Italian island of
Lampedusa to pay tribute to impoverished immigrants who have died trying to get
to Europe.
Francis has said several times since his
election that he feels the Vatican is too self-centered and needs to change.
A committee of eight cardinals from around
the world that he has appointed to advise him on how to reform the central
Vatican administration, know as the Curia, is due to submit its recommendation.
WEORC began as an association of priests, religious women and men who have moved from full time ministry in the Church to other work. They act as a network to assist others making a similar transition. Currently we support a more inclusive Church. WEORC is the old English form of the word “work”.
