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How Are We Dealing With the Priest Shortage
Over the last 10 months we have read much in our diocesan newspaper about the "lay ministry". Usually this is accompanied by alarming statistics about how few priests we have. In the last installment, entitled "Will we be the Last Generation to Believe?", by Fr. Patrick Ryan, an assistant professor of Religious Studies and coordinator of Ministry Formation at the very liberal Brescia University, we read about three small rural parishes in our diocese that are currently without a pastor. Since losing their pastor to illness they have depended largely on the efforts of a dedicated parishioner who, being employed as a pastoral and youth "minister" at these parishes, has assumed the unenviable task of coordinating CCD, parish retreats, sacramental preparation for baptism, First Communion, Confession, and Confirmation, conducting marriage rehearsals, scheduling priests for Masses, and conducting daily Communion services in the absence of a priest. We were once again reminded that, besides praying for vocations, we must train the laity to do all they can in leadership positions within their parishes to help in the absence of a parish priest. In promoting lay ministry training at Brescia, Fr. Ryan mentions students who are "answering God's and the Church's call to ministry in the contemporary Church". I noted with some interest that the very first article in the now regular installments of "lay ministry" essays mentioned how acceptance of "lay ministers" varied among the faithful. It mentioned how "lay ministry" was gaining acceptance in the "contemporary Church" and that "diocesan and parish leaders must support such work if Catholics are to experience ministry by lay people". One article called "Preparing for the Future", again by Fr. Ryan, tells us in it's opening paragraph that in the last 33 years the number of Catholics in this country increased by 33% while the number of priests and religious declined by 46%. The article goes on to say how important it is to develop lay leadership, train people for full-time and volunteer positions in the "structures of the Church", and "explore ways to empower marketplace ministries". Another article tells us that our diocese is "blessed" with "more than 475 catechists in our 79 parishes". In most of these articles nothing is mentioned about promoting vocations to the priesthood. The last one does urge us to pray for vocations and encourage men and women to consider the "House of Discernment" at Brescia, to help discern whether or not they have a vocation. I would be very interested to see what the "House of Discernment" does exactly to help them decide. The author also writes that our bishop is "doing his best". Is he? Our diocesan obsession with the lay ministry would seem to have it's origins in our bishop's previous assignment in the Minnesota diocese of New Ulm under the now retired Bishop Raymond Lucker. Bishop Lucker was a proud member and enthusiastic supporter of the radically dissident group "Call to Action" who regularly agitate for women's ordination, married priests, liturgies where anything goes, inclusive translations of Sacred Texts that remove all references to mankind or God the Father, acceptance and affirmation of gay and lesbian lifestyles, and the usual feminist/liberal causes. An article in "Today's Parish" magazine called "Pioneers in the Parish: Making History in Minnesota" from way back in September, 1985, might give a clue as to where we could be headed. Kay Fernholz, a "sister" from the "School Sisters of Notre Dame", was asked by the priest/personnel board of the diocese of New Ulm to be pastoral administrator of a parish in Wanda, Minnesota. Like some parishes in our own diocese right now, this parish had no resident priest. "Sister Kay" was to be in a "new kind of ministerial leadership". She was to "co-minister" the parish with the Vicar General of the Diocese, a Fr. John McRaith, future bishop of the Diocese of Owensboro. According to Fernholz, Fr. McRaith's role would simply be liturgist and minister of the Sacraments. He also explained to the parish that "Kay is our leader… in fact, here in this parish, she is my boss." Fernholz goes on to explain how, at first, she "let Fr. John take the lead at liturgical services while I joined the choir in the loft." While doing so she eventually asked herself why she was "hesitating to assist in presiding over the communal sharing of bread and wine by this priestly people." So, responding to what she called a "difficulty", she and Fr. John began to "share liturgical leadership". She began to walk with Fr. John in the entrance procession and "took my place in the sanctuary during the eucharistic (sic) celebration." Fearing that she would fall into what she called a "power model that had become traditional in the church (sic)", she realized that she needed to share these gifts with the people. Before long, decisions were being made by "parish groups" where Fernholz functioned as merely a "support person." Eventually, she and Fr. John began to share other duties. Some of these consisted of pouring the baptismal water with Fr. John and pronouncing the words with him at baptisms, giving homilies at wedding Masses (she mentioned how the participants frequency commented how moved they were to see and man and a woman presiding together for a wedding), and apparently co-administering the sacrament of anointing and sharing in a funeral mass on one occasion before Fr. John was appointed Bishop of Owensboro, Kentucky. How far will the "lay ministry" go in this diocese? Are we being slowly conditioned for the introduction of this type of "pastoral administrator" in our own parishes here in Western Kentucky? Is this how our diocese is preparing to deal with the priest shortage... a shortage that was acute in our bishop's previous diocese as far back as 1985? How widespread is the vocations shortage? Is it felt by everyone? According to the Zenit News Agency, not everyone is experiencing a shortage of priests. A news article dated 1/7/2002 reported that a summit meeting of Catholic vocations leaders in North America will be held in Montreal this spring to find new ways to attract people to the priesthood and religious life. The article mentions that a vocations document being planned for release at this meeting has stirred protests among some because it fails to mention success stories of dioceses and congregations that have been attracting vocations. It says, in part, that the shortage of vocations "remains evident in the places and spaces waiting for candidates to the priesthood and consecrated life. Veritably, no diocese and no religious community and no secular institute in North America has more candidates than can be comfortably accommodated or hospitably welcomed." This has raised eyebrows with a few. One congregation in Nashville, TN, the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia has 200 sisters and has had to put some on sleeping bags until more living space can be built. A study by the Catholic Research Center listed 25 religious communities that are rapidly growing and 100 new ones awaiting Church approval. Among older communities, 23% increased their membership between 1966 and 1999. Some orders and communities that are experiencing remarkable growth include the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter which is building a new seminary in Lincoln, Nebraska, the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, the Legionaries of Christ based in Cheshire, Connecticut; the Sisters of Mary Mother of the Eucharist in Ann Arbor, Michigan; the Sisters of St. Francis in Alton, Illinois; and our own Fathers of Mercy in South Union, Kentucky. Archbishop Elden Curtiss of Omaha, Nebraska, who played a role in the dismissal in April, 1995, of a dissident female theologian from St. Meinrad Seminary, the alma mater of most of our diocesan priests, told the National Catholic Register that he found the document's statement "confusing, oddly worded, and ambiguous." He mentioned a few seminaries that are actually "crowded", including Mount St. Mary's in Emmitsburg, Maryland; the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio; and the Mount Angel Seminary in St. Benedict, Oregon. As to his own diocese of 214,000 Catholics, Archibishop Curtiss said, "I can't say there's a shortage." Archbishop Curtiss also said that young men and women respond to a vocation when they are confident that they can serve in a diocese or community that is "solid and with the Church." In an article in his diocesan newspaper, the Archbishop wrote: "Young people do not want to commit themselves to dioceses or communities that permit or simply ignore dissent from Church doctrine. They do not want to be associated with people who are angry at the Church's leadership or reject magisterial teaching. They do not want to be battered by agendas that are not the Church's and radical movements that disparage their desire to be priests, religious or loyal lay leaders in the Church." The Zenit article listed other dioceses doing well with priestly vocations including Atlanta, Georgia; Denver, Colorado; Peoria, Illinois; Fall River, Massachusetts; Arlington, Virginia; Newark, New Jersey; Bridgeport, Connecticut; Charlotte, North Carolina; Lansing, Michigan; Lincoln, Nebraska; and Rockford, Illinois. There is no mention of these dioceses in the working document for the upcoming meeting in Montreal... a meeting with a purpose, ostensibly, to figure out how to attract more vocations to the priesthood and religious life. Go figure. It is no coincidence that a vast majority of the religious communities and dioceses experiencing growth are more traditional, orthodox, and solidly with the Church and the Pope in all matters. So, what do we need to do? Do we need to continue to promote lay ministry and train "lay people" to do the jobs of our priests, or do we need to insist that our bishop, priests, and religious in our diocese adhere to and be one with the Church in all matters of faith, discipline, and liturgy? In a homily I heard recently a priest mentioned that vocations crisis was due to a "crisis of faith": "There is even something more simpler about our vocations crisis. About six years ago Our Sunday Visitor did a major survey asking practicing Catholics, that is Catholics who go to Mass every Sunday, whether or not they believed in the Real Presence of Our Lord in the Holy Eucharist, that is, whether or not Jesus is present, Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, in the tabernacle. Do you know what they found? They found in their survey that only 30% of practicing Catholics agreed with the Church's teaching, that Jesus is truly present in the tabernacle. Thirty percent! I remember hearing this and saying, 'You gotta be kidding. What kinds of Catholics did they ask? They couldn't have asked anybody who knew anything! It must have been Larry, Moe, and Curly who they asked!' I was just shocked. They couldn't have asked a Catholic. But I've been a priest now for three years and I've been to many churches and I can say I now believe the survey because I've seen the way people come to receive Holy Communion."So what is the solution? We can start by following faithfully the principles in Liturgiam Authenticam and undo the damage done to the Sacred Liturgy over the past generation. Not only would Mass attendance rebound but non-Catholics would be drawn by the beauty of a properly done Mass, belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist would be restored and vocations to the priesthood would increase. Our Diocesan Office of Worship, in a recent newsletter, stated that the beauty was not to be found in the liturgy but in the "assembly who celebrate it". This is absurd. Until we stop celebrating ourselves and return to some reverence for the Eucharist and attention to liturgical law, parishes in the Diocese of Owensboro will continue to flounder and spiral toward extinction. The facts speak for themselves. For the most part, dioceses that promote or allow dissent to run rampant are suffering most acutely from the priest shortage (New Ulm apparently as early as 1985) and good orthodox dioceses that require accountability to the Church magisterium, adherence to liturgical law, have a love for the Holy Eucharist, and care about the spiritual formation of the laity are flourishing. The most disturbing part is that our bishop, some of his priests, and more than a few Catholics in our diocese don't seem to recognize it, don't believe it, or won't admit it. Fr. Ryan, in his latest article asks, "Will we be the last generation to believe?" Will we? ...or are we already a generation who doesn't believe? "One advantage of the shortage of priests and religious has been the necessity for greater involvement of the laity in the total operation of schools and parishes."
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