Are diocesan priests supposed to change parishes?

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Bataar

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I was under the impression that it was a requirement for diocesan priests to frequently change parishes. Is that just a recommended practice? I just realized that the pastor at our local cathedral has been the pastor there for 30 years. It seemed odd.
 
It depends on the diocese. A majority of dioceses do 6-year terms, with an option for renewal to another 6.
Others kept the old system where a priest was with a parish essentially for his whole life, unless problems arose.
 
A diocesan priest has to be always available to move to another parish, if that’s what the bishop wants. But it’s the bishop who decides what policy he will follow – moving priests around from time to time or leaving them in one place for as long as possible, or any other formula. In most dioceses, I believe, the usual practice is to avoid frequent moves.
 
Bataar said:
I was under the impression that it was a requirement for diocesan priests to frequently change parishes.
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No, in fact it is the opposite when the priest is the pastor.

Now, for assistants, yes, they do move every few years especially newly ordained priests who move around to be paired with different experienced priests to learn various aspects of parish, parochial school, or curia administration.

From canon law, as it pertains to pastors: _

Can. 522 A pastor must possess stability and therefore is to be appointed for an indefinite period of time. The diocesan bishop can appoint him only for a specific period if the conference of bishops has permitted this by a decree._
Bataar said:
I just realized that the pastor at our local cathedral has been the pastor there for 30 years. It seemed odd.
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Not odd. Many parishes have long time pastors.

The complementary norm enacted by the USCCB and confirmed by the Holy See for the US diocese is:

Final Decree: Individual ordinaries may appoint pastors to a six year term of office. The possibility of renewing this term is left to the discretion of the diocesan bishop. The primary provision of canon 522 that pastors may be appointed for an indefinite period of time remains in force.

So, pastors are appointed for a minimum of a six year term and that can be renewed indefinitely.
 
westie said:
They serve where they serve at the pleasure of the Bishop.
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You’d think but actually not. At @1ke has noted above, Canon 522 makes it clear that unless they’re appointed for a fixed term, their appointment is indefinite - meaning that it’s very difficult to move them if they don’t want to go!
 
In my Diocese most pastors serve for six years with an option to stay for a second six year term unless the bishop decides to move them earlier. We had one pastor who remained in the same parish for 17 years but he is the exception to the rule.

Newly ordained priests are moved every year or two for three or four years and then assigned as pastor to a small parish or Newman Center.
 
In my diocese it used to be common for a pastor to serve many years, now it is usually one or two terms. If they are close to retirement, they can serve longer.
I could see exceptions, for instance if a priest speaks a language needed by the congregation, and others don’t.
The diocese has a maximum age of 75, for pastors. But they seem to be waiving it now and then, due to priest shortage.
 
I will readily acknowledge that this is the accepted way of thinking in the United States, and is the policy of the USCCB (I believe the norm in the US is a 6 or 7 year assignment, with the possibility of one renewal). But it is really a warped way of thinking, sometimes we all suffer from a normalization of deviancy. When our pastor is supposed to be our spiritual father, is responsible for guiding us to heaven, we think its best that he doesn’t get to know us too well? It really is crazy the more I think about it. On top of that, as your post alludes to, it seems to me to be downright cruel to priests. His parish is supposed to be his family. Oh, but every few years lets yank him away from his family and make him start his family life all over.

I think we should all revert back to the universal canon law, where a pastor assignment is considered permanent by default, and the Bishop is empowered to remove the pastor under the guidelines of canon law.
 
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I will add one more thought. The norm of moving priests from parish to parish leads to a careerism mentality among our clergy. Each time they are moved, they want to get the next plum assignment. That’s the way the system works. Better if they realize once they reach the level of being a pastor, they are likely to be there a long time, and the assignments as parochial vicars and assistant pastors are just preparation for this fullness of their calling.
 
We live in a poor, rural area that shares a priest with a larger parish. Our pastor stayed there for about 25 years. He was given the option to move several times. One of his previous jobs had been ministering to death row inmates on another continent— and he enjoyed the quietness of our area. So he was content to stay, and did so until he needed to retire for health reasons.

His first replacement was a local born-and-bred-in-the-diocese. A late-in-life vocation as well. English wasn’t his first language. He stayed for a year, before he was reassigned to a different parish where his linguistic skills were necessary.

The current replacement is another priest who also used to serve on another continent. I don’t know much about his story, except that someone once shot him in the head for being a priest. So his safety was probably a big part of it. I think he’s been with us for about two years now. The bishop also gave him the option of transferring after the first year— but he was content to stay for a second year.

One of the things I was taught in Museum class was that a Museum Director generally doesn’t want to stay more than 5 years in any one place. Because each Director has their own strengths and weaknesses. Five years is sufficient time to solve problems that have been left by previous administrators— but if you start staying for too long, things get stagnant in other areas, and the Museum suffers. It’s better to move on and let someone else have a chance at improving the things you neglected.

I loved our former pastor very much; he had plenty of strengths. But it was also obvious that the things he was weak about got neglected for 25 years. So I can appreciate the benefits of both sides— having that long-term continuity of service, versus having a wider variety of leadership over a period of time.
 
midori said:
One of the things I was taught in Museum class was that a Museum Director generally doesn’t want to stay more than 5 years in any one place. Because each Director has their own strengths and weaknesses. Five years is sufficient time to solve problems that have been left by previous administrators— but if you start staying for too long, things get stagnant in other areas, and the Museum suffers. It’s better to move on and let someone else have a chance at improving the things you neglected.
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Do we say that about our parents, our spouses? If we treat being a pastor as simply a career and not a vocation, if we consider our parish to community center as opposed to our home, your analogy works. IMO, your analogy should come across as ridiculous, unfortunately it sounds quite reasonable to all of us.
 
tafan2 said:
and is the policy of the USCCB (I believe the norm in the US is a 6 or 7 year assignment, with the possibility of one renewal).
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Actually the complementary norm says only that the bishop may appoint for a six year term, not that he has to. Canon 522 remains in force, so a US bishop may appoint a pastor indefinitely.

If the bishop does the six year appointment, reappointment is at the discretion of the bishop. The complementary norm does not say anything about only one reappointment or any sort of limit or maximum.
 
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Thank you for the correction. It does seem like most dioceses follow the complementary norm you give and that all of us have accepted it as proper.
 
tafan2 said:
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midori:
One of the things I was taught in Museum class was that a Museum Director generally doesn’t want to stay more than 5 years in any one place. Because each Director has their own strengths and weaknesses. Five years is sufficient time to solve problems that have been left by previous administrators— but if you start staying for too long, things get stagnant in other areas, and the Museum suffers. It’s better to move on and let someone else have a chance at improving the things you neglected.
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New post
Do we say that about our parents, our spouses? If we treat being a pastor as simply a career and not a vocation, if we consider our parish to community center as opposed to our home, your analogy works. IMO, your analogy should come across as ridiculous, unfortunately it sounds quite reasonable to all of us.
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A diocesan priest has his family as the people of God in that diocese. The tendency nowadays us to exalt the parish, and to regard the diocese as some distant bureaucracy, a necessary evil.

This is not the Catholic Church.

The priests i know who stayed in a parish for over 12 years did their best work in those first 12 years. When you get beyond 12 years, it’s hard to objectively evaluate any activity in the parish, because everything has his signature on it.

There tend to be no new ideas. A few people who were close to him tend to get lots of power.
 
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The pastor who received me into the Catholic Church in 1984 is still the pastor there. Been there since 1982.
 
InThePew said:
You’d think but actually not
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Actually that is not correct. Every cleric (even deacons) promise obedience to their bishop and his successors. Bishops can move priests at will, and often times need to. A six-year appointment is NO guarantee that the priest will remain at that parish for six years.

Issues occur all the time that necessitate a change earlier than the completion of a term as pastor. Bishops make changes they feel are best, and priests obey those changes.

The most common reason for this is when a priest at parish “A” needs to make an unexpected move (decline in health, accusation against him, promotion to bishop or some other need outside his diocese [seminary staff, nunciature, etc.]

When priest “A” moves, his replacement’s slot must be filled – often causing a domino effect that require several other priests to be shuffled around.
 
commenter said:
A diocesan priest has his family as the people of God in that diocese. The tendency nowadays us to exalt the parish, and to regard the diocese as some distant bureaucracy, a necessary evil.
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I am not trying to disregard the diocese or treat it as some distant bureaucracy.
commenter said:
The priests i know who stayed in a parish for over 12 years did their best work in those first 12 years. When you get beyond 12 years, it’s hard to objectively evaluate any activity in the parish, because everything has his signature on it.

There tend to be no new ideas. A few people who were close to him tend to get lots of power.
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The extent that this would occur is pure speculation, nothing more. Indeed, I would argue that short duration of assignments allows a few parishioners and staff members to gain more power than a indefinite period. We have staff members who have been here for 20 years, and it takes years before a pastor feels confident enough to exert much control at all for fear of upsetting to much of their support base. As for non-staff parishioners, my experience is that for the most part, those who serve in such capacities as finance councils, parish councils, etc tend to come and go. Rarely do many of them last longer than 5-10 years.

As for the no new ideas? I do not know where that comes from. I have been a father for 31 years, and I am still coming up with different approaches relative to raising the kids who are still at home.

Its all just the accepted way of thinking, but it is really wrong. Priests need to be close to people and families. Priests need to get to really know their parishioners.
 
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Diaconia said:
Actually that is not correct. Every cleric (even deacons) promise obedience to their bishop and his successors. Bishops can move priests at will, and often times need to. A six-year appointment is NO guarantee that the priest will remain at that parish for six years.
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This is an overstatement of fact. Bishops must have cause, as outlined in canon 1741 to remove a pastor. Those causes are rather broad, but it does restrict a Bishop from doing it simply “at will”. We had a pastor who was very popular and was moved to another parish 1 year after he was reappointed to a second term. Many parishioners were up in arms about it and wanted to go complain to the bishop. The pastor pointed out to them that it was his decision. The bishop asked him to go to the other parish, but made it clear to him it was his choice to stay in our parish. The bishop had no cause to remove him. He told me he moved out of a sense of obedience to the Bishop, he wanted to do what the Bishop desired. But it was still his choice.
 
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