Changing Pastors -- a lot

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RosalieM

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Our pastor of 25 years left a year ago. The new pastor has informed us that he is leaving in two weeks, and there will be a temporary pastor for six months. Then another one who was formerly with his parish for 14 years will take over.

I’m thinking that I have to minimize the importance of a pastor; and yet this is nearly impossible. We were without so many things we were used to with the recent pastor. How does the decision get made as to assignment of a parish pastor? And should I be placing so much importance on the pastor? I know it will influence the way things are done and quite possibly the choir music. I am in the choir and we did actually were doing guess work on Good Friday with the recent pastor. I’m apprehensive.

Any comments will help.
 
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The new school of thinking is to move priests around far more often.

Every year or two for Administrators and every 5 -10 years for Pastors. It is very rare around here for a pastor to stay longer than 5 years.

This is something that the Bishops feel is best for us.
 
I understand the concept of not getting attached. But this last pastor was supposed to be with us for six years – so it was said.
 
Likely your priest had a special skill set that was very much needed in another parish.
 
In general, a pastor is assigned for six years and can renew for another six. Canon Law speaks to the necessity of having stability with the pastor. However from time to time a pastor’s personal situation does make it so that he needs to leave early such as what you are experiencing now.

The person filling in for a six month period will not be your pastor, he will be a priest who is administering the parish in the absence of a pastor.

In general, we should not put too much emphasis on a pastor. But a parish should expect to have a pastor for at least six years. Exceptions to this will be in places with shortages of priests, which may necessitate parochial administrators rather than pastors.
 
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Contrary to what some have implied here, there is no canonical requirement, other than a fair degree of stability. Some bishops follow the current trend of six-year terms, while others do not. In my archdiocese there are a number of 15- and 20-year pastors. In my former archdiocese, the same pastor who confirmed me 34 years ago is still pastor of the same parish. And parishes staffed by religious orders or priestly societies usually have their pastors named by the order, with formal approval by the bishop, but the order makes the determination, in most cases. So actual mileage varies greatly.
 
In the United States, the bishop’s conference adopted the 6/12 year rotation as policy. The policy does not preclude, however, the prior custom which was an indefinite appointment for a pastor when circumstances warrant.
 
Are they appointed as Pastor or Administrator? Administrators tend to stay a shorter time.

Because our Bishop is recruiting more and more foreign religious priests he’s appointing more and more administrators rather than pastors because those priests could be recalled by their superiors at the drop of a hat.
 
OldCAFMember said:
Contrary to what some have implied here, there is no canonical requirement, other than a fair degree of stability. Some bishops follow the current trend of six-year terms, while others do not.
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Well actually, the US bishop’s conference issued a complementary norm for canon 522, which has force of law:

http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-te...s/canon-522-stability-of-office-of-pastor.cfm

In it, the six year term is the norm with the bishop able to renew another six year term for the pastor. The complementary norm leaves the option of indefinite assignment in place.
 
1ke said:
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OldCAFMember:
Contrary to what some have implied here, there is no canonical requirement, other than a fair degree of stability. Some bishops follow the current trend of six-year terms, while others do not.
Click to expand...
Well actually, the US bishop’s conference issued a complementary norm for canon 522, which has force of law:

http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-te...s/canon-522-stability-of-office-of-pastor.cfm

In it, the six year term is the norm with the bishop able to renew another six year term for the pastor. The complementary norm leaves the option of indefinite assignment in place.
Click to expand...
Of course if the priest wants out of a specific parish early the bishop will listen to his reasons and may very well let him go. I’ve seen that happen in my home parish where the last priest had been pastor for over 30 years and the next one left early because he was under attack.
 
I like a steady, year by year, faithful Pastor.
It’s like an old school police officer - who walks the beat.
 
I feel like this is at least partly to do with a shortage of priests and parishes requiring different skillsets. With so few to choose from, priests have to be assigned to where they can do the greatest good. When I was much younger, my parish and our sister parish were in disarray, both in infrastructure and community. We received a young and vibrant priest who came in and reinvigorated both, was able to get a new Church built halfway between the two, combined the parishes, and got the community alive again. After six or so years he moved on to another community where the diocese felt he could do something similar.

It’s tough, and my parish was lucky, but with so few priests it’s less effective overall to have permancy in a single parish.
 
I think this may have happened…the priest may very well have been under attack.

And to answer another post…the six-month assignment is an administrator. The priest who is leaving after one year is the pastor.

I guess the lack of stability is what concerns me most.

We have two retired priests in residence, plus one parochial vicar. I don’t see a shortage. There used to be one more who recently left.
 
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Sometimes parishes are on the losing side of the shuffle. We lived within walking distance of a parish that had its priest moved. A replacement was finally installed nearly two years later. There were no marriages, no rcia, no comfirmations, zip, during that time. Sadly it was then that my husband wanted to become a Catholic. He saw a very badly run parish with obviously no one really in charge. There was a visiting priest for mass. But no appointments for any sacraments were allowed. We were in limbo.
 
My guess is that either the “new pastor” didn’t work out for some reason, or he has some other issue. Leaving after just a year in the pastor position doesn’t seem normal. I wish you the best with your upcoming new permanent pastor. Hopefully he will stick around longer and maybe you can discuss with him some of the things you would like to see return to your parish.
 
I know there were people who didn’t like the departing pastor. One said “He’s too low-key”. Others thought his homilies were lengthy and that he would go off on tangents. I liked him.
 
My parish is two blocks from where I live. Our rcia just retired and there’s no replacement yet.
 
I would hope that the Church is flexible in the assignment of priests. Sometimes one priest is not a good fit for a specific parish. There is something to be said for continuity, but different priest bring their own style and way of doing things.
 
Should priests be assigned to parishes where they grew up? Can you go home?
 
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