Parish Leader

[7_Sorrows]

St. Matthew Catholic Church in Charlotte, North Carolina has more than 150 of their members involved in parish leadership.
stmatthewcatholic.org/ministries/for-parish-leaders

We have a parish director, who is not the priest, and a parish council.

 

[Rosebud77]

Here more and more of parish matters are handled by lay “secretaries” … reminds me of the UK drs receptionists who run the practice…

 

[Redd_Jackal]

Someone at Mass seems to be initiating applause, but I’m not certain that person has a title. We seem to have facilitators who try to compel others to to engage in various unpublished sung prayer and gestures during the Liturgy, but that’s just an observation.

 

[CB_Catholic]

Not so. This is happening in a diocese where I live.

livingbreadradio.com/2017/02/parish-leader-alternative-form-parish-leadership/

This same thing was printed in our bulletin this week concerning Parish Leaders. We are in the same diocese. This will not affect our parish, but it may affect others in the area.

 

[otjm]

Is there a parish leader who is in charge of a Catholic church in your diocese?

Yes - he is called the Archbishop. And he has an assistant - a bishop, plus a retired bishop and retired archbishop.

 

[CyrilSebastian]

This same thing was printed in our bulletin this week concerning Parish Leaders. We are in the same diocese. This will not affect our parish, but it may affect others in the area.

This same thing was included as an insert in the bulletin where a relative has attended Mass. Some people are very angry.

 

[Phemie]

This same thing was included as an insert in the bulletin where a relative has attended Mass. Some people are very angry.

We’ve had this in our diocese for almost two decades. Right now it’s only one parish but at one point we had that in three or four parishes. A few led by religious sisters and one by a non-religious lay person.

 

[CB_Catholic]

This same thing was included as an insert in the bulletin where a relative has attended Mass. Some people are very angry.

I can’t be angry at this because there just are not enough priests to go around, and it’s going to get worse. I would rather have the priests freed up to take care of the spiritual and sacramental needs of the parishioners. They just can’t be everywhere at all times.

 

[Solomonson]

I can’t be angry at this because** there just are not enough priests to go around, and it’s going to get worse.** I would rather have the priests freed up to take care of the spiritual and sacramental needs of the parishioners. They just can’t be everywhere at all times.

That’s not true in my diocese. I wonder where that belief came from? The imagined has become real, and with its realization a whole cart full of agendas.

 

[otjm]

That’s not true in my diocese. I wonder where that belief came from? The imagined has become real, and with its realization a whole cart full of agendas.

From CARA:

2016 statistics:

Total Diocesan Priests: 25,760
Percentage of diocesan priests active in ministry: 63% (16, 229)
Total parishes: 17,223
Parishes without a resident priest pastor: 3,449
Active diocesan priests per parish: 1.0
Canon 517.2 parishes where a bishop has entrusted the pastoral care of the parish to a deacon or some other person: 379

Belief? No, fact.

Cart full of agendas? No, reality.

 

[poche]

We have a self appointed “pastor’s assistant” who instructs the office staff what to do. Anyone who wants to talk to our priest has to go through her. Why our priest tolerates her, I don’t know.

This type of situation is something that Pope Francis strongly condemned.

 

[CB_Catholic]

This type of situation is something that Pope Francis strongly condemned.

And it is far from what a Parish Leader is. Post #11 is the link to our diocesan newspaper in which our Bishop addresses and defines this. There just aren’t enough priests and it will be this way in the foreseeable future. We have a large percentage of priests who have been ordained 40, 50, 60 years, many working still past retirement age, and few seminarians to replace those who retire or die. And we have had a substantial # of deaths in the past few years, even of some younger priests.

 

[Solomonson]

This whole issue of “not enough priests” is so disquieting. Some dioceses (like my own) have plenty of priests, others do not. Why is that? I don’t think it’s because God stopped giving men vocations to the priesthood in certain regions of the country.

I think it has to do with the caliber of the local ordinary and the order of importance given (and resources applied) to encouraging priestly vocations. I think one of the prime indicators is how the concept of non-priestly “parish leaders” are embraced (or rejected) by different dioceses.

Embrace them strongly enough and the need for priests is diminished in the eyes of many. I am sure there are millions of Catholics in this world who would be upset at an abundance of priests because in their eyes it potentially displaces laymen and laywomen (particularly the latter) from the sanctuary.

That need is further eroded in these same peoples’ eye when laypersons are bestowed titles like “Pastoral Life Director.”

 

[CyrilSebastian]

The duties of a priest should be done by a priest.

 

[Solomonson]

The absolute worst time I can recall in my parish in the past 20+ years was a 2 year period where we had a lay “pastoral associate” in place of a pastor. That two years did a number on my parish. I have no idea why we didn’t have a pastor – we’re one of the biggest parishes in the entire diocese and there have always been enough priests to go around.

When our new bishop arrived, this “pastoral associate” was released from employment and we received a new pastor.

The USCCB recognizing “lay ecclesial ministers” is also a huge misstep in my opinion.

 

[Rosebud77]

That’s not true in my diocese. I wonder where that belief came from? The imagined has become real, and with its realization a whole cart full of agendas.

That is so here in rural Ireland. The parish priest here has four scattered communities in his care,five churches. And on most parish websites now, it will be lay folk, especially women, running the day to day parish matters.

I needed to ask the Priest here something and it was a lay secretary who dealt with it .

With weekly mass, funerals etc?

 

[Solomonson]

That is so here in rural Ireland. The parish priest here has four scattered communities in his care,five churches. And on most parish websites now, it will be lay folk, especially women, running the day to day parish matters.

I needed to ask the Priest here something and it was a lay secretary who dealt with it .

With weekly mass, funerals etc?

I think to a large degree (at least in the US), this “shortage of priests” was intentional or at least avoidable. When things started to change I think they did so because the priesthood began being viewed differently by the laity. This change was largely a product of the work (or apathy) of bishops.

As this artificially-induced shortage grew, the focus in many dioceses seems to have been not on grooming vocations to the priesthood already given to men by God, but to find alternative “workarounds” like the ones you mentioned. These workarounds have greatly exacerbated the problem.

 

[CyrilSebastian]

This same thing was included as an insert in the bulletin where a relative has attended Mass. Some people are very angry.

Part of the same information about the Parish Leader was included in an insert in Sunday’s bulletin. Is not one time enough?

 

[Phemie]

Part of the same information about the Parish Leader was included in an insert in Sunday’s bulletin. Is not one time enough?

Believe me, no, one time is not enough to explain something so important. First you want to reach as many as possible then you want them to read it until they understand it. That may mean once for many but for others it may mean reiterating it several times.

 

[CyrilSebastian]

Some people are extremely fed up with the constant inserts about Parish Leader.