U.S. Catholic bishops issue guidelines for lay workers

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U.S. Catholic bishops issue guidelines for lay workers

WASHINGTON --The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops took a big step Tuesday to acknowledge and deal with one of the church’s nagging problems: the growing shortage of priests.

The bishops approved new rules and expectations for the American church’s 30,632 “lay ecclesial ministers,” many of whom are filling tasks that used to be exclusively assigned to clergy. In some parishes, for instance, they conduct weddings and baptisms.

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…so let us just pile more problems onto the heap…:banghead:
 
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contemplative:
“lay ecclesial ministers,” many of whom are filling tasks that used to be exclusively assigned to clergy. In some parishes, for instance, they conduct weddings and baptisms.

Read more
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as usual, the media has it wrong, no lay minister has the right or faculty to witness weddings or conduct baptisms, except in possibly the most extreme conditions of mission territory, which does not describe the US. Even in such places the individual, usually a catechist specifically trained for the task, must be commissioned by the bishop for the time, place and situation, and the wedding or baptism must be officially blessed and recorded by the priest the next time he comes.

the story is probably referring to the fact that deacons, who are ordained, not lay, have taken over these responsibilities in many placed.

just visited DD’s parish in another state, one historically wihtout a significant Catholic population until recently, and heard to exhortations from the pulpit on the priest shortage, and saw a newspaper article on same. this in her parish of 5000 families with 3 priests and 5 weekend Masses.
 
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contemplative:
…so let us just pile more problems onto the heap…:banghead:
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Contemplative, do you have more insight in to what this means?
The bishops approved new rules and expectations for the American church’s 30,632 “lay ecclesial ministers,” many of whom are filling tasks that used to be exclusively assigned to clergy. In some parishes, for instance, they conduct weddings and baptisms.
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If the **new rules and expectations ** are items that will reduce abuses, why do you think it is piling more problems onto the heap? Maybe it calls for the recruitment of more Permanent Deacons?

I think we need to be realistic that the Priest shortage is real. Granted, there has been a new emphasis on vocations and we are seeing evidence of success. However, in addition to the fact it takes years for a seminarian to be a Priest and even more time for him to be ready to be a Pastor, we have to remember that this problem wasn’t created in a day and will take time to fix.

I live in a rural diocese. We have a number of Priests that serve as many as four parishes, sometimes separated by as much as 75 miles. In order for these good faithful Catholics to fully enjoy a semblance of a Catholic life, we have to depend on lay ministers or female members of religious orders. We are coming up on winter and sometimes weather prevents the Priest from making his Sunday rounds. People show up for Mass and the Eucharist. We have to have ways for them to participate.

I’m all for the Bishops proactively ending the abuses that so many people experience. But we have to be careful not to throw out the baby with the bathwater. Our diocese is blessed with a great growth in vocations and over the next few years, we will have a net gain of nearly 5% of the number of Priests (after retirements). This will allow some of these rural parishes to get Priests. In the meantime, in some cases when the Priest can’t make all the parishes on Sunday, as I understand it, they operate w/ a Permanent Deacon who conducts Communion Services on Sunday. I think in some cases these Services are conducted by a nun. It isn’t ideal obviously but these people need to have some access to the Eucharist, they have children in need of catechesis, and they need to have the benefit of a parish community.
 
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puzzleannie:
as usual, the media has it wrong, no lay minister has the right or faculty to witness weddings or conduct baptisms, except in possibly the most extreme conditions of mission territory, which does not describe the US.
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I hope you are correct…that the media is wrong. I see nothing of this on the US Bishop’s website yet.
 
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Brad:
No priests, no Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ.
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Precisely

I can’t help wonder if I actually belong to the Church of US Bishops.
 
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contemplative:
Precisely

I can’t help wonder if I actually belong to the Church of US Bishops.
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I know that I do not. It is a shame that it takes so much work to draw the distinctions but it is necessary.
 
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contemplative:
New York Times has this article
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Considering that the media misrepresents the Church nearly every time, I’ll not assume they have this correct. Puzzle gets it right regarding permanent deacons (who are ordained) as the media universally refers to them as laity while equating nuns and brothers as ordained.

I think we need to wait for something from a more reliable source.

Regarding Brad’s comment about “No Priests, no Eucharist.” I assume you are aware that in Communion Services, the bread and wine is concecrated in a Mass by a Priest and is in some cases transported properly in a ciborium to the church or retained in the Tabernacle for these Communion Services. Conceptually, a Communion Service is similar to lay ministers who deliver the Eucharist to the home bound and sick outside of a Mass. However, a Communion Service also includes prayers, scripture readings and a lesson on the readings.
 
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Orionthehunter:
.

Regarding Brad’s comment about “No Priests, no Eucharist.” I assume you are aware that in Communion Services, the bread and wine is concecrated in a Mass by a Priest and is in some cases transported properly in a ciborium to the church or retained in the Tabernacle for these Communion Services. Conceptually, a Communion Service is similar to lay ministers who deliver the Eucharist to the home bound and sick outside of a Mass. However, a Communion Service also includes prayers, scripture readings and a lesson on the readings.
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I understand this. However, the purposeful and almost celebratory movement of some dioceses to a model based on priestless parishes and less masses will ultimately lead us to less access to the validly consecrated Eucharist if this attitude is not turned around.

There are many alternatives to the models being considered and many plans to increase vocations that are not even being drawn up, let alone implemented.

Further, communion services are ONLY to be attended if it is impossible to attend a Mass in the area and they are NEVER to be offered at a church that also is celebrating mass in the same day. Most dioceses, in their current state, are not in a position where the laity’s only option should be a communion service in a given day. The restrictions I laid out are from

Redemptionis Sacramentum
 
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contemplative:
Old news
November 1st

It is likely they will release the ‘lastest’ after the conclusion of their meeting which actually ends today - Nov. 17.
The we will have more details.
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Contemplative, I think you should remove your “thumbs down” from the thread if possible. We should be celebrating that the Church is addressing the problems associated with these lay ministries as in youth minister, religious ed directors, lay administrators, etc.
 
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Orionthehunter:
Contemplative, I think you should remove your “thumbs down” from the thread if possible. We should be celebrating that the Church is addressing the problems associated with these lay ministries as in youth minister, religious ed directors, lay administrators, etc.
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The problems associated with lay ministers?
Again try very carefully reading through Karl Keating’s E-Letter of October 25, 2005

One thing I have failed to understand the past several years is what has happened to the genuine person who volunteers? Since when must people be ‘hired’ to do what was always volunteered. Volunteers in many parishes today do nothing more than drop an $envelope$ in the basket and bring food dishes to pass and very often don’t even ‘clean up’ because someone is ‘hired’ to do that too!

When and why did parish life slip into a model of a small business?
 
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contemplative:
The problems associated with lay ministers?
Again try very carefully reading through Karl Keating’s E-Letter of October 25, 2005

One thing I have failed to understand the past several years is what has happened to the genuine person who volunteers? Since when must people be ‘hired’ to do what was always volunteered. Volunteers in many parishes do nothing more than bring dishes to pass and very often don’t even ‘clean up’ because someone is ‘hired’ to do that too!

When and why did parish life slip into a model of a small business?
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Nothing. However, depending on the size of the parish, there is a need to have a paid Religious Ed Director and Youth Minister. My parish has 1,000 families that includes almost 700 kids K-12 plus an elementary school. As someone who is a volunteer for both RCIA and teaches CCD, I can absolutely assure you that we need to have both paid persons on staff. We need them to assist us volunteers w/ curriculum, coordinating and planning events, and a multitude of other activities. If what they did was left to volunteers, we’d have no volunteers and chaos. We need their guidance and now we see the USCCB is taking action to improve the quality of hteir guidance. Our parish has over 300 adults who actively volunteer in various roles (general handyman, cleaning the church, teaching, organizaing youth activities, and a multitude of other stuff) and we still need our paid employees to get the job done well.

However, when I read so many other threads about liturgical abuses, catechetical abuses, lay people running over the Priest w/ their private agendas, etc., I’m wondering what is the Church to do? Have only professionals or only volunteers? Then, what standards are we to have for our volunteers or professionals? What do we do when a parish of 750 families has an aged Priest of limited energy and physical stamina? Who teaches RCIA, CCD, raises money for the ministries, mows the lawn, runs the cemetary?

Like it or not the Church is a big business in the business of saving souls and delivering social services. Our faith requires that our Priests be centrally trained in seminaries. We operate schools, and colleges/universities and hospitals and hospices and counseling clinics and soup kitchens and nursing homes and retreat centers. Stewardship requires that it be done effectively and efficiently. We are not an isolated non-denom church w/ 250 families w/ no outside obligations or outlook.
 
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Orionthehunter:
My parish has 1,000 families that includes almost 700 kids K-12 plus an elementary school.
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While you claim the necessity to have ‘hired’ workers because of the sheer size of you parish, you must realize there are parishes…and I know of them…who abuse the use of ‘hired’ workers to achieve agendas such as ‘equal rights for women’ and more. Please read carefully here Karl Keating’s E-Letter of October 25, 2005

Hopefully the new guidelines issued by the Bishops will address these particular problems of abuse of authority.

The OP link did not seem very optimistic for me but as Puzzle pointed out the secular media never ‘get it right’ when the topic concerns religion.
 
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contemplative:
The problems associated with lay ministers?
Again try very carefully reading through Karl Keating’s E-Letter of October 25, 2005

One thing I have failed to understand the past several years is what has happened to the genuine person who volunteers? Since when must people be ‘hired’ to do what was always volunteered. Volunteers in many parishes today do nothing more than drop an $envelope$ in the basket and bring food dishes to pass and very often don’t even ‘clean up’ because someone is ‘hired’ to do that too!

When and why did parish life slip into a model of a small business?
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I agree. The Church is not a business. We should be giving of the time that we have to serve the Body of Christ.
 
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Orionthehunter:
However, when I read so many other threads about liturgical abuses, catechetical abuses, lay people running over the Priest w/ their private agendas, etc., I’m wondering what is the Church to do? Have only professionals or only volunteers?
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The solution to abuses is not to have only professionsals or only volunteers. It is to have a pastor in union with the Pope that has final decision making authority over all teaching and all liturgical implementations.
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Orionthehunter:
Like it or not the Church is a big business in the business of saving souls and delivering social services.
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The Church is not a business. Nor is She a democracy. The Church is the mystical Body of Christ. She has no required deliverables (such as social services). Her mission is to lead all to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Social services are among the fruits of this mission.
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Orionthehunter:
Our faith requires that our Priests be centrally trained in seminaries. We operate schools, and colleges/universities and hospitals and hospices and counseling clinics and soup kitchens and nursing homes and retreat centers. Stewardship requires that it be done effectively and efficiently. We are not an isolated non-denom church w/ 250 families w/ no outside obligations or outlook.
Click to expand...
We can’t fix the outside if we are messed up on the inside. We must work from the inside out.
 
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