E
ElizabethPH
Guest
We only have one priest and he has changed a lot. We are getting yet another one this summer. He is a convert ex-episcapal priest with a family. I think it’s because of the shortage of vocations.
- Status
T
Titus
Guest
In our parish, the PP has been in office since 1981. He intends to stay until he retires. He’s lovely (if a bit liberal- *refers to consecration bells as ‘reminiscent of the 50s’ ) *and we’ll be sorry to lose him.
B
BlestOne
Guest
Our pastor has been with us 10 years… it seems that the bishop can assign the time of tenure. I am in the midwest where we do have several seminarians each year that graduate in the diocese. I think this may influence how long the bishop leaves a priest at a location. My parish will not ordinarily get a priest right out of the seminary because we only have one priest. We did have one once… many years ago when our close to retiring priest had to have knee replacement surgery. The new priest was with us for a year while our pastor was recovering. As soon as our pastor recovered and was ready to retire, the new priest was reassigned and we got a different priest with more experience.
In my archdiocese pastors serve six year terms. This can generally be renewed once for a total of twelve years. I’m not sure what the rules are for associates. There seems to be a convention (but I don’t know that it is an actual rule) that if a pastor is named a monsignor he will no longer be transferred if he wishes to remain at a given parish.
The archbishop/cardinal has final say over the assignments but he does take the wishes of the pastor and the ‘personality’ of the parish into consideration. I do know that when a pastor has only two or three more years left in their term that he will start looking around at the other parishes which will become available. Our first pastor left a year early (after eleven years) because an assignment he wanted became available.
Priests have different skills and the bishop will often place a priest in a parish where he thinks those skills will be of benefit to the parish and/or to the archdiocese as a whole. Some priests are good at creating unity in a parish with ‘factions’. Other priests are good at fund raising. (Bishops love to put good fundraisers in either poor parishes or in wealthy parishes that are ‘under-performing’.)
The archbishop/cardinal has final say over the assignments but he does take the wishes of the pastor and the ‘personality’ of the parish into consideration. I do know that when a pastor has only two or three more years left in their term that he will start looking around at the other parishes which will become available. Our first pastor left a year early (after eleven years) because an assignment he wanted became available.
Priests have different skills and the bishop will often place a priest in a parish where he thinks those skills will be of benefit to the parish and/or to the archdiocese as a whole. Some priests are good at creating unity in a parish with ‘factions’. Other priests are good at fund raising. (Bishops love to put good fundraisers in either poor parishes or in wealthy parishes that are ‘under-performing’.)
I
InLight247
Guest
I have been in my Parish since 1985. Many different priests have been assigned to our parish. Lately I talked to my pastor about this and he said the Bishop shifts priests around purely on the basis of need. For example if a priest is going to retire in some parish, the Bishop will replace the vacancy with the best fit he thinks. Also when it is time for an assistant priest to have his own parish, the Bishop usually starts him with a smaller parish. In either case, there will be shifting around.
I guess being a priest is to have the spirit of obedience and detachment. And it is for us too. In my parish, both our Pastor and our Vicar are great. There is a possibility both of them will be moved this year. My Pastor is my SD, and the Vicar is very inspiring and helpful to me too. I really want to see them stay. But the Vicar did such a great job and it is obvious that he should have his own parish. We all know for sure he is leaving and we will hear the announcement soon. The Pastor is my SD, how much I want him to stay. But there is a possibility he will be transferred due to other need. I took it an opportunity to pray “thy will be done”. It will be very hard to say goodbye, but really, it is all up to God’s will at the end.
I guess being a priest is to have the spirit of obedience and detachment. And it is for us too. In my parish, both our Pastor and our Vicar are great. There is a possibility both of them will be moved this year. My Pastor is my SD, and the Vicar is very inspiring and helpful to me too. I really want to see them stay. But the Vicar did such a great job and it is obvious that he should have his own parish. We all know for sure he is leaving and we will hear the announcement soon. The Pastor is my SD, how much I want him to stay. But there is a possibility he will be transferred due to other need. I took it an opportunity to pray “thy will be done”. It will be very hard to say goodbye, but really, it is all up to God’s will at the end.
Z
zemi
Guest
As far as I can tell, priests are also humans. It’s absolutely normal for them to make relationships in the parsih they are. But I think it’s not that normal to break those bonds.
One priest which was here - everyone liked him, he worked here very hard for the parish. Things are quite different when he was sent away. He would also like to stay if he could. I know that.
I don’t know what to say precisely to this. But I guess we have to believe that bishops and their decisions are in God’s hands and he knows why.
One priest which was here - everyone liked him, he worked here very hard for the parish. Things are quite different when he was sent away. He would also like to stay if he could. I know that.
I don’t know what to say precisely to this. But I guess we have to believe that bishops and their decisions are in God’s hands and he knows why.
Z
zemi
Guest
Still any “official” reference to why the priests are being moved? 
E
elliotfc
Guest
Priests are often moved for reasons that are never made public.Still any “official” reference to why the priests are being moved?
Bishops typically view their brother priests as family, if not children, brothers. There is much concern and often much counsel that goes into the moving of priests. Sometimes they are even asked if they want to do it.
Priests who can run a tight financial ship are often moved about. Bilingual skills can send a priest somewhere else. If a congregation has a letter writing campaign against their priest, that can get a priest shipped somewhere else.
Yes, many dioceses try to stick with the sabattical concept…minus the one year off. With the many priests I’ve known and the situations I am privy too, I get the sense that there is a singularity to whys when it comes to a priest being moved. It could just be the two dioceses that I’ve been closely involed in.
A
acadian
Guest
Our pastors generally have a term of 6 years that can be renewed for another 6 years. There are not many associate pastors - it seems like only the newly ordained for a year or two.
We are losing our pastor after 7 years. It IS hard when you get attached to someone - for both the parishoners and the pastors. Our priest says it’s like leaving family, yet he is confident that there is something for him to give and to receive in his new assignment.
We are losing our pastor after 7 years. It IS hard when you get attached to someone - for both the parishoners and the pastors. Our priest says it’s like leaving family, yet he is confident that there is something for him to give and to receive in his new assignment.
M
Mankney
Guest
I have heard also that it relates to how the word was preached at the beginning, they moved from town to town preaching the word. I think it is a good tie in to the past.
M
m134e5
Guest
Usually priests announce they are leaving some time before they leave. When a priest I knew was transferred, he announced it to his parish six weeks beforehand, to give time for planning of receptions, and goodbyes, and what not. It’s hard to say goodbye to a pastor you like- especially if you have never known any other pastor.
In his book, “Dark Night of the Soul”, St. John of the Cross explains that one of the marks of spiritual beginners tends to be excessive attachment to pastors and confessors. When pastors move around, it helps prevent this from getting out of hand. No priest is perfect. All parishes have areas that need to be fixed that the current pastor can’t fix- because that isn’t his area. When new priests come in, they have the opportunity to sweep away some of the dust that has gathered- and they’ll let dust collect in some places too- hopefully dust doesn’t collect in the same places for too long.
L
Lovemyfaith
Guest
There are many reasons priests are moved. If a priest passes away in one parish or becomes very ill, the domino effect to replace him sometimes passes through several parishes. If a parish is getting smaller, the bishop may feel that parish may not need an assitant. There actually was some kind of 5 year rule in my diocese, but it isn’t necessarily enforced. I think the reason behind it was along the lines of the priest getting to know other parishes, with the idea that most priests will be pastors someday. If a priest is first made a pastor of a small parish, he may be moved to a larger parish if he is needed there, and replaced in the smaller parish by another priest just made a pastor. Once a priest is pastor of a large parish, he will usually stay there until he retires. It is probably very hard for some priests to leave parishes espcially if they have established great ministries there.
One priest told me you have to trust in the Holy Spirit who guides the changes and that makes sense to me.
By the way, I don’t think it is wrong to join another parish if you are not happy with your parish. I think if you find a parish where you feel spiritually fulfilled, consider yourself blessed.
One priest told me you have to trust in the Holy Spirit who guides the changes and that makes sense to me.
By the way, I don’t think it is wrong to join another parish if you are not happy with your parish. I think if you find a parish where you feel spiritually fulfilled, consider yourself blessed.
Z
Zooey
Guest
I don’t have any references from Canon Law, but I think it is up to the Bishop of the diocese to determine the schedule for priests. My diocese has always followed that pattern, from what my parents told me. I’m lucky because my pastor is young, so he will be around for a long time, hopefully.
By the way, it isn’t just the Catholic Church that does this. I have a Methodist minister friend and he said the Methodist bishops transfer the pastors every 5 years. In fact, he got transferred last year. I miss him because I volunteer at an ecumenical mission meal for the poor at a Methodist church. He always came to the meal and led prayer and talked to the guests. The new Methodist pastor never comes.
Oh, yeah, Methodist pastors get
moved around a lot…This isn’t as bad as it used to be. It used to be…My grandmother always quoted an old Methodist saying: “Don’t marry the pastor; he’s leaving in two years”…I can remember when the change wasn’t announced ahead of time–
not even to the pastors themselves! Everybody went to “conference” (where all the decisions for these things is made, a conference with the elders, the District Superintendant, & sometimes the bishop), and on the last day, they “read the appointments”…There you’d all sit, and when they got to your name (in alphabetical order), you heard whether your pastor came back, or if you got a new one, & if so, who it was…It was horrible!! Especially when your pastor got “read out” as assigned to somebody ahead of you in the reading…you had to wait & wait, to hear who you were getting…The worst was “to be supplied”. Translation:
“we’ll try to find somebody from somewhere for your church, but don’t hold your breath; we really don’t have anyone for you”!!
L
lak611
Guest
What does a church do if there is no pastor “to be supplied”? Do they at least provide different ministers on Sundays to lead services, or do you have to find another church to attend on Sunday until a pastor is supplied?The worst was “to be supplied”. Translation:
E
elliotfc
Guest
Sometimes a church is without a “pastor”, but does have an associate priest. At my church, while our pastor was away, for a time one of the auxilliary bishops came to sign payroll checks.
I know a couple of nuns who are now permanently living on the island, they came from West Virginia. At the small church they were at, a priest would come by a few days a month to celebrate mass. They would have communion services on Sundays.
In South America it is still very common to have travelling priests who have four of five parishes, and he shares his time as best he can.
Maybe we’re 25-30 years away from a similar situation in America, if you crunch the numbers and demographics.
For much of the church’s history the laity did not receive communion on a weekly basis. Not that we would return to this, but in the near future we may only have a mass celebrated twice or month at a good number of parishes.
E
Eliza10
Guest
I believe this must be the thinking, but I have a hard time believing in the validity of this. Even if this often happens, it certainly isn’t always the case. I really think there is something very disordered about always moving all the priests on a pre-determined schedule as a matter of policy. There is nothing pastoral about that. “Pastoral” takes individual persons and people-groups into account.
There seems to be such a policy in my diocese. Priests are moved very frequently by order of the bishop, I understand. In many cases, the priest and the people were thriving together and they all suffer from the tearing-away. And they send the priest out and bring one in with a totally different way of doing things. And the new Priest starts by making all kinds of unpopular changes, quickly and unilaterally, ignoring the attempts at protest. Thats the trend here. Its a very unhappy one, that has a widespread effect on morale. It makes no sense to me and I think there is something disordered behind it. Perhaps its some “inventive” (to put it charitably) person, with a agenda to remake the Church, who wrote a book outlining precisely how one goes aobut reinventing an institution. Use your power to break the people down, then build them the way you want. Thats what I imagine, when I try to figure out why. I’d like to know why.
…Like, it would be very difficult to follow JPII…
Well, one way to quell rejection of the successor of the successful is to choose one who is most harmoniously similar in core beliefs.
Really, it seems to me that if it was up to our diocese to choose JPII’s successor, they’d have chosen someone completely opposite in faith and beliefs, who would have barged in with radical policy changes, effective immediately.
P
puzzleannie
Guest
pastors are not granted “tenure”. Each diocese has a rule about how often a priest may serve in an assignment, and theoretically the priest is bound to obey the bishop’s decision, although as a practical manner the bishop is prudent to regard the priest’s preference. Generally before a priest becomes a pastor he may be moved every year, although 3 years is usual, for pastors a usual assignment is 6 years, with option to renew 3 or more years at a time. The reason for moving priests around is to prevent the priest from becoming to attached to the parish and the people, and to prevent the people from becoming too attached to the priest, so is successor has a hard time pleasing them.
The bishop after all is the only one who knows what is best for the diocese as a whole, and who is charged with pastoral care of the priests as well as the parishes in his see. If you have ever been in a parish where the “old pastor” has retired or been reassigned after many years, and seen how hard it is for the new priest to be accepted, you understand the wisdom behind this policy. that being said, for pastoral reasons, the bishop may well keep a given priest in a long term assignment. A relative has been told he will be allowed to stay in his current parish because his dad and other relatives live nearby, and he is the only one in that town left to care for the older generation. A priest will generally not be moved if his parish has a capital campaign or building project going on.
M
MelanieAnne
Guest
My favorite priest (of 5 at our parish) is being moved in a couple of months. I am sad. He was the priest who came to the priesthood when he was nearly 50. He was the priest who worried the nuns of our parish because they never knew what he would do. He is WONDERFUL.
But faith is not about wonderful dynamic insightful and provactive priests like my dear Father Doug who will leave me soon, who I thought to keep forever. Faith is about FAITH.
You cannot be persuaded or disuaded from faith because of some PERSON, whether that influence be positive or negative. NO, I don’t know the “rules” but I can speak to the human condition.
The church most likely does not want you to believe in your faith because of some particular pastor, because if He goes away, then so does your faith. So there is some rotation, not just to give various parishes the value of wonderful priests, but also to safeguard against anyone becoming attached to the faith JUST BECAUSE of a particular priest.
I’m sure Father Doug, as much as I love him, would agree. I will miss him terribly and I will do my best not to go to mass at his new parish. At least not too often.
But faith is not about wonderful dynamic insightful and provactive priests like my dear Father Doug who will leave me soon, who I thought to keep forever. Faith is about FAITH.
You cannot be persuaded or disuaded from faith because of some PERSON, whether that influence be positive or negative. NO, I don’t know the “rules” but I can speak to the human condition.
The church most likely does not want you to believe in your faith because of some particular pastor, because if He goes away, then so does your faith. So there is some rotation, not just to give various parishes the value of wonderful priests, but also to safeguard against anyone becoming attached to the faith JUST BECAUSE of a particular priest.
I’m sure Father Doug, as much as I love him, would agree. I will miss him terribly and I will do my best not to go to mass at his new parish. At least not too often.
L
Like
Guest
Might I ask what Island your talking about?
L
Like
Guest
OK, I received email back from my diocese so here it is…
Your above inquiry was forwarded to me as the Vicar For Clergy. Thanks for your question. Although each assignment situation is unique, in general, one of the main reasons we find ourselves having to transfer priests is because we have a number of priests here in Hawaii on loan to us from other Dioceses and many of them are only here for 3-5 years. We are concerned about the turnover issue and have been discussing ways to lessen the number of transfers needed so your concern is noted. Please feel free to contact me for other questions or concerns.
Vicar for Clergy - Director of Vocations
Diocese of Honolulu
- Status