I really don’t want to get into this tangential fray, but I have to say I don’t think most of that is either “due to poor planning” or “a wasteful deployment of priests.”
Sure, a layperson can tend to diocesan affairs, but not in quite the same way as an ordained cleric. There are serious matters of canonical discipline to be considered.
As for seminaries and priestly formation, how is it possible that a layperson can substitute for a priest in that situation?
Let’s take religious communities out of this equation. Religious communities have no moral or canonical obligation to keep parishes going. Most were not founded to run parishes and many have very few priests and more brothers.
Now that you have taken these men out of the equation, you’re left with 60% of priests in the Latin Church. The other 40% belong to religious communities. We just took them out of the equation.
Now, these 60% are not all diocesan priests. They are all secular priests, but many of them belong to societies. Drop another 20%. Societies have no moral or canonical obligation to provide priests for parishes. That’s not what societies of apostolic life do.
Before we go forward, there may be some people thinking that the pope or someone in the Vatican should force priests who are religious or members of societies to serve in parishes rather than serve in communications, administration, retreat houses, on the streets or homeless shelters. The answer is simple. The pope cannot do that without rewriting the constitutions and rules that govern these institutes. Can you imagine a pope rewriting the Rule of St. Benedict, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Albert, St. John de Matha, St. Jose Maria Escriva, Bl. Teresa of Calcutta, etc. You get the picture. All of these founders prohibited parish work The focus was very specific and it was not parish. If you change their focus to parish work, you have to change their daily life to fit the parish. It’s not something that any pope would even consider. Besides, what pope wants to take on someone like St. Benedict or St. Francis?
No we are down to 40% of our priests being diocesan priests. These men are secular Catholics. They are not consecrated men. They have no moral or canonical obligation to give up their work in the classroom, retreat house, hospital, pregnancy center, homeless shelter, or other apostolate. This was put to the test and the precedent was proven two years ago when the Bishop of Amarillo recalled Fr. Frank Pavone and the Vatican ruled that Fr. Frank’s apostolate was important enough to sacrifice a parish or two.
There is a correction is perception that I’d like to make. To the person who said that priests should be teaching in the seminary. That’s not true. Courses in the seminary are like courses at any graduate school. You have Scripture, Canon Law, Liturgy, Church History, Ecclesiology, Sacramentology, Pastoral Counseling, Systematic Theology, Church Social Teaching, and more. In order to grant a degree, your professors must meet the requirements of the accrediting organization. The organization does not care if the professor is a priest. He can be a priest, but if he’s not a scholar in Church History, he cannot teach it. If he does, the students will not receive credit. No credit = no degree. No degree = no ordination.
Professors at the seminary are like any other graduate school. They are experts in their field. I teach and I’m not a priest. I teach a one year course in Evangelium Vitae. There is no priest in our region who is an expert in that field. You must have a master’s plus 30 to teach it. I have an STD. That’s the way this works.
The same is true for the chancery. Priests are not assigned to the chancery because they are priests. There are some posts that must be occupied by a priest or a deacon. There are many other posts that do not require a priest, but do require an expert in a particular area. I know a priest who works in a chancery and he’s an expert in corporate administration. Why pay a layman $80,000.00 when you can hire a priest? Lay people have families. They need competitive salaries, medical insurance, retirement insurance, short-term disability insurance, workers comp, FICA, family leave, paid vacation, paid personal leave. When you have priests, brothers, sisters and deacons who are just as skilled and can do this job more economically, it makes no sense to hire a layperson. We have to remember that it’s parishes that keep the diocesan administration going.
Hiring and placement of priests, deacons, brothers, sisters and laymen is a systematic process based on need, skills, availability of human resources, and legal requirements. Many people don’t know these details and think that it’s easy to put a priest in a parish, because he’s a priest.
To close, let me give you an example of a very silly post I read here. A long time ago, someone posted that the Franciscan of the Eternal Word were wasting priests and that the laity should start a letter writing campaign. The concern was that they have six or seven friars who are priests, but none of them are in parish work.
The person completely missed two important facts. 1) St. Francis did not start a congregation of priests. Staffing parishes was not on his agenda. His agenda was living the Gospel in fraternity and taking the Gospel where the secular clergy could not go. This meant, to go beyond the parish.
- The MFVA were founded to serve in the area of Catholic Communication. Through Catholic Communication they fulfill St. Francis’ vision. They take the Gospel to the world. Their other mission is to maintain ongoing adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. These two missions do not allow for parish work.
You just can’t plant a priest. You have to weigh many factors.
