Meeting Eucharistic Need

Ed. Note: On the weekend of March 24-25, Archbishop Bernard Longley (Archdiocese of Birmingham, England) released a pastoral letter about the need to discuss how best to deploy the diocese’s limited number of priests and deacons. The full text is available as an audio file here; portions are excerpted below. Below the excerpts is one parishioner’s response.

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…I should first explain why I am asking these questions now and what has happened to make this a priority for me and for our diocese… I cannot ignore the diminishing number of priests we have to serve the present number of churches and parishes. These stand alongside those chaplaincies and other important ministries to which our clergy are dedicated.  It is my duty to see that the energy, talents and enthusiasm of our deacons and priests are used to best effect for the preaching of the Gospel, the sacramental care and the spiritual nourishment of the people.

Changing patterns for our diocesan mission may in future require a different deployment of our priests and deacons.  This may in turn mean that I cannot guarantee that every parish in the diocese will have its own resident priest.  To help us face these challenges with confidence we need to reflect on them together at deanery level.  I believe that this prayerful process of reflection will help me to fulfill my duty both to care for the wider mission and pastoral needs of the diocese and to appreciate and support the priests and deacons who are my closest co-workers in this task…

Our priests and deacons have been reflecting for some time on the bonds of communion that hold us together and on our mission.  Those who have pastoral responsibility for our parishes and chaplaincies have begun exploring new ways of organising our mission and of providing pastoral care for all the faithful.  I am now asking them, under the leadership of each local Dean, to take this discussion to its next stage and to provide opportunities for you, as the lay faithful of the diocese, and sharers in its mission, to meet and to discuss these issues over the coming months.

In order to move this process forward a discussion document has been prepared, highlighting areas for reflection and offering some questions for you to consider.  The discussion document will be available on the diocesan website after Easter, and I would ask parishes to send their responses to the local Dean by the end of June…

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Ed. note: Pray Tell reader Chris McDonnell responded with a letter to the Tablet, reprinted below:
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Addressing the shrinking priesthood

Parishes in the Archdiocese of Birmingham received an important pastoral letter from our Archbishop, Bernard Longley during the weekend of 24-25 March.

It addressed the question of an ever-diminishing number of priests and the consequences for our parishes. Whatever we might be hearing about the increase of numbers of students in our seminaries, the age profile of current priests serving our communities is already high, and getting higher. I suspect that this may well be true in other dioceses in England and Wales.

If we move towards a grouping of parishes in order to meet the needs of the people, two issues arise. Firstly, would this actually meet the pastoral need of parishes and secondly, and I would suggest initially more importantly, what will be the pressure on priests given the increased workload?

We should welcome this pastoral letter and the discussion that has been initiated by our Archbishop, involving both priests and people.

Would it be too much to ask that any outcome from such discussion will recognise the existence of a significant number of men who left active ministry to marry? They should be invited back to resume their ministry if they so wish. Further, given the way that we have seen fit to welcome the establishment of the Ordinariate, is it not time that the hierarchy actively petition Rome for secular clergy to be given the option of celibacy or marriage in their service to the Church from the start, rather than wait for experience to catch up with them later?

It is wrong that we seek solutions to Eucharistic need by continuing the celibacy discipline currently imposed and loading ever more on to the backs of those hard-working priests who have served so faithfully over the years. I sincerely hope that the people of the archdiocese respond in good measure to this pastoral letter.

Chris McDonnell, Staffs

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Comments

11 responses to “Meeting Eucharistic Need”

  1. Paul Inwood

    +Bernard is only now starting to think about these questions, whereas other dioceses in England and Wales have been facing them for years and have (a) thought about them, (b) evolved strategies of varying degrees of usefulness to deal with them, (c) issued pastoral letters that don’t talk about how I must deal with this problem but about how we are all in this together and must work towards a solution.

    +Bernard is a really good man, and he will get there eventually, but all this is very new to him, especially as he comes as a former auxiliary in the largest diocese in the country, Westminster, where priest shortage is not yet a problem (but will be soon).

    In the meantime, other dioceses have already (i) clustered parishes into different pastoral groupings (NB this does not mean closing down parishes), (ii) reconfigured parishes into pastoral areas where the clergy work as a team within the area so as to provide more Masses than were possible previously. (That may mean that lazy clergy are forced to work harder.) If +Bernard thinks that the criterion is whether a parish has a resident priest or not, he will soon learn that this is not the best way to evaluate the situation. He may also hear about dioceses where they have asked difficult questions, such as:

    (1) How do we keep the flame of faith alive in the community of X? Closure or forced merger may not be the best answer.

    (2) If several churches are merging under one pastor, where should the pastor live? Could it be that, in order to make smaller communities feel valued, the pastor should be “resident” in one of those, rather than in the major “hub” parish?

    (3) What is the role of lay people in a situation where there is only one priest serving a number of former independent parishes? (Yes, I know that some in the US have lived with, and have to a large extent solved, these questions over a period of 20 years or more, but some Brits are still living in cloud cuckoo land.)

    What we see here is a Baptism by fire for a good pastoral man who is now starting to dip his toes in the water. It is unfortunate that because his diocese is large and thus late in on the scene, everything he does now will be put under the spotlight of relenteless publicity instead of allowing him just to get on with the sort of pastoral reconfiguration that the rest of us became used to many years ago.

    Reply
    1. Dunstan Vavasour

      To be fair to both +Bernard and +Vincent, our Archdiocese is both huge and has, for many years, been deeply troubled by a series of abuse scandals, the start of which overshadowed the time of +Maurice. And it would be wrong to think that the change in priestly numbers has been swept under the carpet: there have been tactical mergers, as well as fewer parishes with curates, faster promotions to PPs and arrangements with the orders who operate some of the parishes. So I don’t think B’ham is coming late to the party, but has simply waited until it was necessary to start the process.
      At the same time we, as other diocese, have benefited from the ministries of Ordinariate clergy. Ordinariate clergy cannot, of course, be moved around by bishops, but can help overstretched diocesan clergy.
      I hope that the great goodwill towards +Bernard which is felt within our archdiocese will enable openness and generosity in this period of reflection and review.

      Reply
  2. Matthew Hothersall

    I have been involved in a small way in the “Leaving Safe Harbours” process. This has been the Liverpool Archdiocese’s title for addressing the problems caused by the shrinking number of priests and the increasing average age of those remaining.

    One of the crucial matters covered at the start of the Leaving Safe Harbours process, which has been important to its relative success (so far) was that any solutions have to be found within the Archdiocese and within each pastoral cluster of parishes. We could wait 100 or 1000 years for the church to generally accept married priests or for the ordination of women priests to be allowed but, in doing so, our own parishes and churches will wither on the vine. The adoption of priests from African or Southern American communities was also widely suggested as a solution but there simply isn’t an abundance of spare priests waiting to be imported to the UK.

    In England and Wales, we were blessed with a tremendous and continuous number of Irish priests in years gone by. These supplemented the great numbers being ordained in our own seminaries in the post-war period. However, the time of great service given by these men is drawing to a close and there simply aren’t the numbers to maintain the vast numbers of churches we have become used to. In my own case, I can, within a 15 minute drive, reach at least 10 churches offering a mass each Sunday morning. This will not continue forever. The plan in Liverpool is to cluster 3 to 5 parishes together under each priest. It is not ideal but we are where we are.

    The crucial role of lay members of the church is to help out in those areas that can be taken off the hands of the priest and this will require a tremendous shift in the mindset of our Catholic community. However, the alternative is too horrible to contemplate and with God’s strength behind us, we will reach our new church together. I pray that the good folk of Birmingham are given the same strength on their…

    Reply
    1. Paul Inwood

      The adoption of priests from African or Southern American communities was also widely suggested as a solution but there simply isn’t an abundance of spare priests waiting to be imported to the UK.

      On the contrary, there is a superabundance of priests from overseas, (Africa, Eastern European countries, etc) who can be bussed in. Indeed, one diocese in the south east of England pays to fly a priest in from Poland each weekend to minister to a parish that would otherwise be without a priest. He is known as “Father EasyJet”.

      However, the problem is a cultural one.

      The fact is that many “foreign” priests do not fit in because they come from a culture so different that they are unable to adapt to a different style of church. An archdiocese in the south east imported over 20 Polish priests to help solve the shortage. They all had to be sent home, since their spirituality/ecclesiology was alien to the English situation and they found themselves unable to adapt to the situation in which they found themselves. (They were too “traditional” in outlook. This often happens in other situations, too, where, for example, new priests trained in Irish seminaries are sent to England and feel that their mission is “to correct the local Church from the error of its ways”. They do not last long.)

      Another reason is that the linguistic skills of foreign priests are often inadequate. Many parishioners, particularly older ones, will tell you that they simply cannot understand what Mexican/African/Eastern European Father X is saying. His accent is indecipherable; his grammar and vocabulary are sadly wanting; his thought-processes are alien. The community realizes that it does not need Mass-dispensing machines but priests who will play a part in the local community, but no one is listening to them — yet. But foreign priests supplying during vacation periods, and foreign priests in England (especially from Africa) to study for a few years, are solving (on a temporary basis) the staffing problems of a significant proportion of English parishes.

      The other question, of course, is the obsession with the Eucharist. There are plenty of other things Catholics can do when they gather together. Take a look at South America or Africa, where many Christian communities have Mass only once every two or three months (and thus probably value it more when they do get it) and where catechists and other lay ecclesial ministers are keeping the Church not only alive but vibrant.

      Reply
  3. Dale Rodriguez

    We have had cluster mergers for several years now and the numbers are down. Many complain about the “corporate” atmosphere rather than having a resident priest at each church who knows his parishoners.
    No easy answers but Chris is correct.
    Furthermore, Diocesan (Lay) priests make a “promise” to be celibate whereas Religious priests take a “vow” of celibacy. Breaking a promise I think is a less serious matter that breaking a vow and shouldn’t necessarily mean that we should jettison the man. Perhaps a limited role as priest, as was done in the past (ie Fr. Solanus Casey) celebrating the Eucharist but not hearing confessions or being a pastor of a church.
    Once a priest always a priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

    Reply
    1. Dunstan Harding

      Perhaps a limited role as priest, as was done in the past (ie Fr. Solanus Casey) celebrating the Eucharist but not hearing confessions or being a pastor of a church.
      ————————————————
      Like many Orthodox priests, particularly in the Greek Isles. If not university educated or trained in theology, their bishop won’t let them preach or hear confession, but they may administer the other sacraments and provide counseling. Something to consider.

      Reply
  4. Jack Rakosky

    The demographics of the priest shortage have been clear for decades. Like sexual abuse church management has long known about the problem, and tried to ignore it, hush it up, or maintain they have solved the problem. When they have no longer been able to ignore it, they have chosen very un-pastoral solutions such as closing churches and consolidating parishes, bringing priests from other countries, etc.

    Talking with the management, going to meetings, listening to speakers, writing letters and signing petitions are not going to change church management.

    The bottom line to all social change is to change the environment for management so that they will decide they have to do things differently. They may not do exactly what you want them to do, but they will have to act differently.

    This has happened over the past decade in the case of sexual abuse, and more recently it has begun to happen in the case of the un-pastoral solutions of closing churches and consolidating parishes.

    In both cases change is coming about because of a surprising small number of very committed people working in very loose networks who spend a great deal of time and effort, and are willing to make things so difficult for bishops that bishops have no choice but to change!

    Over at NCR Rocco Palmo, whom someone described as “never having meet a bishop whom he did not like” writes about facing reality in his own diocese:

    http://ncronline.org/news/accountability/philadelphia-church-crossroads

    Over a late-night cup of coffee as the revelations were still sinking in, all Mom could bring herself to say was, “It just feels like there’s been a death in the family.”

    What she was implying seemed clear, but I wanted to be sure. “You mean your trust in the wider church, outside the parish?”

    “That’s exactly what I meant,” she shot back.

    Do not trust the management, spend a lot of time with small groups of people on narrow issues that change the game.

    Reply
    1. Dunstan Harding

      Do not trust the management, spend a lot of time with small groups of people on narrow issues that change the game.
      ——————————————–
      Watching “the management” reminds me of Prince Bismarck’s famous comment about the dangers in seeing how legislation is crafted. Comparable to watching the making of sausage.

      Reply
  5. Bill deHaas

    Excellent lived experience from these commentors – appreciate both the wisdom and the lived reality.

    To show how the church can be so disconnected at times, received a survey last week from a consulting group on supporting a $25 million dollar expansion of our north Dallas parish including a two story parking garage; a $0.5 mil choir practice building; a $5 mil gym for an elementary school that already has one, etc. And this for a parish which, starting tomorrow, only has the pastor going forward and has been seeing decreasing attendance and contributions. One would think that this highly educated parish of catholics would be aware that this type of “brick & mortar” approach misses the point of the parish; ignores the experiences that you all are writing about, etc. Can’t tell if this is denial; ignorance; fear; or what?

    Reply
    1. Jack Rakosky

      Bill,

      It is just implementation of the strategy of “providing more and more services to fewer and fewer people at greater and greater cost per person.” Why does it work? It dependents on the rich people of the parish or congregation.

      A colleague in graduate school in the 70s was a former minister. The lay people who ran his rich congregation never came to church services. They only showed up for fund raising events. They were interested in buildings, etc. It was philanthropy, something noble they did as rich people with their money.

      The Cleveland Diocese’s current financial campaign is a perfect example of this. If you click on the weekly updates, you will find the parishes are divided in groups. Parishes begin their campaigns by going quietly to individuals (the richest first). As they work their way down toward us poorer folks (the public part of the campaign) they already have most of their money raised. Just pick a few parishes with high goals and watch in successive weeks as the number of people and money accumulates.

      http://www.catholiccommunity.org/page.aspx?pid=420

      It is amazing how much money comes from how few rich people. All the management has to do is keep the money coming in from the rich people.

      Being a poor person, I have decided to give my money to the poor (it all goes to them eventually anyhow), and let the rich people pay for the parish. I certainly could not complete with them.

      For a long time it has been clear to me as a social scientist that churches are businesses not communities. I had regarded my financial contributions on a business basis based on how much I valued their product.

      Now it is becoming clear that as non profits they are philanthropies of the rich for us poor people.

      Since Jesus told us that the rich will have a very difficult, almost impossible time, getting into heaven, I think I am doing them a favor by remaining a poor man, sharing my money with the poor and letting them pay for all the “philantropy” of buildings, clergy, etc.

      Reply
  6. Padre Dave Poedel, STS

    When ecumenism was in season, there was a lot of dreaming going on amongst those saacramental traditions about sharing clergy. As an energetic parish pastor serving 120 souls, wouldn’t be awesome to “regularize”my Lutheran Ordination allowing me to serve a Roman parish without a priest?

    I know there is great passion in places to restore the faculties to priests who have “left” to marry. It would be even easier to accomplish that than my solution above.

    More than a little flexibility could go miles in providing both Word and Sacraments to the faithful. Is there any talk anywhere about doing some experimenting out there?

    It always amazes me how Roman Catholics who rarely attend Mass still identify as Catholics; even more so those prevented from licitly receiving the Eucharist because of a non-annulled divorce continue to identify as Catholics when there are Lutheran parishes right down the street who would absolve them of their sin and admit them to the Eucharist.

    Since those folks want to be Catholics, why not bring in those who will make it happen?

    Reply

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