An archdiocesan commission charged with preparing a study of pastoral realities in the Church of Boston as a first step towards creating a pastoral plan finished its work in May 2007. As of October 2007, no further action had been taken based on this study. Here are some statistics from the study which outline the circumstances in which our archdiocese finds itself, a situation which is replicated all over the United States (emphasis added).
Among national Church leaders, there is widespread awareness of the changing nature of parish staffing. Research data confirms what is experienced at the local level throughout the country. The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) reports that “there are 18,891 parishes in the United States and 42,528 priests. Of these, 28,374 are diocesan priests, and more than a quarter of those are retired, sick, or otherwise unable to minister actively. Within the next twenty years, 29,000 of the priests serving in the U.S. today will be over the age of 75. In the same twenty-year period, if the current rate continues, only some 9,000 priests will be ordained.” Sister Katarina Schuth’s Priestly Ministry in Multiple Parishes (2006) shows that the percentage of worship sites being staffed by priests who serve more than one parish (or church within a parish) stood at 44% of parishes and missions. Regional variations are notable. For a high, 48% of priests in Minnesota and the Dakotas serve more than one parish or worship site; on the low end, only 12% in Pennsylvania and New Jersey do so. In New England, 15.5% of priests serve in that way. Currently, more than 30,000 lay ecclesial ministers have parish leadership roles, and some 15,000 permanent deacons are serving in parishes…
The Archdiocese of Boston is currently served by a total of 500 active priests. Of these, 38 are on health leave or unassigned, 97 in special ministry and 365 in parish ministry. Of those in parish ministry, 108 are 65 years of age or older. At a projected average net-loss rate of 25 active priests per year and a projected average of 5 newly ordained priests per year, by 2015 there will be only 292 active priests, i.e., priests who are not retired or permanently disabled; only an estimated 212 will be available for parish ministry. This will leave approximately 10-12 priests in each of the 20 vicariates in fulltime parish work. (Note: Holy Family Parish is in a Vicariate which includes 16 parishes.) Not all active priests will be capable or willing to serve as pastors. It is likely that more religious communities -- as have the Marists, Oblates and Franciscans -- will be turning their leadership of parishes back to the archdiocese, owing to insufficient numbers of priests; a few new communities will likely take responsibility for some parishes. The current dependence on many senior priests to assist with liturgical life will surely continue but their numbers will begin to decrease.The reference to 2015 hits home because that's two years before my earliest retirement date. These changes aren't coming after me, they're coming in my life time and in the course of my active ministry. I currently pastor a parish in a town which, until October 2004, had two Catholic parishes with a pastor for each. Given the prospectus above, I suppose there's a chance I will be asked to pastor yet another parish in addition to my present assignment before retirement.
Some readers here will be nonplussed by these statistics because they simply delineate the lived reality in many dioceses. We in Boston are relative newcomers to all of this although the writing has been on the wall (and covered with vocation posters) for some time and the trauma of this is going to hit on the parish level sooner rather than later.
I published these same statistics in our parish bulletin this week and will continue to publish portions of the lengthy study. With our Parish Pastoral Council, I am convinced that the best way for our or any parish to survive the times ahead is to be as informed and prepared as possible.
What are your thoughts or questions on these facts and figures?
Only 212 (Parish Ministry) by 2015? Those numbers are horrifying. A few questions..
ReplyDelete1) what is the Boston Diocese specifically doing to "recruit" new priests?
2)what can parishioners do to assist in filling the void?
3) do you feel the overall shortage of priests situation will ever improve?
It sounds as if you may be riding circuit, before you are able to retire! To pjjbiker's #3 I would say that realistically the only way that the shortage of priests' situation will ever improve is to allow the option of married priests and women priests. You can have pastoral administrators, pastoral associates, deacons and lay people taking on a variety of tasks, but only a priest can say Mass. Until the priesthood is opened to people other than celibate men, the shortage will continue. In other parts of the world, e.g., South America, the shortage of priests is horrific. Yet Rome does nothing to alleviate the problem. Why? The answer to that would make a very good seminar!
ReplyDeleteThe stats ARE truly staggering...
ReplyDeleteI don't think there is anything the archdiocese can do other than perhaps to value the clergy it does have in a much more intentional way than they do these days...
We must keep in mind that we cannot "recruit" vocations; a vocation is a calling from God...we can however encourage those who are feeling called to discern their vocation. We also need to understand that many of those who ARE feeling called are not all single, celibate men!
I pray each day for a deeper understanding and awareness of the ways in which the Holy Spirit is at work in all of this...
pjjbiker: 292, not 212, by 2015, although that's still painfully low!
ReplyDeleteThe Archdiocese (and every diocese) has a Vocations Office. You can link to the Boston Vocations Office through the website at www.rcab.org.
What individuals can do is to pray and personally encourage young men whom you think would make good priests to consider the ministry. Parents are in a unique position to do this but all might find opportunities for this.
As recently as my own youth, such encouragement was not unusual. Cultural change, ecclesial change and especially the abuse scandal have certainly eroded the attractiveness of ordained ministry as a way to spend one's life.
While I would welcome opening for discussion the options Daisy suggests, I am not easily persuaded that ordaining married men or women would resolve the present crisis. That is not to argue against such options but simply to indicate that the issues are deeper and broader than such changes could meet.
Parish Pastor, would you be willing to elaborate on "the issues are deeper and broader than such changes could meet."? Do you have any suggestions for how the priest shortage could be solved -- in the short- or long-term? Do we wait until it is at the crisis point? How is it to be solved? What are the priests who are in active parish ministry saying to each other? Any light you could shed on this from "an insider's point of view" would be most appreciated.
ReplyDeleteCleary Rome is not interested in creating the change necessary to respond to this situation. And perhaps the reasons really dont matter because in the long term the people of God will realize that they have to take matters into their own hands and create the church of the future. I look at edicts coming out of Rome and I recognize that they are hastening the end of the structure and organization as we know it. The sooner we realize that the future church is our responsibility to create, the sooner we can create a church that is truly vibrant again.
ReplyDeleteOf course there will be those who will claim that this is heresy and could lead to great division and pain. But I trust the Holy Spirit and believe that in the end we can create a new church that reflects all the energy of the Body of Christ. As a wise man once said, " Our helplessness is not a matter of powerlessness. It is a lack of vision."