Parish life and leadership...

Last week's papal visit included flourishes of hierarchical pomp and circumstance with cardinals, bishops, priests and deacons all over the place! The casual observer might have been led to think that there are plenty of ordained Catholic clergy ministering in the Church. We know, of course, that such is not the case and that the number of ordained ministers is shrinking quickly. While prayer and work for vocations is a serious responsibility for all of us, we have other calls to answer and they cannot be put off.

This post offers just a slice of the work the Church in America faces.

This week three members of my Parish Pastoral Council are participating in a conference in Orlando organized by the Emerging Models of Pastoral Leadership Project. Check here for a summary of the Project's mission and goals.

It becomes increasingly apparent to me that the remainder of my active ministry will need to be dedicated in great measures to working towards structures of parish life and ministry supported largely by lay leadership. In a nearby town the retirement of the pastor of one of two Catholic parishes will soon lead to the other priest being named pastor of both faith communities. Before my own retirement, a decade away, it's more than possible that I would find myself in a like situation.

While the appropriateness of lay parish leadership is not born of the dwindling number of priests, it is precisely that situation that brings us to the strategic brink where ownership of parish ministry by the laity will become the reality or else the parish structure will cease to exist.

Our parish staff, councils, commissions and ministries have begun a serious effort at looking towards the parish of 2018 and preparing for it. A Pastoral Planning Study commissioned by the Archdiocese of Boston (see sidebar for link), start sacramental statistics for the archdiocese and the recent Pew Forum Survey on the Landscape of religious life in the US are some of the resources from which we are working.

Since the readership here is far broader than the Boston area, perhaps others with more experience might share some experiences and thoughts on these issues.

-ConcordPastor