Image: Nature's Health Foods
I have seen my future - on the front page of the Boston Globe!
Michael Paulson reports that Fr. Jack Ahearn has been appointed the pastor of not one, not two but three parishes in Dorchester. The bad news is that I'm young enough for this to happen to me. The good news is that I'm old enough that it might not be a long assignment.
More good news: the prospect is at least as challenging as it is daunting.
Naming one priest pastor of multiple parishes happens all the time in other parts of the US and all around the world but it's relatively new in New England and this is the first instance in the archdiocese of one man being assigned to lead three parish communities. Michael Paulson reports:
Scholars say that 40 percent of priests in America already serve more than one parish, but the phenomenon has been rare in the urban Northeast, where the high Catholic population for decades generated a high number of priests.Seems that closing and merging parishes has been tried but the heat of that experience is keeping the cooks out of the kitchen.
Now inexorable demographic shifts are catching up with the Archdiocese of Boston, where the priest population is getting smaller and older, the number of people who identify as Catholic is declining, and many churchgoing Catholics have migrated away from the urban centers where most churches are located. The archdiocese already has 14 priests who oversee two parishes; the Rev. John J. Ahern will be the first to oversee three when he takes over Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Holy Family, and St. Peter parishes in May.
"The reality is that in the very near future we will not have the number of priests to meet the number of parishes we have, and so we need to be efficient and effective in the use of our resources," said the Rev. Richard M. Erikson, vicar general of the archdiocese. "This is, on the one hand, a continuation of a trend that has already begun in the archdiocese, but it is also a preview of what we expect to be happening down the road."
The major benefit to assigning multiple parishes to a priest is that it allows the diocese to avoid closing the parishes. But the move can be stressful and exhausting for the priest, who must find a way to juggle all the sacramental needs - baptisms, weddings, funerals, and Masses - at multiple locations, while trying to get to know parishioners and minister to them in less formal ways.
(read Michael Paulson's complete article)
Here's the nouvelle cuisine approach:
- with a sharp knife, cut a pastor into 3 or more roughly equal pieces
- season with very little thyme
- pound with tenderizing hammer until limp
- marinate 24 hours in a mixture of sage, bitters and Jack Daniels
- toss with leftovers from parish potlucks
- cook in crock pot on high until well done.
Serves: 1,600 households
Bon appetit!
-ConcordPastor
*Sigh*
ReplyDeleteI always wonder - what is the invitation from God here? I speak to that in the larger sense, not the one that says Father Austin, prepare the crockpot! The notion of a question on the Feast of the Annunciation is not lost here.
Are there many Parish Life Directors in your Archdiocese? There are a number of them here in the Albany diocese, but there is still a stretch all the way around and many PLD's, particularly if they are women, can meet with many challenges.
In my own parish where I worship we are 3000 families, although not all are active. It is a big parish and we have one priest - our pastor.
Where I work we have 2000 families and one priest - the pastor.
It is not easy for either priest I can assure you and I am sure you can imagine.
To change the geography to 3 parishes is harder. Imagine that then in a more rural setting.
Fran
Did you say "crock pot?"
ReplyDeleteor CRACK Pot?
I'm thinking crack pot, and consider drinking the marinate!!
Sure...just add a little more stress into the lives of the Priests in our Diocese. It may seem the only way to keep churches open, but a certainly bad idea when it comes to the health and well being of the priests we have left. Things like this have given me even more reason to feel as though I need to pull away and find a Church more stable.
ReplyDeleteFran,
ReplyDeleteWe have no Parish Life Directors in the Archdiocese of Boston. Our archbishop, Cardinal Sean O'Malley does not seem inclined to go in that direction (at least not for now.)
CP, I am glad that you are attempting to have a sense of humor about your potential fate!
Rosemary
In the local Episcopal diocese we have what we call "clusters." They are groups of parishes that are geographically somewhat close to each other who are served by one priest and sometimes share some other personnel (I think). But we do this because so many of our parishes are so small they can't afford to pay a priest full-time, not because we have a shortage of priests. (After all, we ordain single and married men and women, gay and straight and everything in between. End of commercial message)
ReplyDeleteThere are somewhat complicated formulas for what a parish must pay a priest, based on average Sunday attendance, number of pledging units, size of parish budget, and whether the parish provides housing. Certain benefits are mandatory. This was put into place to protect priests from being more badly paid than this formula provides for. The pay is still not generous unless you're at a *really* big church. I believe there may be provisions for the formula to be waived if the priest requests, but those would probably have to go up to a diocesan committee and likely be signed off on by the bishop.
I know a fair amount about this because before I went to the Cathedral I was very active in a small parish which was struggling to stay afloat. We couldn't afford a full-time Rector, and eventually we found someone who wanted to work with us part-time. A whole new category of leadership designation was invented by the covenant with that person, who became our "Priest in Residence." Ironically, he didn't move into the Rectory. LOL
Sorry. I'm going on and on.
From that picture I thought you'd be sharing recipes with us -- taking all that knowledge from dining at good restaurants and applying them in your own kitchen. Nope, huh? I mean aside from slicing and dicing yourself!
Bon appetit!
It's even more difficult when the pastor has a parish school to oversee as well as all his other duties and stresses. Hopefully at some point the Boston Archdiocese will take this off the plate of the overburdened pastor. The parochial schools should be separate from the parish, a different model than we have now, not the responsibility of the parish priest.
ReplyDeleteThis is the kind of post that reminds me why I blog- for the communal interaction and conversation.
ReplyDeleteAnna's comment makes me sad, but I guess I can understand. I guess when I think of what makes the church more stable I don't think of the priests or hierarchy alone, but rather think of all of us, the Body of Christ.
The role of PLD is a potentially controversial one, even in a diocese like my own where there are many of them. That said, I am not going to go off on a riff about lay/clerical issues on all sides, even when the best of intentions are in place.
We have clusters in the Albany diocese and I think that they are found in many dioceses. The parish I worship in is in a 3 parish cluster and we have 3 priests. The parish where I work is in a 3 parish cluster - two priests and one PLD, who is a Deacon. One of the priests is close to retirement, so we are not sure what may happen next.
There are many responsibilities in the best case scenarios and it does get harder - especially with schools as mentioned above.
I pray for all the priests but I also pray for our church to (insert Annunciation related pun here) say yes to what may be happening.
Fran
Seems to me that in the future other options for the role of pastor will have to be considered... options such as a married priesthood and women priests... unfortunately Boston and the rest of the Church will have to undergo alot of pain before that happens...and hopefully the faithful will stay around long enough to see it happen. I suspect that such changes will eventually have to come from the faithful themselves, not the hierarchy...the hierarchy is caught up in its own issues of money, power and control.( Just look at what happened in Connecticut when the Legislature tried to change the legal entity of the Roman Catholic corporation in CT so that a lay board would control the finances of each parish...all hell broke loose.) Perhaps some day a group like the Voice of the Faithful will recognize its own women priests and married priests... I just hope that it won't be too late.
ReplyDeleteWe need married priests and women priests NOW...then there will be no shortage...as there's no shortage of wonderful married men and women who would make great priests now. Do you think that'll happen in our lifetime, CP?
ReplyDeleteI am not nearly so easily convinced as is "anonymous" that optional celibacy or the ordination of women would provide priests in abundance.
ReplyDeleteJust recently Cardinal Egan of NY commented that the question of optional celibacy is one the Church could entertain. Rare to hear something like that from someone in his position.
I agree with you, Concord Pastor...
ReplyDelete'anonymous': how are you so sure that there is 'no shortage of married men and women who would make great priests'?
just asking...