COMMENTARY

VOICE OF THE FAITHFUL, SEACOAST, MA AFFILIATE - "Parish Life Without a Resident Priest/Pastor" - a presentation by Sister Mary Mazza, C.N.D.

Thanks for the following recap by Eleanora Paciulan of Seacoast VOTF, MA

In planning a public meeting related to VOTF Goal # 3, Structural Change, the Seacoast Affiliate of the Voice of the Faithful explored innovative programs and discovered that some dioceses in the United States have already made Church-approved changes in response to the priest shortage. These changes expand the role of other religious and the laity. Pope John Paul II promulgated a revision in Canon Law that included a new canon, Canon 517, which addressed the shortage of priests in several regions of the world. This canon reflects the concepts of team ministry, collaboration, and pastoral service that have roots in the teaching of the Second Vatican Council. Canon 517.2 provides "official permission" to appoint lay Catholics to lead parishes; the local Bishop has the authority to decide whether and when to appoint lay diocesan leaders. This means that the source of the layperson's authority to lead a Catholic parish rests entirely in the Bishop.

The Bishop of Albany and other American bishops have appointed qualified deacons, women religious, and lay people as Parish Life Directors. Those selected must meet education and experience standards and demonstrate personal and professional skills and maturity, as well as a commitment to grow spiritually and demonstrate a well-developed sense of Church. Seacoast Affiliate Co-coordinator Mary Fitzsimmons invited Sister Mary Mazza, Parish Life Director at St. Patrick Parish in Athens, NY, to speak on the topic "Parish Life without a Resident Priest/Pastor" on Monday, January 31, 2005 at Church of the Nativity Hall, Merrimac, MA. Sister Mary's presentation dealt with her responsibilities that include all aspects of pastoral care of a parish except performing the sacraments and lay leadership and life in a parish without a priest-pastor. This presentation had special relevance for members of the five Seacoast parishes affected by the reconfiguration process - they must make a recommendation to the Archdiocese on how they would share two priests.

Sister Mary's dynamic presentation included song, prayer, Scripture reading and storytelling, as well as descriptions of life in a parish without a resident pastor and the Parish Life Director's role, which evoked many questions from the audience. Sister Mary very quickly taught the fifty attendees a song that invited God into our hearts that was followed by a reading on the Beatitudes from Matthew's Gospel. She stressed that Jesus' message is very simple: believers will not be left orphans in any age; therefore we need not be troubled or afraid. We exist as Church to bring about the reign of God. As she described her present position, which she has held since November 2003, Sister Mary demonstrated that she not only had the professional qualifications, but also the intellect and personal characteristics to be successful. Sister is a multi-talented woman with an upbeat, enthusiastic personality and superb interpersonal skills. She is a well-prepared teacher who delivers her presentation with humor, love and a deep and abiding faith.

Sister has been a member of the Congregation of Notre Dame for thirty-nine years and had served in many ministries from Rhode Island to Montana before arriving at St Patrick Parish in Athens, NY. She was sensitive to the needs of her new parishioners who were mourning the sudden death of their beloved pastor of twenty-eight years. Because the parishioners realized that they were faced with either the parish closing or accepting a Parish Life Director, they graciously received Sister Mary. She noted her two greatest challenges: there had been no change in liturgical practices over many years and, at the onset of her ministry, parishioners divided into small, separate groups when they met with her. She met with each group and after much listening, the parishioners acknowledged their interdependency and committed themselves to the community concept, Sister Mary took on the first challenge, liturgical change, during the Lenten season. Choir members, who had formerly only been required to sing "Amazing Grace" before Mass and "How Great Thou Art" at the end, practiced five hours each week to prepare for Holy Week; at the present time about 40-50% of the parishioners are involved as volunteers.

Sister stated that the Bishop of Albany, Bishop Hubbard, is a visionary who does not believe that one priest should be the pastor of three to five parishes. In Athens, two priests share a Sacramental ministry; one of them, a prison chaplain comes to the parish three weekends each month to celebrate Mass, and the second, the Diocesan Advocate for Priests, comes on one weekend. Sister is responsible for planning the liturgy for weekend Masses as well as funerals and weddings; the sacraments of initiation, Baptism and First Eucharist, are celebrated with the community at weekend Mass. Decisions made by the Pastoral Council are by consensus and a Finance Council was recently established; prior to this, parish volunteers with computer and accounting expertise set up a database for the parish census and assisted with parish finance matters. The only paid parish employee is a part-time maintenance worker. Lay people have answered Sister's call for help whenever she has asked, such as roof repair and painting. The Chair of the Maintenance Committee is an engineer and members of the Finance Committee prepared the parish budget. She said these are areas in which she lacks expertise.

There is a cluster of three parishes within a 15-minute drive working cooperatively on Advent, Lent, and Faith Formation initiatives; they are working towards hiring a Religious Education professional who will coordinate their joint efforts.

Sister Mary opened the session for questions: Her responses to some of the many questions asked were as follows:

• Sister does not do communion services during the week, but does lead a prayer service, the Liturgy of the Hours, every Thursday. St. Patrick Parish is the middle parish of the cluster of three and the other two have daily Mass; when a new pastor comes to one of these churches in July, she hopes that there will be a rotation of weekday Masses among the churches.

• There are 250 families registered in her parish, but she thinks there are probably close to 400, indicating there is a need for some evangelization. She described Athens as having two sections, the village where some families have lived since the 1700s, and the town, which includes a lake and is developing more rapidly than the village.

• There is a Discernment process. There has been a Catholic presence in Athens since 1921 and when diocesan personnel met with the parishioners they saw the potential for development. Registered parishioners have great participation.

• When she arrived, the role of liturgical ministers was very limited. There is now ongoing training of future ministry volunteer trainers. She said that she is attempting to do forty years of liturgical renewal in one year, an impossible but necessary task. The parishioners are asking for training.

• While she honors the budget, especially her personal one, she noted that the rectory had not been maintained for twenty-eight years and was in need of a new boiler and other capital improvements. Contingency for unexpected expenses is part of the capital improvement line item. She said that parishioners support much the way New Englanders do - Sunday collection is about $1,600 and this year's Christmas collection was close to $4,000. In general, new people moving in are better off than senior citizens and others who live in the depressed section of the parish.

• There are seventeen Parish Life Directors (PLDs) in the Diocese of Albany, which covers a large geographic area. Although most PLDs serve in rural areas, Sister said she saw no reason that they couldn't work in urban areas. PLDs do administer the sacraments and if someone in the parish is sick, Sister suggests that the priest administer the Sacrament of the Sick before death is imminent. She will journey with those who are mortally ill in their final moments. She stated that we all have gifts to bring about the reign of God.

[For the rest of this report, please email your request to pthorp.ed@votf.org and note Sr. Mary Mazza in your subject line]

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