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LETTERS to the Editor
Let us know what you’re thinking! Write to pthorp.ed@votf.org
[Dan Dick of VOTF Worcester, Mass., writes on a crisis
in the Worcester diocese
in the Jan. 13 issue Worcester
Telegram & Gazette.]
The enduring withering of church attendance and the continuing shortage
of priests, especially in New England, portends a crisis in the next decade
and beyond that is not fully appreciated or seriously addressed.
The situation in the diocese of Worcester, MA, indeed throughout New England,
as presented in a recent newspaper report by the religion editor of the Worcester
Telegram & Gazette, tells the story:
“… the Worcester diocese, which has 125 parishes, has only 148
priests and only two men are being ordained this year. ‘It’s
staggering,’ he (Rev. Carmody) said. ‘The priests still on duty
are aging and several are moving toward retirement age of 75,’ he
added. Rev. Carmody, who is past 60, said 23 of the priests are over
70, 41 are
in the 60-69 age range and there are fewer men in the 20s and 30s...
He said he believes Bishop McManus should begin talking with the people
of the Diocese
of Worcester about the priest shortage and what the ramifications will
be.”
A little simple arithmetic forecasts that 15 years from now the number of
priests will be reduced to about 100; 25 years from now, the number will
be even lower. Some anecdotal observation tells me that, since the Church
has lost so many baby boomers whose children are not being brought up in
the faith, the number of people who can support a parish along traditional
lines is also dwindling.
This also means that fewer parishes will be making much reduced contributions
to charitable work and administrative overhead at the chancery levels. In
addition, there is the splintering of the Church as our growing Hispanic
population seeks churches that address their needs and styles of worship.
As a result, the Church is shrinking, will continue to shrink for the foreseeable
future, and those who manage it seem to have no real strategy for addressing
the problem.
One solution is to cluster or to combine parishes, with two or three or
four being consolidated into one. Another is to hunker down and try to hold
onto some semblance of the way things were, according to the rules and laws
that are out of step with the modern world.
This is becoming one big Catch-22. As the membership shrivels, as the priest
shortage grows, as the universality of the Church splinters, chaos begins
to raise its inevitable head.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. A few corrective measures, apparently
but not really as threatening as they might seem, are worth considering:
-
Have the clergy and hierarchy leave the management and
administration of the churches, at every level, to qualified managers of
nonprofit organizations.
The customary accountability and transparency of such lay management
would be adhered to.
- Open the priesthood to women, to married clergy, and remove the stigma
of the homosexual priest.
- Open up and thoroughly revise the education and training of those who desire
to become priests, whatever their gender and sexual orientation. Change the
orientation from being a priest as all-knowing teacher to that of being a
minister who serves.
- . Formulate and incorporate a constitutional form of governance at every
level of the new organization. In the process, identify those offices and
roles that are to be elective and those that are to be appointive. Ensure
that all members have a means whereby participation by all is involved in
the selection of every elective position.
- Remove the name, “Roman” and related nomenclature and title
form every vestige, form of address, and style of dress that connotes the
monarchical, the imperial, the triumphal.
- Allow for and encourage the formation of parishes as determined by a community
of people who desire to come together and who subscribe to the constitution
of such communities. Any such community shall always be open to others who
also wish to worship there. Where necessary, remove the burden of expensive
real estate from the shoulders of the congregation. In short, become the
pilgrim Church we once were and to which we need to return.
VOTF member Mary Scanlon writes about Bishop Gumbleton’s
courage:
Surely it has taken a lot of courage for Bishop Gumbleton to step away from
the solidarity of the red mitres and to take his place with the shunned.
He must be a man of faith, hope, and love. His courageous step at this time
in the lay movement toward shared responsibility and decision making in the
Church will, I hope, shorten the distance between the hierarchy and the laity,
for we are all just frail human sisters and brothers trying to work our way
through life. The human condition is such that some of us have great talent,
good looks, heroism, good health, good fortune, etc, and others of us have
less - either because of innate gifts or force of character. The world would
feel like a friendlier, more hospitable, place if we viewed our humanity
as a call to support one another instead of a contest.
My deep-down hope is that Bishop Gumbleton's acknowledgment of his own
abuse by clergy effect a significant shift in sentiment. I hope and pray
that Bishop Gumbleton's courage and candor will affect us all so that we
are able to see the problem not as We versus Them, but as all people of
integrity facing injustice together and resolving to make it stop.
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