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Good news - bad news PDF Print E-mail

First the Bad News:
    The Nov. 23, 2007 issue of Commonweal had an article by Fr. Paul Stanosz entitled, “The Other Health Crisis.”  It related how parish priests are experiencing high stress, poor health, and low morale.  “More and more priests,” Stanosz wrote “are battling burnout and depression, as well as suffering heart attacks and dying prematurely.” He also predicted a sharp decline in Mass attendance because the younger adults are at such a distance from the Church.  “It seems unlikely that young people who have only the foggiest understanding of the Catholic tradition will suddenly return to the Church as adults.  Furthermore, the rate at which Catholics marry outside the Church is skyrocketing.  As a result, Roman Catholicism in the next two decades will almost certainly face the sort of enormous decline that mainline Protestant denominations suffered in the 1960s.”

Stanosz goes on to say that the first task for priests and parishioners alike is to acknowledge and accept the decline of U.S. Catholicism.  “Embracing this reality decreases my anxiety, sharpens my vision, makes my expectations more realistic, and makes my spirit less likely to burn out; it leads me to care for my health, so that I will be able to care for those entrusted to me. . . .  As I see it, the greatest threat to priests’ well-being is denial.”  
    For a variety of reasons, Catholic parishes will have a smaller membership and fewer people attending church regularly.  This could solve the priests’ shortage as fewer people come to Mass.  It makes sense considering how people are reacting to poor liturgy, short-sighted planning and institutional abuses – with their feet.  But there is also much evidence of new vitality, creativity and renewal in parishes as well.  

Some Good News :
    What follows are examples of creative responses to stem the tide.  A pastor, realizing that he is ill-equipped to handle the administrative and personnel duties of the parish enters into partnership with a gifted retired parishioner who shares the load.  The pastor is now free to do the spiritual and sacramental work for which he was trained.  As a result, staff members become more effective in their ministry, lay leaders have more to show from their efforts, parishioners, sensing new life in the parish, become more involved.
    A youth minister forms a Core Team of six high school seniors and three adults.  The team con-structs a structure that invites teenagers into coordinating groups covering such areas as worship and prayer, socializing, learning about their faith, participating in service projects and handling administrative duties such as fund-raising, budgeting, email connections and communications.  The program thrives and grows under this inclusive, participative model.  At the end of the school year, the seniors choose their successors from among the juniors in the program, picking those who had proven themselves to be good leaders.  
    Fifteen parishioners make a commitment to spend thirty weeks in the JustFaith program.  They learn firsthand about poverty, injustices and oppression.  At the end of the program they sponsor a series of parish town hall meetings on social issues as a way of fostering dialogue among parishioners.  As a result, more people volunteer to take part in the soup kitchen, service trips to other countries, visiting the sick.
    The Pastoral Council sponsors a gathering of Anglo and Hispanic parishioners.  The seventy who attend form a large circle in the gym, make contact with someone from the other culture.  With the help of an interpreter, they get to know each other so they can introduce their partner to the gathering as a whole.  
    Everyone between the ages of 18 and 35 is identified and invited to a planning meeting to discuss how to spend a special grant of $2500 for young adults.  Forty people show up and split into two groups, one for singles and one for married couples.  They brainstorm ideas of how to use the money that would fit the needs of each group.  The singles begin with a volleyball tournament, the couples with a baby sitting service.

 

Tom Sweetser, SJ & Peg Bishop, OSF
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(www.pepparish.org)
Parish Newsletter - February, 2008
A Service of the Parish Evaluation Project
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Reproduced on the OPRFM website with permission

 

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