Morning Read: And then there were 40 (North Country priests, that is)
I don’t usually highlight stories on the Morning Read that aren’t prepared by straight-up independent journalists.
But this piece by Mary Lou Killian, editor of the North Country Catholic Journal — a publication of the Diocese of Ogdensburg — caught my eye.
Killian lays out the vision of the Diocese for how the Roman Catholic church will transform here in our region over the next decade.
Over that period, she notes, more than a third of the priests who are now serving will be gone.
That means the total number of parishes with resident pastors will drop to forty, across a 12,000 square mile area. (See the map below.)
“It should be pointed out,” Sister Jennifer [Votraw] said, “that we expect that the parishes without a resident pastor will still have a vibrant parish life.
“They will be staffed by a non resident pastor as well as deacons, religious and laity assuming a much larger role in parish life.”
It’s this second piece — the growing role of lay-people, including women — almost as much as the declining number of priests, that could transform the experience of Roman Catholic worship and life in the region.
This map gives a sense for where priests will likely be headquartered under the new plan:
Read the full article here and as always comments and thoughts are welcome.
Tags: religion
If you read it and find it interesting and credible, why not highlight it? Whether it’s done by a journalist at a corporate paper or not.
This is a sad story, one that has been brewing for years.
Priests abusing minors is only a small part of the problem. The deeper problem is the instance of church leaders to reject democracy. They continue to live in a day of kings and queens and dress as though it is the 12th Century. They want women to serve in every way except as priests. It is always there way or the highway. You cannot discuss anything with them. They know it all.
“The Lord promised to be with us until the end of time but He didn’t say what form His Church would take,” Sister Jennifer said. “There have been many changes since AD 32 and there will be many more.”
From the article I think this says it all.
Also Pete the director of the planning process and the editor of the Catholic newspaper are both women.
We have 10,000 different Christian sects in this country if you don’t believe what the Church teaches or have faith in the leaders of the Catholic Church than choose another. That is the great thing about Christian life today in the US the diversity of ways to serve Christ.
There is an easy answer. Let priests marry. Let women be priests. Problem solved.
But you are assuming this is a problem. As Sister Jennifer said, the Church changes, this may be God’s will. Even with 40 priests you pretty well cover the entire area and do it better than many other churches. I don’t know I think the Church could do it with 20 priests. Look at other denominations in the North Country, how are they doing? Maybe this is an indicator that the laity can and should do more, that Permanent Deacons should do more. These are not bad developments for the Church.
Now marriage for some priests may be in the cards in the future I am not against it, it was practiced during our past and we have some married priests now (usually Episcopal Priest converts who were already married). But it should be done for spiritual reasons, not for some sort of marketing gimmick to encourage more people to be priests.
Mervel,
So what you are saying is that if you want to be a married Catholic priest you should first become an Episcopal priest and then convert? That sounds like a gimmick to me.
More lay involvement? Sure but what about the sacraments?