A question

[hedgehog]

Given the shortage of priests, why do so many bishops insist on having a priest serve as their personal chauffeur?

[DemBones DemBones]

1. Considering the priest shortage,

why have priests teaching high school/college/seminary? Why have priests as canon lawyers and judges? Why have priests working in the chancery offices? Why have priests working in the Vatican offices? Why have priests working as theologians?

(Warning) much :sarcasm: ahead

Get all those priests out there in the parishes! Use outsourcing and temps to replace them in the jobs they're doing now and save money -- no, wait, priests aren't paid much, anyway. Still, outsourcing and temps are the wave of the future. Just give a temp a two-week course in canon law, moral theology, or whatever, and s/he can do the job, whatever it is. And we don't have to give temps any benefits at all.

Let's institute accountability for priests, too -- make them write extensive plans for how they'll serve their parishioners and submit these plans to the bishop every week. Also have the bishops go out three or four times a year, unnanounced, and evaluate the priests in their parishes, marking them down if anyone looks bored or talks during Mass. A good priest keeps his parishioners On Task at all times!

Oh, and no more sitting or kneeling during Mass -- makes the priest look like he's not doing anything, all that resting on the job. Let him stand throughout the Mass. Occasional genuflection permitted, of course, as long as Father doesn't appear to be resting. Since teachers are now told never to sit behind their desks, to "teach on their feet" at all times, why should priests sit down during the hymns or the first and second readings? No "efficiency expert" would ever allow such a thing.

Let's get timeclocks in every parish office, too, in case Father is taking too long for lunch or coming in after 8. Of course, if he works 8-5 one day, spends the evening attending a parish function and is called out in the middle of the night to give a parishioner the last rites, he might "clock" 12 hours or more and think he should get some comp time the next day or so. Wrong! The * administration-controlled Congress has done away with overtime (which priests never got, of course) so employers aren't required to give comp time, either. All for the good of the holy corporation, of course. If it works for corporate America, why won't it work for the Church?

:evilgrin:


But seriously, the priest shortage is occurring in the US and Europe, not in Africa, Asia, or South America. The US is importing a lot of priests from those continents, from the Philippines, and from Ireland, because vocations are much stronger and greater in number outside the US and Europe. It's the American and European Catholic Church that faces a shortage of priests and even that is not in every diocese. Some dioceses actually have an abundance of young men wanting to be priests ordained to the diocese.

[The Jacobin]

2. I have seen several imported priests.

I live in the Diocese of Fort Worth (Texas). About six years ago we still had three priests from the local diocese. Ever since, we have had one of the positions filled by a succession of priests from India. The younger ones are very effective. The older ones are not - mostly because they have a much thicker accent and more formal behavior.

As an aside, my parish has been around for about 40 years. It is my understanding there has NEVER been even a seminarian from our parish. I am the director for RCIA in the parish and started asking others in leadership positions what they thought. I was shocked when many said they did or would actively discourage their sons to become priests. The rest were tepid to the idea -- none said they would be delighted to have a priest as a son.

My wife and I have talked about it. We have two very young daughters (under the age of three) and are not really sure how to approach it.