This is what the priest shortage has come down to

[hedgehog]

Today I couldn't pay attention to the reading on one of the most solemn feasts of the year (Palm Sunday) because I was expecting our pastor to collapse on the altar. He has a pacemaker and a defibrillator and isn't really supposed to be working at all. Right now he has a horrible respiratory infection on top of this. He choked his way through the first reading (Entry into Jerusalem) and handed off the other readings to a deacon and a retired priest who comes in to help out. At this point, I don't know if he'll be around for the Easter vigil or in the hospital. If he's not here, there's no one to conduct the Vigil.


I don't care about what Catholics in other countries think. My parish needs a priest. Set up an American Rite and give us a married clergy and a female clergy today.

[demosincebirth]

1. They have to do something, otherwise we will just be going to

church to receive comumion only.

[Matilda]

2. Officially, we have seven priests,

but that's for three churches.

On another thread I said the youngest was the p.p. who is 65 (actually I found out he's 62), but in
fact the youngest is about 50. He is a lawyer and a founder of Uniya Social Justice Association, and
he spends a lot of time away as an advocate for refugees and exploited peoples. That's why I forgot
about him, because we hardly ever see him.

The p.p. is healthy, and so is one other priest who is in his seventies, but a strong wind
could blow him away. He's more of an intellectual and does a lot of teaching - he's often at sea
when it comes to saying Mass and I don't think he'd be up to running a parish. We have one who
everybody thinks of as everything a priest should be, a wonderful man, but he's about 82 - he has
a bad back, but still carries out all his duties and I think he'll continue until he drops. One
also in his eighties has had both knees replaced and can't stand for long, so he says Mass sitting
in a special chair, and he doesn't give out communion. One has had two heart attacks and is
officially on sick leave, but it's doubtful he'll come back to work. And the last has had a stroke,
and although he's back at work, his mind isn't alert and he sometimes gets confused about what he's
supposed to be doing.

So in effect, we have one fully functioning priest and three who are effective to minister to three
parishes.

[AngryOldDem]

3. Wow....

Well, all I can say is, "Keep praying for vocations!"

:eyes:

I wonder if it's ever occurred to the Church that perhaps the Holy Spirit IS trying to send us a message via this shortage? Not that it is a direct result of birth control, or cafeteria Catholicism, or abandonment of the faith, or parents not encouraging their kids to explore vocations. Maybe the Holy Spirit is telling us that it's time to look at other options -- married male priests would be a great first baby step to take. Will the foundations of the Church collapse if this happens?

And there is an American rite -- don't know much about it, though.

It's a shame that priests will literally be worked to death because of basic shortsightedness and a blind allegiance to outdated tradition. Hope your priest is doing better.

[hedgehog]

4. I was thinking of the half dozen or so Eastern rite Catholic Churches

wa already have in the United States. They are in union with Rome and have married priests. Why not add an American Rite to our Latin Church? If there is one already in existence, that's news to me.

[AngryOldDem]

5. Found a Website for American Catholic Church...

...via a very quick Google search...http://www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/4136/. A long time ago on another forum here someone else mentioned the ACC, and I wish I had saved the link they posted. I'm sure there are other, better places that explain the ACC.

Rome will recognize the ACC when the proverbial pigs fly.

Something's gotta give here. When the hierarchy is seriously considering steps like grouping several far-flung parishes together under one priest, when they seriously tell the faithful that they may have to make do with communion services instead of Mass, or one Sunday Mass and no Saturday vigil -- both of which have been threatened in my archdiocese -- I can see many just breaking away and setting up their own churches.

Dogged adherence to tradition can lead to extinction.

[hedgehog]

6. That's where we're at.

A lot of people in my city have "gone over" to the Lutheran congregation over the years just because they've been mad at one priest or another. I'm not ready to accede to any of the above choices yet, but a lot of people will demand a Mass on Sunday and if they take a look at the Lutheran version (I hope I'm not being too impolite with my wording here.) they will opt to go to a Lutheran Mass over a Communion service. After all, we were enjoined "Do this in memory of me" not "Hold a communion service" in memory of me. After all the emphasis we've always placed on the importance of the Mass, I can's see Catholics being satisfied with a communion service week after week.

[AngryOldDem]

7. Neither can I

I used to go to early morning Mass at my old parish and some days a communion service was all it was. It wasn't enough. Then a few years later I went through a phase when I wanted nothing to do with the Church so I tried Episcopalian. For some reason, I didn't feel comfortable there, either, even though the rite is almost the same. I thought about looking, but never did, into the Lutheran Church. Simply put, I like Mass. I like the rite. It offers me something that I can't find or have anyplace else. To think that the hierarchy is willing to hold the Mass "hostage" to lack of vocations...I just don't know.

I think the loss of the Mass will be thing that will push the priest issue over the edge. Rome WILL have to reopen discussion on it -- to think that it can continue to shout "Case closed!" as JPII did, is nothing but delusion.

Then again (and I have been soundly critized for this) there are days when I think we should just split from Rome entirely.

[hedgehog]

8. Update: Holy Thursday was devastating

Our pastor made it through the washing of the feet, but I felt criminal for not stopping him. I swear he's lost twenty pounds since Sunday. He planned to make this Lent and Eastertide so meaningful, and I can see that he's had to shorten the liturgies. It's heartbreaking. Last night was a Mass based on the Seder but it was so short that unless you knew the background beforehand, I'm not certain you would have been able to understand everything that was happening.


I used to console people who were frustrated at the slow rate of change that we would have to wait for the old generation to pass before the changes would come, but it is a terrible thing to watch.

[AngryOldDem]

9. Sorry to hear this

Seeing this should make a lot of people think. But it probably won't.


:(

[tjwmason]

10. To be fair - the Church of England has a growing Priest shortage too.

Where most clergy are married and many are female.

I'm afraid that there's no easy answer to this one.

English Catholics are actually producing more vocations now - however, the number of Priests here is falling because we used to import vast numbers of Irish Priests where vocations have taken a massive fall.

[Matilda]

11. Part of the problem is probably the increase of other options.

In England, for example, in the upper classes the eldest son inherited
everything. So any remaining sons generally went into the Church or
the Army. Nobody worried whether they had a true vocation, or any
ability at all for that matter, so they were probably often not very
good at the job. But they made up the numbers.

And for Catholic girls who were unlikely to marry there was also the
religious life.

Now there are many other options open to people who don't have inherited
wealth.

We're probably seeing now how few really did have vocations.

[hedgehog]

12. Bingo!

(After all, we are posting in the Catholic and Orthodox Christian Group)

I can remember in the 70's and the 80's all the women of all ages, some young and some in their 60's who left the convent because they realized that the fact that they had never been happy there maybe was a sign that they didn't have a vocation. I knew two sisters who entered the convent together right out of the orphanage because they felt they had no other option way back when. There's a difference between giving up things and giving up yourself. A vocation shouldn't hurt.

There were many Catholic priests over the years who took orders because the priest was seen as one of the richest men in the parish. We're talking Depression era here. WE're getting away from that, too.