S P E C I A L R E P O R T : T H E C H A N G I N G C H U R C H

Cincinnati Enquirer ^ | May 2, 2004 | Enquirer Staff

[Maximilian]

S P E C I A L R E P O R T : T H E C H A N G I N G C H U R C H
Imagine no priests to celebrate Mass

Catholics have worried for years about the vanishing ranks of priests – and now, the impact is here. A severe priest shortage here is causing parishes to close and lay people to conduct more weddings, baptisms and funerals. By decade’s end, the Archdiocese of Cincinnati expects only 100 priests to serve more than a half million Catholics, a projection that’s spurring more change than ever. In a three-day special report, The Enquirer examines what’s happening in one of the nation’s most heavily Catholic regions.

IMPACT OF VANISHING PRIESTS HITS HOME

As early as this summer, the pace of change will quicken, potentially affecting more than half a million Catholics. The changes represent the most dramatic shifts in the church in 40 years, requiring priests and lay Catholics to rethink their roles.

The Reality is Altering Catholics' Lives

For decades, as the number of priests dwindled, Catholics worried about the future of their church.

That future is now.

In Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, parishes that served generations are closing or merging with others. Catholic school kids are being taught by lay teachers. "Sunday celebrations" without priests are replacing traditional mass. And that's just a start.

As early as this summer, the pace of change will quicken, potentially affecting more than half a million Catholics - one in every five people in the region. The changes represent the most dramatic shifts in the church in 40 years, requiring priests and lay Catholics to rethink their roles.

Archbishop: 'You have to change a little'

Cincinnati Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk will meet with church leaders in June to discuss ways of dealing with a severe shortage of priests. His thoughts today:

The Enquirer: Will you close any parishes?

Pilarczyk: "If a parish gets 50 people on Sunday, it's probably not going to have a full-time priest and not have a part-time priest. It's probably not going to be around....

What ministries might be affected by the priest shortage?

"Marriage instruction ... the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults, liturgy planning, catechesis - it's all done by lay people.... Deacons preside at weddings, baptisms. They teach, they preach. That's all going on already.

"There's a new liturgical rite, called Sunday Service in the Absence of a Priest, a Communion service with readings and a sermon. We have not incorporated that in our diocese because it's my understanding that's for really extreme situations, like Alaska, where the priest gets there four times a year."

Will there be more priest-less weddings, funerals and baptisms?

"It's just a matter of time before everybody will experience some of this.... There are a lot of people who would like their parish to be just like it was in the 1950s.... Want to live in 2004? Well, you have to change a little bit."

[AZLiberty]

By decade’s end, the Archdiocese of Cincinnati expects only 100 priests to serve more than a half million Catholics

They'll just have to take a hint from those big Baptists churches in Texas: 20,000 people in what they can call a mass-production mass.

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

What more can be said? Everything is going according to plan.

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

Ping

[Maximilian]

For anyone who wants to think that "things are getting better," here is a big dose of reality. This is a huge special section in the Cincinnati Enquirer Sunday edition, with a big color photo above the fold, with several different articles and features, and additional articles stretching out over the next few days. It is no longer going to work to close our eyes and hope that the bogeyman goes away. The story is too big to ignore any longer, like the scandal story was a year or two ago.

The hierarchy have deliberately worked the situation to the point where soon there will be virtually no priests. That chart looks like a roller coaster ride, but actually it doesn't even begin to tell the story. The worst is still ahead, by far. Having gone from almost 500 priests 4 decades ago to only 205 active priests today, the reality is that those 205 priests are rapidly aging and dying. Current projections are for only 100 priests in the near future. That will be only 1/5 as many as there were on the day that Vatican II was convened.

But according to the new vision espoused by Archbishop Pilarczyk and others, that will be okay because we won't need priests anyway. Our new model of the Church will be radically different. Priests will only be used to say the magic words over the hosts in an assembly-line consecration from which hosts will be distributed out to the parishes for distribution by non-priests.

Note the final line by Pilarczyk -- "This isn't the 1950's anymore." No indeed, it is not. This is a brave new world for the Catholic Church. And anyone who still has their eyes closed had better wake up to what's in store for them.

P.S. This is the second time in the past few weeks that Pilarczyk has gotten himself featured on the top of the front page of the Cincinnati Enquirer. The previous occasion was when he came out in favor of gay rights legislation for Cincinnati, in opposition to the dedicated work of Catholic laymen who had succeeded several years ago in eliminating special privileges for gays. Let's see... gay rights legislation, no more priests in the diocese, can we detect a pattern developing?

[Gerish]

Want to live in 2004? Well, you have to change a little bit."

Would it not be wonderful if more parents encouraged their sons to enter the priesthood! I have often said to people how I hope one of my sons will become a priest later in their lives and all I receive back is apathy. Yes, it would be nice for them to have a nice career and have lots of money like the world wants them to do. But I am looking beyond this world and care more about their souls and my responsibility to make sure they have the right tools instilled in them to get to Heaven. How often I have to teach all my children to look beyond this world, to live as Jesus did and follow his divine example even if it means giving up everything. Please, everyone pray for vocations!!!

[ultima ratio]

Anybody still want to pretend the Protestants haven't taken over Catholicism? It has been the agenda from the beginning--to eliminate the Mass and the priesthood altogether. Meanwhile JPII has been writing some nifty nature poetry, I understand.

[St.Chuck]

Looks like if a Catholic will want a priest around he will have to start attending an indult. Good way for a more orthodocx Catholicism to take root. Ha hah! Better days are just around the corner.

[St.Chuck]

It has been the agenda from the beginning--to eliminate the Mass and the priesthood altogether.

Stupid agenda...C'est impossible!

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

The only way to save the Church, particularly in America, is to grant the universal Indult.

The SSPX could be the new Jesuits and JPII's best friends. All it takes is one word.

[StAthanasiustheGreat]

With dioceses like these, I cannot fault those faithful Catholics who attend SSPX chapels' and the like, because the shephards of various dioceses are false shephards.

[Revenge of Sith]

"Having gone from almost 500 priests 4 decades ago to only 205 active priests today, the reality is that those 205 priests are rapidly aging and dying. Current projections are for only 100 priests in the near future."

Regarding the priest shortage, none of the statistics even take into account the priests who will be laicized in order to get married.

[thor76]

Yes, it is an agenda in Cincinatti, New York, and everywhere. Yes, our priesthood is better then 70% gay in some areas. Do they care - oh yes, for anything which hastens the agenda: which is the destruction of the church as a vital moral voice in the world (a NWO agenda), and as a purveyor of the sacraments, which is a demonic agenda. They have been absolutely drooling for the chance to close churches - I have heard some of them say so, to my face. To what end, this agenda? As one very liberal, gay priest told me with a gleam in his eye - when I brought up the subject of the decline in church attendance in mainstream Christian demoninations: "it doesn't matter - they will all be one soon". I will leave you and any other readers to discern the meaning of this in light of scriptural and private prophecy. I will give you a clue: he does not mean that all will convert to a traditional Catholicism!

[sinkspur]

Regarding the priest shortage, none of the statistics even take into account the priests who will be laicized in order to get married.

JPII does not laicize priests who leave to marry. Laicization seems to be reserved for sexual abusers.

[Revenge of Sith]

"JPII does not laicize priests who leave to marry. Laicization seems to be reserved for sexual abusers."

"Laicized" is the word used for priests who leave on good terms (in most cases) to marry. "Defrocked" is the word used for priests who are expelled for scandalous reasons, such as the pedophiles.

[sinkspur]

"Laicized" is the word used for priests who leave on good terms (in most cases) to marry. "Defrocked" is the word used for priests who are expelled for scandalous reasons, such as the pedophiles.

Use whatever word you wish.

JPII does not approve requests for laicization for priests who "leave on good terms." If a priest leaves to marry, he cannot be married in the Church, since he's not laicized.

Interestingly, a tiny few of these priests are coming back, after their wives die or they divorce.

[Torie]

Anybody still want to pretend the Protestants haven't taken over Catholicism

I think that requires the changing of the authority of the Pope to do that (among other things), and until that happens, the "takeover" is less than complete. Has the takeover been by Protestants in general, or by some particular sects? This secular humanist near atheist WASP is curious as to who you think is after your faith.

[Revenge of Sith]

"JPII does not approve requests for laicization for priests who "leave on good terms." If a priest leaves to marry, he cannot be married in the Church, since he's not laicized."

I know of priests who were laicized to get married under John Paul II. Unless he recently stopped it or added new restrictions, the procedure is in the 1983 Code of Canon Law.

[lainde]

bump and thanks!

[saradippity]

What a bunch of pish-posh,the poor priests that are left are probably bored to death. Look,at what he says;marriage instructions,RCIA,liturgy and catechesis are all done by laymen already. He goes on to say;baptism,weddings,funerals,preaching and teaching are done by deacons.

So lets see that leaves an hour on Saturday for the priests to hear confessiions and five or six one hour masses between 5pm on Saturday and 5pm Sunday evening. I am sure that daily mass is out of the question.

False shepherds like this cunning one are salivating for the end of the Catholic Church and can hardly contain themselves. I wouldn't doubt that this new surge of orthodoxy has them very scared,they are working double time to hurry the process along before it turns too far for them to realize their objectives.

Maybe if he let his priests be priests it would attract more men,cleaning the homosexuals out of the seminaries as well as the priesthood would also serve to attract more candidates to the priesthood and if he insisted that they preach the gospel,teach the Truth and administered the sacraments he'd get more vocations. Only a moron or a sloth would be interested in being a priest with the job description Pilarczyk seems to have for them.What drivel leaks from this bad bishop's mouth.