I'm not one to be shy about noting that the Church has had mistakes in her long, long history. These mistakes seemed to multiple after Vatican Two when the spirit of invention and make-believe possessed some in the leadership to hold and teach that the intent of the Council Fathers was inadequately expressed in the actual texts of the Council. Mistake after mistake followed. And they still follow. Here's a sure-fire way to ensure that your parish will almost never again have a resident pastor: the Parish Life Coordinator (PLC). From Pittsburgh we read: "In what the bishop who appointed her called 'a historic moment,' Sister Dorothy Pawlus, a Sister of the Holy Family of Nazareth, was commissioned July 15 as the first parish life collaborator in the Diocese of Pittsburgh."
I don't know Sr. Dorothy Pawlus. I am sure she's a dedicated minister of the gospel, a fine person, and an exemplary Sister of the Holy Family of Nazareth--a number of her sisters have been students of mine and the convent here in Dallas works with the priory. Though her order has recently been "updated" in a particularly American fashion (the sisters are largely Polish), I understand that they remain faithful daughters of the Church.
We read on: "'Bishop, your presence here today, is, to use your words, "bittersweet," because this new model of ministry is necessitated by a lack of vocations to the priesthood,' she said. 'I pledge to you, with our parishioners, our passionate commitment to praying for vocations to the priesthood.'"
I have no doubt that Sister will pray for vocations, and I pray as well that this parish and the diocese are flooded with young men eager to serve as priests.
So, what's the problem?
1) Without a priest in charge of the parish, young men won't have a model of priesthood to aspire to; no fault accrues to Sister for this, of course, but we know young men need male leadership in order to be properly challenged to sacrifice secular enticements. Sister's appointment is one more example of the feminization of the Church and another nail in the coffin of priestly vocations.
2) Once Sister and other PLC's (no doubt there will be huge pressure to appoint women in most of these positions) are appointed, it will take an Act of God to move them out when priests become available. Make no mistake: the PLC is not a temporary canonical solution to a temporary vocational problem.** This is a move (sideways and under the guise of an "emergent crisis") to undermine presbyteral authority in the parish by emptying the role of pastor of its orders. IOW, this is a move to make it possible to be appointed Pastor (even if not in name) w/o being an ordained priest. Priests will simply become traveling Sacrament Machines. The office of Priest Director will fade as demand for priests grows. Interesting side note: priests now are starting to look a whole like bishops in the Patristic period!
3). This is the first step in a long series of steps leading us to the "inevitability" of women being ordained priests. Think: altar girls and the arguments used post facto to defend against attempts to suppress the practice: "But we've been using altar girls for years!" Some predictions:
a). even with the availability of newly ordained priests, PLC's will continue to "pastor" their parishes with Fr. Newbie hanging around for "mentoring." He will be graduated to a staff position and made a "member of the team."
b). Within five years (but before the Fr. Newbies arrive) PLC's will demand the right to preach at Mass since Fr. Sacramental Minister isn't in residence and doesn't know the parish. How can he possibly preach to us when he doesn't know us?
c). Look for a new book of ceremonies to appear from The Liturgical Press, Liturgies for Pastoral Life Coordinators quite soon. It will be argued that since PLC's play a special role in the life of the parish, the church needs liturgies designed to celebrate their unique ministry. Translation: we need liturgical validation for the invention of the PLC so that the concept of the PLC is more easily tolerated over time. Liturgies bestow legitimacy and normalize innovation.
d). Parishes administered by female PLC's will produce far fewer priestly vocations than parishes run by priest-pastors. This NOT b/c women intentionally deter vocations or somehow jinx boys into believing that the priesthood is bad--how many priests today trace their vocations back to a religious sister? My point is that w/o active, visible, and regular priestly leadership in a parish, a boy or young man cannot "see" the priesthood in action.
I desperately want to be wrong about these predictions. Especially the last one. And here's a promise: if it can be proven over time that parishes with PLC's (lay men, women, or female religious) produce equivalent or more vocations to the ordained priesthood than parishes lead by priests, I will be the first to volunteer myself as a sacramental minister to work on a team under the leadership of a PLC. My objections to PLC's here are not about the loss of priestly power, privilege, prestige, or bruised presbyteral egos. I'm not a pastor, probably never will be, so there is nothing for me to gain personally by seeing PLC's fail. Nor do I fear female leadership: ask my female dissertation director, my current female boss, my female Episcopal pastor of three years, and all of my previous female bosses/supervisors as far back as 1982 (I've had one male boss in 25 years of adult employment!).
We are being told by Church Professionals that inventions like the PLC and the use of the rites in books like Sunday Celebrations in the Absence of a Priest are reasonable reactions to a vocation crisis that has left us with fewer and fewer priests. Question: how then does removing the few priests we have from public leadership in the parish increase the chances that boys and young men will say YES to the priesthood when called? Answer: it doesn't. We are being asked to normalize the absence of the ordained ministry; or, at the very least, we are being asked to support purely functional solutions to an engineered crisis until we no longer see the absence of a priest as a problem. In other words, we are being slowly accustomed to the Protestantization of the Catholic Church in the U.S.
Some will object to my observations this way: "But, Father Philip, we already have an absence of priests and the disappearance of the priesthood at the parish level." Yup, I agree. So let's feel the full impact of this crisis and live in our parishes w/o priest-substitutes (PLC's) and w/o Eucharist-substitutes (communion services) so that we are more and more motivated to pray for priestly vocations, more and more motivated to seek out suitable presbyteral leadership among our boys and young men, and more and more inclined to present the ordained priesthood as an exciting, necessary, and worthy vocation for our guys! We gain nothing in the way of addressing the "vocation crisis" by showing our guys that they aren't needed. We can say all day long, preach loudly from the pulpits, and insist until we are breathless that priests are invaluable to parish life, but if boys and young men see the parish "getting along" w/o daily priestly leadership, they will go along to get along. They have to be needed, and they have to be shown that they are needed.
And, yes, practically speaking, this means Lauds from the Liturgy of the Hours on Sunday mornings with copious prayers that those boys and men in the parish who have been called to ordained ministry will step up and say YES to sacrificial service.
Story source: Catholic News
**[update 8.08.07] from the combox of The Cafeteria is Closed: "We have 'clusters' in our diocese-groups of parishes that share priests. The parishes without a resident priest have PLC's. Some are better than others. But I have seen first hand what happens when a priest is appointed to a parish with a PLC. The good sister threatened a law suit. So far, no priest." No surprise there at all!
I have no doubt that Sister will pray for vocations, and I pray as well that this parish and the diocese are flooded with young men eager to serve as priests.
So, what's the problem?
1) Without a priest in charge of the parish, young men won't have a model of priesthood to aspire to; no fault accrues to Sister for this, of course, but we know young men need male leadership in order to be properly challenged to sacrifice secular enticements. Sister's appointment is one more example of the feminization of the Church and another nail in the coffin of priestly vocations.
2) Once Sister and other PLC's (no doubt there will be huge pressure to appoint women in most of these positions) are appointed, it will take an Act of God to move them out when priests become available. Make no mistake: the PLC is not a temporary canonical solution to a temporary vocational problem.** This is a move (sideways and under the guise of an "emergent crisis") to undermine presbyteral authority in the parish by emptying the role of pastor of its orders. IOW, this is a move to make it possible to be appointed Pastor (even if not in name) w/o being an ordained priest. Priests will simply become traveling Sacrament Machines. The office of Priest Director will fade as demand for priests grows. Interesting side note: priests now are starting to look a whole like bishops in the Patristic period!
3). This is the first step in a long series of steps leading us to the "inevitability" of women being ordained priests. Think: altar girls and the arguments used post facto to defend against attempts to suppress the practice: "But we've been using altar girls for years!" Some predictions:
a). even with the availability of newly ordained priests, PLC's will continue to "pastor" their parishes with Fr. Newbie hanging around for "mentoring." He will be graduated to a staff position and made a "member of the team."
b). Within five years (but before the Fr. Newbies arrive) PLC's will demand the right to preach at Mass since Fr. Sacramental Minister isn't in residence and doesn't know the parish. How can he possibly preach to us when he doesn't know us?
c). Look for a new book of ceremonies to appear from The Liturgical Press, Liturgies for Pastoral Life Coordinators quite soon. It will be argued that since PLC's play a special role in the life of the parish, the church needs liturgies designed to celebrate their unique ministry. Translation: we need liturgical validation for the invention of the PLC so that the concept of the PLC is more easily tolerated over time. Liturgies bestow legitimacy and normalize innovation.
d). Parishes administered by female PLC's will produce far fewer priestly vocations than parishes run by priest-pastors. This NOT b/c women intentionally deter vocations or somehow jinx boys into believing that the priesthood is bad--how many priests today trace their vocations back to a religious sister? My point is that w/o active, visible, and regular priestly leadership in a parish, a boy or young man cannot "see" the priesthood in action.
I desperately want to be wrong about these predictions. Especially the last one. And here's a promise: if it can be proven over time that parishes with PLC's (lay men, women, or female religious) produce equivalent or more vocations to the ordained priesthood than parishes lead by priests, I will be the first to volunteer myself as a sacramental minister to work on a team under the leadership of a PLC. My objections to PLC's here are not about the loss of priestly power, privilege, prestige, or bruised presbyteral egos. I'm not a pastor, probably never will be, so there is nothing for me to gain personally by seeing PLC's fail. Nor do I fear female leadership: ask my female dissertation director, my current female boss, my female Episcopal pastor of three years, and all of my previous female bosses/supervisors as far back as 1982 (I've had one male boss in 25 years of adult employment!).
We are being told by Church Professionals that inventions like the PLC and the use of the rites in books like Sunday Celebrations in the Absence of a Priest are reasonable reactions to a vocation crisis that has left us with fewer and fewer priests. Question: how then does removing the few priests we have from public leadership in the parish increase the chances that boys and young men will say YES to the priesthood when called? Answer: it doesn't. We are being asked to normalize the absence of the ordained ministry; or, at the very least, we are being asked to support purely functional solutions to an engineered crisis until we no longer see the absence of a priest as a problem. In other words, we are being slowly accustomed to the Protestantization of the Catholic Church in the U.S.
Some will object to my observations this way: "But, Father Philip, we already have an absence of priests and the disappearance of the priesthood at the parish level." Yup, I agree. So let's feel the full impact of this crisis and live in our parishes w/o priest-substitutes (PLC's) and w/o Eucharist-substitutes (communion services) so that we are more and more motivated to pray for priestly vocations, more and more motivated to seek out suitable presbyteral leadership among our boys and young men, and more and more inclined to present the ordained priesthood as an exciting, necessary, and worthy vocation for our guys! We gain nothing in the way of addressing the "vocation crisis" by showing our guys that they aren't needed. We can say all day long, preach loudly from the pulpits, and insist until we are breathless that priests are invaluable to parish life, but if boys and young men see the parish "getting along" w/o daily priestly leadership, they will go along to get along. They have to be needed, and they have to be shown that they are needed.
And, yes, practically speaking, this means Lauds from the Liturgy of the Hours on Sunday mornings with copious prayers that those boys and men in the parish who have been called to ordained ministry will step up and say YES to sacrificial service.
Story source: Catholic News
**[update 8.08.07] from the combox of The Cafeteria is Closed: "We have 'clusters' in our diocese-groups of parishes that share priests. The parishes without a resident priest have PLC's. Some are better than others. But I have seen first hand what happens when a priest is appointed to a parish with a PLC. The good sister threatened a law suit. So far, no priest." No surprise there at all!