U.S. bishops discuss priest shortage

For the first time ever, the U.S. bishops pondered the priest shortage at their June meeting in Milwaukee. But they gave not even passing attention to the most obvious solution. In fact, a lengthy slide presentation of the results of a two-year study by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops did not refer in any way to the ordination of married men or of women. That's surprising, since the study included the results of focus groups with priests, deacons and laity, and a telephone poll of 2,600 Catholics nationwide.

"Did no one mention the ordination of married men?" asked Bishop Raymond Lucker of New Ulm, Minn., during a discussion period. The official answer was no, the matter never came up. The unofficial answer was that the poll and the focus groups were closed-ended, said poll coordinator Bryan Froehle, executive director of the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. Altering the present composition of the priesthood was not among the questions the bishops wanted asked, and if anyone brought up the subject it was omitted from the report. The study was coordinated by the bishops' Committee on Priestly Life and Ministry and involved participation from eight other NCCB committees. Interestingly, their Committee on Laity was not included.

Nor did many bishops present seem concerned about this failure to discuss what amounts to a growing sense of Catholics concerning present church discipline. Instead, the post-presentation discussion centered on ways to stir vocations among Catholic young men.

The study did report through a variety of quotations how the shortage is affecting priests in the field. "The thinking was that the more lay people got involved the more it would relieve the priest," reported one, "but it actually increases the workload." Said another, "There are just too many expectations and not enough time. Too much paper work and not enough ministering. And miles to go before the next penance service." Commented a third, "If you are going to start new parishes for growing populations and not close parishes with diminishing ones, you just stretch the clergy wider and wider."

Nevertheless, the assembly seemed resigned to a church with fewer parishes, fewer masses, and an increasingly high priest-to-Catholic ratio.

CTA, FutureChurch speak out

Staff from both CTA and FutureChurch were at the NCCB meeting. Their joint press release called for opening ordination to married people and women rather than close parishes. Both CTA and FutureChurch were cited in the national AP story on the NCCB.

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