Do Not Stifle The Spirit
Reprinted with permission of Future Church

Catholic Groups Call For "Best Practices" In Time Of Fewer Priests Use Lay Ministers, Deacons and Parish Leaders to Keep Parishes Open Priest Shortage, Abundant Parish Assets Poor Reasons to Close Parishes A national coalition of Catholic groups and lay leaders have endorsed and are circulating a statement listing eight "best practices" for keeping parishes open in the midst of a steadily worsening U.S. priest shortage.

The statement, "Do Not Stifle the Spirit!" (Thess 5:19) cites the positive example of eight U.S. dioceses that "chose creative solutions such as entrusting the pastoral care of several parishes to one priest, to a team of priests, or to competent lay ecclesial ministers, deacons and religious."

IIt calls for "creative and constructive conversations with priests, parishioners, pastoral ministers and all ecclesial leaders about how to keep our parishes vibrant and fruitful."

FutureChurch, a national coalition of parish centered Catholics based in Cleveland Ohio, is spearheading the initiative, which has been endorsed by six other Catholic organizations as well as nationally known theologians and lay leaders concerned about the future of U.S. parish life. More endorsements are expected.

"We have sent the statement to tens of thousands of U.S. Catholics asking them to encourage their priests, pastoral ministers and diocesan leaders to discuss the best practices we identified. We also sent the statement to every U.S. Bishop asking them to to welcome Catholics who want to talk about these important issues and to let us know their views," said Sr. Christine Schenk, FutureChurch Director.

"If the Toledo Diocese had these practices in place, it might have kept many parishes open that should never have been closed," said Chris Cremean of United Parishes, a Toledo group formed in the wake of of parish closings in that diocese.

"We were very heartened by the recent letter sent from the Vatican's Congregation for the Clergy telling U.S. Bishops that assets from closed or merged parishes must accompany parishioners to their new parish home rather than be given to the diocese as some bishops had directed," said Schenk. "It reduces the temptation to close a parish simply because it has substantial assets. Now we need to make the point that parishes don't need to close at all if we use the abundance of lay ministers and deacons God has already provided."

The Do Not Stifle the Spirit! statement is part of FutureChurch's new Save Our Parish Community effort designed to provide educational and organizing resources to Catholics discerning an appropriate response to diocesan decisions to close or merge their vibrant, solvent, and apostolically effective parish. (http://www.futurechurch.org/sopc/index.htm) It also educates about effective diocesan processes already in use (http://www.dioceseofcleveland.org/vibrantparishlife) that invite parishioner involvement in deciding the future of their parish.

Because of the priest shortage, U.S. dioceses will be forced to reconfigure parishes well into the foreseeable future. According to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, 75% of the 18,000 active diocesan priests in the U.S. are over 55 years old, but the U.S. is only ordaining about 350 new diocesan priests each year. In 20 years, presuming ordinations remain constant, the U.S. could have as few as 11,500 active diocesan priests for our 19,000 parishes. At the same time, numbers of deacons and paid lay ministers have increased significantly to 14,000 and 30,000 respectively. Presently "parish life coordinators" are pastoring an estimated 600 U.S. parishes.

FutureChurch is a coalition of parish centered Catholics who seek the full participation of all Catholics in the life of the Church. It strives to educate fellow Catholics about the seriousness of the priest shortage, the centrality of the Eucharist (the Mass), and the systemic inequality of women in the Catholic Church. FutureChurch calls for opening ordination to all those called to it rather than lose the Eucharist as the center of Catholic worship and seeks to participate in formulating and expressing the Sensus Fidelium (the Spirit inspired beliefs of the faithful) through open, prayerful and enlightened dialogue with other Catholics locally and globally.