Posted on 05/10/2005 10:37:52 AM PDT by NYer
Mari Maristany arrived at Sacred Heart Catholic Church's noon Mass one recent Sunday to a slight dilemma — she couldn't get in.
"I couldn't even squeeze in" the front entrance, she said. Parishioners at the Spanish-language service stuffed the vestibule and spilled out the doors.
Searching for an entry, Maristany, who usually attends an earlier service, tried going through the church's basement fellowship hall.
Others before her had the same idea. She found them lining a stairway leading up to the sanctuary and an already-crowded choir loft above.
Finally, Maristany wedged herself into a group of parishioners just outside a door at the rear of the sanctuary. For the next hour, she watched the back of their heads.
"I could hear everything," she recalled. "But I couldn't see anything."
Maristany's experience, and Sacred Heart on any given Sunday, provide a local glimpse of tremendous growth in the Roman Catholic Church's Diocese of Charlotte and the challenges it poses.
During the 26-year pontificate of John Paul II, the 46-county Charlotte Diocese grew by nearly 95,000 registered parishioners. And church researchers estimate the diocese is home to 125,000 unregistered Latino Catholics, people who traditionally don't put their names on church membership rolls.
That growth — equally large in the 54-county Raleigh Diocese — only compounds other problems, including a shrinking supply of priests.
***
As the Catholic population swelled between John Paul II's 1978 inauguration and 2004, the last year for which statistics are available, the Charlotte Diocese added nine parishes and 17 priests.
So even though overall Mass attendance is down throughout the Roman Catholic Church, numbers surged in many existing Charlotte Diocese parishes and priests took on increasingly heavier workloads.
"We have a lot of folks who have moved in," said the Rev. John Putnam, pastor of Sacred Heart in Salisbury.
Putnam spoke in a conference room at Sacred Heart just a few steps from the sanctuary that overflows with parishioners on Sundays.
Putnam and the Rev. Julio Dominguez, the church's associate pastor, say seven Masses over the weekend — three more than they would if the church had plenty of space. Even so, two Sunday services remain packed.
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| Graphic comparing Charlotte Diocese in 1978 to 2004. Graphic by Andy Mooney, Salisbury Post. |
At a recent 10:30 a.m. Mass, folding chairs lined two outer aisles and formed rows behind the last two pews. The extra seating increases capacity to around 250. Ushers squeezed in latecomers where they could. Still, more than a dozen had to stand throughout the service along the back walls and in the vestibule.
Even more people crowded into the noon Mass, which Dominguez says in Spanish.
Latinos and Catholics moving from northern states account for most of the growth here, the church says.
Putnam said around 40 new families register each year in the parish, and total registration has increased to about 2,000. Latinos who haven't registered, he said, may add another 1,000 to that number.
Challenges run from finding a parking spot on Sunday morning to finding space for faith formation classes for children.
Even Sacred Heart Catholic School has followed overcrowded public schools in adding mobile classrooms.
Sacred Heart is buying land to build a new church and school, but its construction could be years away.
"It puts a demand on staff and resources," Putnam said. And, he adds, "There seems to be every indication" the growth will continue.
***
If that holds true, it spells an even heavier load for Putnam — who also travels to Charlotte at least twice a week to work for the diocese — Dominguez and other Charlotte Diocese priests.
According to 2004 numbers, the diocese had one priest for every 1,034 registered parishioners. And, although it's one of the leading diocese in attracting seminarians, the 15 men from the diocese studying to become priests won't do much to improve the odds.
Dean R. Hoge, a professor of sociology at Catholic University of America in Washington and director-at-large of the Holiday, Fla. Religious Research Association, says it's a symptom of a larger ill.
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| Filling the pews: Parishioners leave Sacred Heart Catholic Church after another capacity gathering. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post. |
While the Charlotte Diocese has a better ratio than the national average — one priest for every 1,400 parishioners — and far better than in other parts of the world where up to 8,000 parishioners can clamor for a pastor's attention, the U.S. church as a whole is not producing enough priests to replace those who retire or leave, Hoge said.
"The Catholic Church cannot go on with the present trends," he said. "Even to keep the priesthood at a constant number, we need a doubling of ordinations annually, but there's not prospect of that."
In the meantime, churches across the U.S., including Sacred Heart, have increasingly relied on foreign-born priests to fill their needs.
And while it may be unrealistic to expect Catholic churches to match the southern Protestant average of 270 to 300 congregants per pastor — there are far more Protestant churches, many smaller than those numbers — Hoge said reforms could help increase the Catholic clergy.
Specifically, he says, the three biggest barriers to recruiting more priests are the requirements that men remain celibate and that they "sign on for life" and the fact that women aren't allowed in the priesthood.
"If those were removed ... the priest shortage would be over," Hoge said. "If any one of them were removed, it would have a big impact."
The pool of potential clergy could be further eroded by the lingering stigma of a national scandal that saw priests accused, and some convicted, of sexually molesting young parishioners, mostly boys.
The Charlotte Diocese dealt with allegations against 13 priests and found 11 to be substantiated between 1972, the year of its formation, and 2002. No additional allegations were made in 2003 or 2004.
But Hoge believes the scandal will cause a "measurable decrease" in the number of new seminarians, though it could take years to show up.
"There's no way that could have helped," he said.
If for any reason the priest shortage worsens, Hoge said, parishioners may have to learn to expect less from the ones they have.
"There will be more unhappy Catholics," he said. "As a matter of fact, there will be more unhappy priests."
***
Meanwhile, some Catholics count their priests, then count their blessings.
"It would be nicer to have more," said Maristany, the Sacred Heart parishioner. Putnam and Dominguez, she said, "work their tails off and it would be a load off them."
But she doesn't see the shortage causing many problems at Sacred Heart for the time being, and neither does Putnam, the pastor.
He says that an ideal number would be no more than 500 parishioners to one priest, and allows that "with the number of people we have, we could use more."
Still, he says, the church can count on two ordained deacons and Sister Mary Robert Williams, the pastoral associate.
And he adds, "There are larger parishes than we who have only one priest. I think this is a pretty good situation, all things considered."
Whereas I agree with many of your posts I believe the following study, eventually, would be about Catholic priests.
STRESS ON MINISTERS :
In a study by Moy & Malony, (1987), it was suggested that due to the significant number of stressors and the relatively few available resources, ministers are at high risk for developing burn-out.
It seems that despite the real spiritual aspects of the ministry, ministers are far from immune from developing significant psychological and emotional problems.
In their study they asked ex-ministers why they left their profession, it was found that:
there was a sense of personal and professional inadequacy, an inability to inhibit relocation when necessary, and problems with relationships eg. with wife and or with children.
Role confusion:
Stress exists wherever there is confusion over one's roles or tasks, even over their values.
Clergy question themselves:?
What am I first a minister, a spouse, a parent, ???
Ministers make a covenant with God pledging loyalty to His service and people; however, married ministers also make a pledge or a covenant with God to their spouses - to love, & honor, in sickness & in health, for better for worse, till death do they part, this also encompasses their children, or future children.
Job insecurity / job relocation & pay:
- An over supply of ministers or high concentration of them in a particular area this can also results in lack of jobs, or then relocation becomes an issue,
mobility;
- Assignments out of the area brings in issues typical for anyone relocating. It is estimated that nearly 200 clergy move every day of the year. Decision about mobility are external to the family, often they cannot be refused, resulting in loss of support networks, disruption of personal growth, shifts in marital & family functioning.
What makes this more unique to clergy families is their lack of a decision. (Morris & Blanton, 1992).
financial compensation;
- Clergy are considered in the top 10% of the population in terms of education, yet they rank 325 out of 432 occupations in terms of salary.
- Education wise clergy are among the best educated comparable with that of lawyers, & doctors,,, pay wise it is comparable to that of someone far less educated.
. for many clergy families this is a chronic stressor
something I never thought about.
. clergy do not have an organized channel for collective bargaining and or requesting greater remuneration for their services.
Spousal Stressors:
Expectations;
- Via the congregations, spouses are expectant to be the resident holy woman, after all she is married to a preacher.
- More typical in Protestant denominations and more so in the past the wife was also expected to be an active supporter to her husbands ministry.
*** with the changing times and women's movement.... this expectation is lessoning.
- She is expected to be a model wife, and if they have children a model mother.
- She must dress accordingly.
- She is expected to fill in for her husband as a counselor or be a good listener.
Celibacy for priests is not mandatory, it's voluntary. Those who seek Holy Orders voluntarily take that promise or take that vow.
Of course, some pathetic souls decide to break their promise or vow, selfishly turning their back on the Church just so they can get married. Normally they're forced out.
You mean some Catholics are not bothered by it, and more than likely it is because they really don't understand the purpose and merits of the discipline celibacy. But it's not all there fault, many people who want to promote the idea of a married priesthood are doing all that they can to make sure Catholics don't understand the wisdom of the discipline of celibacy.
In defense of Professor Hoge, he is a professor of SOCIOLOGY, not THEOLOGY. Thus, his perspective is that of a SOCIOLOGIST, and his conclusions may thus be quite valid (although I disagree with his conclusions on their actual sociological merits).
If also irrelevant.
As well, if I recall correctly, Professor Hoge is not a Catholic. Thus, as a non-Catholic SOCIOLOGIST, I don't believe he is under any obligation to reflect Catholic doctrine concerning women's ordination in the Catholic Church.
Parishes that call for married priests are unorthodox, but parishes that actually have a married priest are orthodox?
A friend was in a small parish that was in limbo for several years until they got a former Anglican who was definitely married (he loved to show everyone pictures his grandchildren).
My friend told me about the first Mass he said. Halfway down the aisle, he stopped and yelled, "Look, people, I don't like singing solo, and I know you sure don't like HEARING me sing solo, so you'd better drown me out!"
Well, they started singing...and the parish started growing.
I don't think it's a coincidence...
That kind of statement is not proven, is typically motivated by personal ambition, and furthermore, is irrelevant, as the Church is not a democracy.
"Get a load of this thread" PING!
Hear hear!
Exactly!!! The former Cardinal Ratzinger once said that allowing priests to marry would create many more problems than it would solve. Marriage is not "easy". It is also a sacrament and a ministry in and of itself. He even joked that allowing priests to marry would be more like a penance than a blessing!
The statistics have already proven this to be an utterly moot point. Married priests won't be the panacea. A return to orthodoxy is what is needed. Those dioceses that have embraced unapologetic Catholicism and kicked the homos out of the seminary have little or no vocations 'crisis.' That's the key. The rest of this stuff is agenda-driven hokum.
"5. Imagine the costs of providing for a priest and his non-conceptive family, a real practical consideration in these times. God bless."
In other words, the Catholic Church is cheap?
Most Catholics understand that celibacy, freely chosen, is a valuable sign of commitment to the Church. However, since laymen see deacons and other laymen fulfilling full time ministries effectively, while married, they conclude that marriage is not a barrier to service in the Church.
Dear Antoninus,
Dr. Hoge is not part of the AmChurch revolution. Dr. Hoge isn't actually a Catholic.
Dr. Hoge is a non-Catholic sociologist who specializes, in part, in sociological topics related to religion.
sitetest
Watch how much the Church grows when an extra collection is taken each Sunday to support a wife and 5 kids.
"Watch how much the Church grows when an extra collection is taken each Sunday to support a wife and 5 kids."
So you're saying that Catholics are cheap?
Actually, from what both Catholic and Orthodox have posted, priests were never allowed to marry. ALREADY-married men could become priests, but those who were still single at ordination were bound to lifetime singleness. (And the married priests, if widowed post-ordination, could not remarry.) Why this is, I don't know -- but it goes a long way back, apparently.
I could imagine them allowing it at another time, but not now. Why? Well because the reason why it is being demanded is because our present age has decreed that the end all and be all of human experience is sexual fulfillment
That's actually the best argument I've heard in favor of priestly celibacy. The next best is, that if the Pope "compromises" on this (though it wouldn't be an actual wrong), it would embolden those who are agitating for actual wrongs -- women priests, homosexual acceptance, etc. They would inevitably perceive "married priests" as the proverbial inch, and would redouble their efforts to take a mile.
The counter argument of course is that recruiting married men as priests, may be the only efficient way to de-homosexualize the priesthood. One poster here, who I believe is a married priest (converted back to Catholicism from Anglican, I think), says that the homosexual underground within the church hates and fears married priests more than anything else.
It's not my call to make, but those are the 2 sides of the argument.
Read what I wrote again. This time read it slowly and sound out all the words:
Parishes with Anglican dispensation priests are probably very orthodox; after all, the reason why these former Anglican priest have become Catholic is because they are traditionalists who left their church due to its liberal descent into apostasy.
Also, please note that Rome does not forbid former Anglican priests from serving as Catholic priests. So, yes, these former Anglicans are no doubt very much in line with Rome.
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