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."
Uh ... professor .... women will NEVER be ordained to the Catholic Church. The pope has spoken infallibly on this. It is finished.
Catholic Ping - Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list
You'd think this guy would get that point, but hey, maybe he just doesn't want to see it.
How do you explain the growth in parishes WITH married priests? Most Catholics (if you believe the surveys) support married men in the priesthood. It's simply no big deal to them.
Look at the acceptance of married deacons.
I'm willing to venture a guess that accepting married men into the priesthood would be greeted enthusiastically by 80% or more of the weekly Mass attendees.
What a dolt!
The reason there is a shortage of priests is because this is what people want from their church.
He is right in one thing. If priests were allowed to marry and women priests were allowed, the people would stop coming and there would be no more shortage.
Married deacons is one thing. Even I don't have a problem with that. But married priests, no -- unless they are former Anglicans or Orthodox priests who have converted to Catholicism. People flock to parishes that are orthodox.
Why is it dandy to accept married Protestant ministers into the Catholic priesthood, but not married Catholic men?
These are 2 separate issues. Women "Priests" are a clear violation of scripture and can never be permitted -never, ever, ever, period, no discussion. If your church ever ordains one, LEAVE!
However -- as several Catholics have explained here at FR -- there are no inherent theological barriers to ordaining married men as priests; the Pope could change that any time if he felt it prudent to do so. It's his call, however, and not the diocese.
A) over a thousand years of Catholic tradition. B) the decree of the Magisterium.
I don't pick and choose what I will believe. At every Mass I attend I affirm my belief in "the One Holy Catholic Apostolic Church". "Apostolic", as in: I trust the apostolic succession of authority. I trust the continuity of the faith as handing down by the apostles through the bishops and the councils and the See of St. Peter himself. Who in the hell am I to question such authority? Who are you to question it? If you do think you can question it, are you aware that you are breaking an oath every time you affirm your loyalty and belief in the "the One Holy Catholic Apostolic Church" during the Mass?
Mandatory celibacy for priests is a discipline, not a doctrine. No one is required to believe that priests have to be unmarried at peril of their soul.
How many are there? Where are they located? Got some statistics to back this up?
What about ordaining women as priests?
It shouldn't.
I was responding to GipperGal, who asserted that Catholics would leave the Church if married men were ordained priests.
Every indication is that they would not.
Yes, that is true to a certain extend. Yes, it is true that in the past priests were married. However, bishops were usually not married. This tradition has changed for a number of reasons and celibacy has been the norm for over a thousand years. I don't have a problem with "married priests"; however, I will obey Rome. Period. End of story.
I also "personally" believe Rome is correct in denying priests to marry, at least at this present time. 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. Thus, priests must be allowed to marry because they couldn't possibly be happy otherwise.
Over 200
Where are they located?
Mostly in conservative dioceses and in the Southwest.
Got some statistics to back this up?
No. But the local experience is that all of the parishes pastored by Anglican dispensation priests have experienced growth since these men arrived. Maybe they would have experienced growth anyway, but there are not hordes of Catholics marching out of these churches.
Catholics are not bothered by having married men in the priesthood.
How about married women, or single women for that matter?
You are exactly right.
Women cannot be priests.
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