BY VICTORIA RIES
Thirty-five years ago, in 1989, Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen appointed me to provide pastoral leadership and care for the community of St. Patrick Church in Seattle (pictured right). My appointment was due to the already apparent and growing shortage of priests—in our archdiocese, around the country, and around the world. I was chosen to serve as the pastoral leader because I was theologically trained and had been serving in ministry in the Archdiocese of Seattle for the previous 10 years, first in campus and young adult ministry and then in parish ministry.
“We need to go back to go forward.”
Hunthausen was aware, even then—35 years ago—that there were not enough priests to serve all the parishes of the archdiocese. At the time, there was a code in canon law that addressed the issue of providing pastoral leadership and care in the face of the growing priest shortage. This code, 517.2, stated that in the situation of a shortage of priests, a non-ordained person may be entrusted with the pastoral care and leadership of a Catholic parish. I was that person in that time.
Other laypeople, men and women, as well as women religious, were appointed in subsequent years to lead other parishes in our archdiocese, as well as around the country and the world. In our archdiocese, there were as many as 11 lay pastoral leaders who provided pastoral care and leadership for parishes in the Seattle Archdiocese in the 1990s. In every parish led by a lay leader, a priest was assigned to provide sacramental care— presiding at Eucharist on Sundays and weekdays, baptizing, hearing confessions, and anointing the sick.
This model of lay pastoral leadership, coupled with priestly liturgical and sacramental leadership, met the needs of Catholic communities in our archdiocese in the face of a shortage of priests. With the passage of time and a change of bishops, however, this model of parish leadership fell out of favor.
Today, perhaps it is time to revisit this model. We are currently experiencing a significant change in our church and its leadership. There are no longer enough priests to lead all the parishes of our archdiocese. While this is not a new problem, as my experience shows, it is an expanding problem.
More recently, as the shortage of priests has increased, and as the involvement of laypeople in leadership has been discouraged and declined, there has been a move to combine parishes into parish families. In this model, one priest is appointed to serve two or more parishes. In some cases, two or more priests may together serve several parishes.
At the same time, the number of people choosing to participate in a church community has declined. This is not a development particular to the Catholic Church. Other Christian churches are also experiencing a similar decline in church membership and in church attendance.
To move forward from current demographic difficulties in the church, my immediate response is that we need to go back to go forward. More specifically, we need to go way back—back to the early church!
The early church was initially a very small community and experienced much persecution. The small band of Jesus’ followers was resisted and persecuted for their “new” faith. It was not easy for them to continue as followers of Jesus in such a climate and culture, but they persisted. Initially, they gathered in homes to share their faith and to celebrate together. Only later, as Christianity began to be accepted and there were no longer mass persecutions, did the church and Christianity become a public and accepted way of life and worship.
Our experience today is quite different: We in the United States are not persecuted physically, nor are we in danger of being harmed or killed because of our faith. We are no longer excluded, ridiculed, or dismissed because we are Catholic or because we choose to participate in church communities and life.
It is true that our communities are much smaller than in the past, but that does not mean that they are not vibrant and alive in deep and shared faith.
Perhaps we are the seeds of change and future growth. Perhaps our faithfulness and presence will maintain and restore the church as a beacon of love and acceptance and justice and peace
May it be so!
Victoria Ries has served in the Archdiocese of Seattle for 40 years. For 25 of those years, she was appointed by the Archbishop, due to the shortage of priests, to provide pastoral care and leadership for Catholic parishes.