Maybe I should ignore it, but I pick up on comments posted on social media about Beacons of Light -- the current, ongoing project by the Archdiocese of Cincinnati to reorganize things -- and about my own remarks about Beacons on this blog.
Here are some I saw recently:
- Parents don't get a day off.
- It's about making life easier for priests.
So, let's deal with these. It is true, parents don't get a "day off" from being parents. Do they never get a day off from work? What's the difference? Bonus if you can explain it in the comments.
Keeping this distinction in mind, priests likewise never get a "day off" either. We don't ever stop being a priest; and while there are always exceptions, the vast majority of priests I know fit this description: we will respond as quickly as we can to every emergency, we will give time generously to the needs of our children, and it doesn't matter what day or hour.
So why even make the comment, "parents don't get a day off"? What's the real point here?
Do you begrudge a priest catching up on sleep, or being able to rest? Why? I don't begrudge parents doing this. And does it occur to you that a priest having time to relax might actually be good for parishioners?
I get that an infant will keep parents up all night; I also know that at some point, they stop being infants, and at some point, parents will take measures to teach older children, they don't get to interrupt mom and dad, or wake them up, for less than urgent reasons. Am I out of step here? Parents of teens, do you allow your kids to interrupt and wake you, any hour, for any reason? You don't claim time to rest?
(In case it isn't clear, my point here is that -- according to the family analogy, and the, "parents don't get a day off" remark -- it remains true that a priest, like a parent, can reasonably be true to his parental duties, and yet, rest. Am I wrong?)
Is this really about making things easier for priests? Let's suppose, for the sake of argument, that that's exactly right. Easier for us...why? What do you imagine we priests, who are craftily pulling the strings on Beacons of Light, to make things easier, are going to do once we succeed?
This is a serious question. What do you suppose we are going to do with all the time we gain by these changes?
Let me be as blunt and plain as I can be. If all I wanted out of all the work we're doing in the three parishes where I've been assigned, is to "make it easier" for me, I could do that without any of the Beacons of Light changes! That's right: I could make my life easier without any of it!
How?
By becoming an absentee or figurehead pastor. I could very easily rubber-stamp almost everything; cut pastoral initiatives to a minimum, and let staff and volunteers go along with only minimal involvement from me. The principal and the teachers and school board handle everything in the school -- I'll just wave as I walk by. Same for the religious education and youth activities; our staff and volunteers are very capable.
I can easily flip through the financial documents I am responsible for reviewing; chances are, there's not anything problematic going on, and anyway, someone else can catch that. I can have a literal rubber-stamp created in order to sign checks, and why do I need to review the checks and underlying documents anyway? Just sign and pass along. Very easy to do.
My life can be so much easier if I don't launch any efforts at evangelization; or for adult-faith-formation; or long-term planning; or encouraging greater involvement and engagement, so that people don't drift away.
As far as our staff, I can just let them do as they think best, providing very minimal oversight. Ongoing evaluation and encouragement of employees is time-consuming but usually very important to any organization. Either I can just let things go, or else I can always hire someone to do it all and I won't do anything. I'll be a figurehead and life will be so easy!
Holy Mass can be very taxing, not just physically, but even spiritually, for a priest, because he is uniting himself with the Cross. If you insist the priest must offer three or four Masses each Sunday, and two or more times daily, there are ways to manage this. Pro-forma homilies. Easy! Run through Mass as quick as possible. Do the minimum. And when Sunday Masses are finished, I'll be finished for the day. I can let someone else attend other activities.
In fact, I could easily arrange it that, in effect, I am not in charge except on paper; I could, effectively, be merely a sacramental employee. Other people will hire and evaluate, and where needed, provide discipline to, staff. Other people will decide on budget priorities, I need not say a word about it.
A lot of it can all be put on auto-pilot. It would make my life so much easier, for the next several years, till I reach 70 and I can retire from administration and then let someone else take up the task.
So I ask you again. Supposing this all really is about "making it easier for priests," why do you suppose that is? What do you think priests are going to do with their "easier life" when the plan works?
8 comments:
Father, I certainly don't know what life as a priest is like and you certainly don't know what life is like as a parent. Our child may contact us at any time for any reason because we care for them. I don't see your phone number posted anywhere. It is not that I expect you to be available to everyone all the time but can your staff contact you when you are needed? I do not begrudge a priest a day off or time to recharge. With regards to you making changes to make your life easier, I must say the changes you have made to the church and especially to masses really do feel like they were done for your benefit as they certainly not what many of us in the parish have enjoyed for years. I am sure you can point to some old text that says that this is how it is done. Apparently the priests for the last 20+ years did not read this text and instead chose to be more welcoming. I am not a biblical scholar but I recall Jessus speaking against the parishes for whom the rules were more important than the people.
Anonymous:
"I don't see your phone number posted anywhere."
My phone number and email appears in the parish bulletin, every single week. It's at the bottom of my column. Have you ever read my column, even once?
"...but can your staff contact you when you are needed?"
You -- you yourself -- can contact the priests when we are needed...
If you call the number for St. Mary, Our Lady of Good Hope, or St. Henry, during business hours, someone will get word to all the priests about a need. If you call after hours, you will get a live operator, who will relay your emergency to one of our priests. If that priest is unavailable, a second priest is contacted.
In short, one of us is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
And, I have written this in my column more than once.
"...they certainly not what many of us in the parish have enjoyed for years..."
Feel free to offer some specifics, and I'll be glad to respond.
Anonymous:
I might add, I get calls all the time from parishioners, and emails, and I respond promptly.
Ask around, you'll find that is true.
Have you tried to contact me and not gotten a response?
(I might point out, I responded to your post about 9 minutes after you posted it. Is that a fast enough response?)
My goodness such pride and ego. What has been accomplished by this exchange? Any teachings? Any Fruits? Or more harm? Sin? Im saddened. We should save our fights for the ongoing spiritual warfare. If we fight, if we make points, let it not be for ourselves but for Mother and The Most Holy Trinity. Let’s focus on the teachings of Lord and The Eucharist. Let’s focus on Jesus. Let’s be passionate about abortion, protecting life at all stages, about reparation for blasphemies. Our Lord and Mother grieve. Do not add to Their sorrows.
Anonymouses/Anonymice:
I don't know if Anonymous 1 is the same as Anonymous 2 (it's why I always ask people to include some other name, even if it's "Donald Duck"). But if you are the same person, I fail to see how I'm guilty of "pride and ego" when I answer questions you yourself put to me.
What would I be guilty of if I declined to answer your questions?
Thank you for your thoughtful discussion and engagement with the concerns of your flock. I am not a parishioner of yours, and the variety of experiences in different parishes and with different priests can be an impediment to discussion. In our parish, we have the experience of being told, publicly, that this will enable our priests to have coffee with their friends, work out, and spend more time with their families. These are all good things (as is golf, I might add!), and things we want our priests to be able to do. But it can come across as tone-deaf when a parent with children on his or her last nerve or working 60 or 80 hours a week is told this. A doctor seeing patients continuously for twelve hours may not see a problem with the priest celebrating multiple hours of Sacraments. At least in our area, I am not aware of priests being asked to celebrate 2 or more weekday Masses, or 4 Sunday Masses. Where is this happening? Is there historical precedent to show that the process we are going through has resulted in better evangelization? Is it not a rational prospect that this process removes barriers to closing churches, or at least decreasing the services offered at each location? Has this not already happened not only in some of the locations in our archdiocese, as well as others dioceses further along this path? Some of us are proposing alternatives and have been ignored, told no, accused publicly and privately of a variety of fear, divisiveness and gossip, and even told that these topics cannot be discussed on church property. Thank you for allowing this discussion and charitably engaging. Please know that you and all our priests and archbishop are loved, respected, and held up in daily prayer by many (hopefully most, ideally all) of us seeking another way to solve these challenges. (I know I said a lot of different things - I absolve you from the responsibility of answering all of them, unless you want to! :)
"Is it not a rational prospect that this process removes barriers to closing churches, or at least decreasing the services offered at each location?" Beacons does not make any of those bad things easier to do. When parish-corporations lack people to help and/or money to pay for things, or when multiple parish-corporations must share a pastor, the Rubicon has already been crossed. There is no guarantee that this reorg will make the resulting evangelization focus work, but without it, the evangelization focus will continue to be postponed as it has been for 20 years, especially for priests who must act as if they are three or four pastors, which is impossible, with the result that they fail, particularly in long term planning. Long-term planning tends to be viewed as a luxury when one is overstretched , or worse, lurching from crisis to crisis
Thank you Father, for actively and regularly explaining and keeping dialogue going. I am one guilty of comparing the parent/priestly duties, and I hope I can explain in a way that enlightens rather than offends. There are similarities as in each of us being 'on call' all the time; each of us with the goal and responsibility of guiding souls to heaven (and the frustration of having them reject our efforts!). Parents can get babysitters, occasionally even for an extended break, but at least for me, that is rare and expensive. There was a time I envied the idea of a sabbatical, but I am not necessarily saying our vocation necessitates one as much as that of clergy. There is also a difference between a handful of children or even a large family and a huge congregation (or two or three as in BOL) that increase your work. But I do know that when there is a crisis in a family, parents must step up efforts and sacrifice more in order to try to get through. Through your sharing, I can see that the priests are feeling the stress of BOL far more than we laity, but initially all I saw was BOL calling for 'less'; fewer Mass times, less sacraments. . . instead of more concerted efforts to address the source of our dwindling participation. You have helped convey a better sense of the challenge you are actively engaged in to bring order, balance, and a successful transition, and I am grateful and humbled for that perspective. It isn't a matter of which vocation has the harder job or the most perks; both are callings from the Lord that require huge sacrifices and divine strength to do them well! Your job is harder when parents don't do theirs, and we exhausted parents need guidance and sacraments to persevere. Please continue to share from your perspective and experience, and I pray we all can have more sensitivity to the fact that within the demands of the BOL changes there is also an invitation to grow in love and compassion through sacrifice. The culture is threatening the foundation of the family, and the Church needs strong families. The division and stress are enemies of the Church thriving and I am more committed now to being a positive part of moving forward in my own family of parishes.
Thank you, and God bless you, all priests, and our archdiocese.
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