Women Step Up To Altar:as Number Of Priests Dwindl

[Bruce S]

[b]Women step up to altar:As number of priests dwindles, females take on wider roles[/b]
by Darlene Gavron Stevens - Chicago Tribune

The church is splendidly old-fashioned, its ornate decorations paying homage to centuries past, but at St. Francis Xavier parish in La Grange, every Thursday at 7:45 a.m. a woman takes charge behind the altar at a communion service.

Sister Dorothy Lynch, 72, started performing an approved 30-minute communion service, offered in place of a mass, in which she reads many prayers a priest would read at mass and distributes communion already consecrated by a priest.

Her presiding role at the ceremony would be unthinkable in past decades, but she is performing this duty now because there are not enough Catholic priests. Thirty years ago, women could not even be lectors, altar servers or Eucharistic ministers.

But she is typical of a national trend, documented in a recent sociological survey that has more women doing more priestly work. Up to 75 percent of paid parish leadership positions are now held by women, according to a Georgetown University survey, and women are asking for even larger roles.

At the annual meeting of pastoral associates in the Chicago archdiocese that begins Tuesday in Chicago, some members of the predominantly female group plan to renew calls for allowing laypeople to perform the Anointing of the Sick, also known as last rites.

"The question keeps coming up, and I won't be surprised if it becomes a reality," said Lynch. "It just makes sense. I remember when there was resistance to Eucharistic ministers, and people were getting out of line to get communion from a priest. Or when girls weren't allowed to be servers. It all just melts away."

"When I was growing up, the second person in command at the parish [after the pastor] was always a priest," said Mark Valentino, 44, a parish leader at Notre Dame de Chicago Church on the Near West Side. "We've been blessed to have a woman (Sister Kathy Brazda) in that role. She's a consensus builder, and she rolls up her sleeves on projects. I would love to see women's ordination."

As the priest shortage puts pressures on parishes and seminaries, sociologists report an unprecedented number of women streaming into assistant pastor positions and assuming paid management roles formerly the exclusive domain of priests.

Armed with master's degrees in ministry, sometimes sitting side by side with seminarians as they pursue "formation," or the shaping of their vocation, women now hold the majority of parish leadership positions, according to the Georgetown study.

"We asked, `Who's in charge? Who coordinates the ministries?'" said Mary Gautier, senior research associate of Georgetown's Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, which surveyed 19,000 parishes. "Because of the shortage, it's not always a resident priest."

The CARA study found that laywomen held the majority in eight of nine major paid ministry positions, including children's religious education and sacramental preparation (74 percent each), accounting/business (64 percent), music ministry (60 percent) and youth ministry (59 percent).

The only category dominated by priests was liturgy planning, with 68 percent, according to the survey.

Gautier speculated that many parishes were relying on women because there was no resident priest or pastor, and laymen might be drawn to jobs with higher salaries than church careers could provide.

According to the archdiocese of Chicago, the annual salary for a pastoral associate position, which requires a graduate degree, ranges from $22,000 to $45,000.

"We found more than 3,000 parishes with no resident priest or pastor," said Gautier. "In these cases, many parishes were entrusted to a team of priests, leaving a layperson in charge of day-to-day duties."

In the Midwest, the layperson taking a leadership role is likely to be a nun, according to Gautier's research.

Women are wielding more power than ever in parish administration and ministry, agreed Lucille Merlihan, former director of lay ecclesial ministry for the archdiocese of Chicago.

Merlihan and others attribute the new power to two things: the entrance of women into schools of ministry and the establishment of a certification process for Chicago diocese pastoral associates--a lay title for a role that is in essence associate pastor--in 1992.

Under the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, women were also named to the position of pastoral coordinator, which essentially was a lay pastor, said Merlihan. The position is not favored by Cardinal Francis George, she said, because "his goal is to have a priest for every parish."

But those who support the pastoral coordinator position say privately that eliminating the title would shut women out of a powerful position. They also say parishioners suffer by not having a full-time pastor, and the priests assigned to more than one parish may be overburdened.

At Notre Dame de Chicago, pastoral associate Brazda recalled how she ran the parish's day-to-day operations while the former pastor took a four-month sabbatical in 1998. Priests would come in to offer the sacraments, and Brazda occasionally consulted with Bishop John Manz, who was temporary administrator, she said.

Brazda, 46, a Chicago native who entered the Sisters of St. Joseph at 28, joined Notre Dame de Chicago as pastoral associate five years ago. She holds two master's degrees, one in pastoral studies from Loyola University and another in administration from Dominican University, and she described her role at Notre Dame as "the No. 2 person."

"I work with the pastor; we collaborate in many ways," she said. "I have this desire in my heart to `pastor.' I am a pastor. I am a pastoral presence."

Brazda, whose office door bears an "I'm in Charge" plaque by artist Mary Engelbreit, said she sometimes has to push to be included.

"It's still a male-dominated church, so I'm treading lightly," said Brazda. "But I want to push the envelope as far as I can push it. The church needs to include women."

She glanced at a flowing white robe called an alb that she wears for some services. "Sometimes parishioners will say to me, `All you need is one of those priest stoles.' A lot of people in the pews support women in the church."

Valentino is among the supporters. He was raised in the parish and said he watched ministries decline because of dwindling vocations. The archdiocese took over the parish after the religious order that ran it could no longer staff the church.

Brazda brought energy and stability to the parish, he said.

"When the pastor was on sabbatical, I thought, is Father Steve going to come back to a parish that's skin and bones?" he said. "Instead, the ministries expanded."

Some of the pioneers in pastoral associate work say it was important to take small steps toward power.

Sister Ann Therese Reznicek, pastoral associate of St. Leonard's in Berwyn since 1985, said she always tried to push through ideas respectfully.

"I'd meet with the pastor weekly and he's definitely from the old school," she said, adding that she would try to make the projects seem "like Father's own ideas."

Champions of women playing a greater role in Catholic ministry predict the church's recent sex abuse crisis will ease more restrictions on women, as parishioners strive for a more active voice in church operations.

"There's an awful lot of grass-roots activity that happens," agreed Sister Kathy Sherman of the Sisters of St. Joseph. "If women in the Catholic Church ever boycotted for a couple of weeks, the church would be in trouble."

[Livin_the_MASS]

Point the finger game. These facts are nonsense, you get board don't you? Look out that beam in your eye is lookin huge!

[PassionistF]

"If women in the Catholic Church ever boycotted for a couple of weeks, the church would be in trouble."

I doubt it seriously, and I speak from the standpoint that the majority of women in the Church understand how important their roles are. I believe that they also understand that the vocation of the laity lends a great deal more to the parish life and the tending to the flock than the few who contributed to the article you shared. Those women who "boycotted" would be doing so not from the standpoint of love, but of selfishness. It would not be in line with Christ's teaching on placing needs of others before oneself.

But, what is the intention of the submission of this article? No commentary followed it. It seems to serve as another "spin job" to get someone frothing at the mouth. And I assure you, I'm not frothing, I am responding because this red herring deserved to be scaled and filleted.

Continuing ....

I just finished reading an article that our (female) Director of Religious Education gave to me. She gave it to me last night after telling me that our Catholic School needs a teacher for evening Catechism classes and asked me to teach them. Her exact words were: "Sister really needs a man in that classroom, the children are hungry but, need discipline."

Now before anyone goes spinning off here, this came from a woman who I consider to be in a position of authority. Most here know that the D.R.E. is very responsible for many areas of Parish life. Further, the words were hers and not mine. I know that women can and do instill discipline in students and children, I work for a female Youth Minister and see her in action, quite powerful.

But, I see this as an opportunity for Catholic men to take a more active role in the education and catechism of our young Catholics.

Back to the article that she gave to me. It comes from the March 29, 2004 issue of America magazine and was written by Russell Shaw. It is about the subject of the myth of vocations shortage in American Catholic Parishes. The crux of the article talks about how important the vocations of lay women and men, single and married are. The article expands on the idea that with more women and men prayerfully discerning a vocation no matter what their station in life, the Church will go forward with adequate Priests and religious to serve Christ and follow His command to "Feed my sheep".

The article also mentions something that we witnessed last night on Holy Thursday, the servanthood of the Parish Priest. Catholic Priests are servants of the people first and foremost. The ones that I speak to and know personally are humble men who acknowledge their role as one of humility and service. These men are living out the ministry of Christ.

In summary, we see that the Church scandals are a breeding ground for several schismatic groups. And the most disturbing of them all would be those non-Catholics who are trying so desperately to destroy Christ's Church through division.

The gates of hell will not prevail, plain and simple.

[Bruce S]

[quote]In summary, we see that the Church scandals are a breeding ground for several schismatic groups. And the most disturbing of them all would be those non-Catholics who are trying so desperately to destroy Christ's Church through division.
[/quote]

?

I just like to point out, that the Catholic Church internally, has the same issues as every other denomination, and from time to time, interesting stuff is on the nets, worth putting in play for all to discuss.

Why is this all spun as OUTSIDERS against the Catholic Church, internally, it would seem that there is enough pressure for some changes, that someone, somewhere, might begin paying more attention to internal cries for reform?

Or does it always take a Luther, before the Catholic Church is willing to actually make some?

[Livin_the_MASS]

[quote name='Bruce S' date='Apr 9 2004, 08:57 AM']
?

I just like to point out, that the Catholic Church internally, has the same issues as every other denomination, and from time to time, interesting stuff is on the nets, worth putting in play for all to discuss.

Why is this all spun as OUTSIDERS against the Catholic Church, internally, it would seem that there is enough pressure for some changes, that someone, somewhere, might begin paying more attention to internal cries for reform?

Or does it always take a Luther, before the Catholic Church is willing to actually make some? [/quote]
Don't do the Pope's job Bruce! He's taking care of these issues.

Edited April 9, 2004 by Jason

[PassionistF]

[quote name='Bruce S' date='Apr 9 2004, 09:57 AM']
?

I just like to point out, that the Catholic Church internally, has the same issues as every other denomination, and from time to time, interesting stuff is on the nets, worth putting in play for all to discuss.

Why is this all spun as OUTSIDERS against the Catholic Church, internally, it would seem that there is enough pressure for some changes, that someone, somewhere, might begin paying more attention to internal cries for reform?

Or does it always take a Luther, before the Catholic Church is willing to actually make some?[/quote]
And I offer, as someone from the "inside" that it isn't the case Bruce. I quoted from whence my source came to include date and author.

Your posting (in my opinion), is a red herring plain and simple. You have on numerous occaisions during my very short time on these boards attempted to rile people up. On a few occaisions you have brought up some good points, but for the most part it seems to me that you try to hurt people.

Bruce, change in anything might hurt but, it doesn't need to be done in a hurtful way.

The Catholic Church is responding to a crisis (we've seen them before Bruce) in a manner that doesn't seem to fit the mold of the Protestant view: Leave the Church, invent another .... oops, don't like the new Pastor, move on ... invent another ..... Don't like the music, move on .... Invent another.

One point that you cannot argue against here (Or, maybe you will anyway), is that there remains only one Catholic Church. Meanwhile, the Protestants continue spinning off into fission everyday. Why? Because the die has already been cast Bruce: "I don't like the rules here, I can interpret things for myself, I'm not a sheep, I'm a real [u]Man[/u] .... perhaps even a ....."

Humilty exists in realizing who we are, and who God is.

And with that, I'm off to our Parish for Good Friday to "see Scripture" and have it read to me, and read it to myself.

Blessings to you Bruce, have a great Triduum and wonderful Easter Brother.

Pachem,

[Bruce S]

[quote]Don't do the Pope's job Bruce! He's taking care of these issues. [/quote]

Some Catholics don't agree, but hey, who am I ...

Just an observer, and one who really IS interested in these matters.

So, fight with the Catholics who are quoted, not me, my denomination has a surpluss of ministers, many more than we can economically employ, so for us, this isnt even on our radar screens, a sortage of clergy, but in the Catholic Church, especially in Europe and and the USA, it seems to be.

When I was a youth, there were 46,000 men in Catholic seminary now there are under 5,000, those numbers show that it isn't Protestants "picking on you" but something internal that needs prayer, change, or something.

[Livin_the_MASS]

" THE GATES OF HELL WILL NOT PREVAIL" Sit back and watch brother! lol, Sit back and watch!

[Bruce S]

[quote]The Catholic Church is responding to a crisis (we've seen them before Bruce) in a manner that doesn't seem to fit the mold of the Protestant view: Leave the Church, invent another .... oops, don't like the new Pastor, move on ... invent another ..... Don't like the music, move on .... Invent another.
[/quote]

Don't like the current rules, have another Council, make up new rules....

Don't like the music, use Pentecostal models, change....

Not enough Holy Spirit, take the Pentecostal movement, and call it Charismatic Catholics....

No Bibles at all, to Catholic Bible studies...

Don't like the language, start in English, like the Protestants do...

Shake hands, wave, ... gee, wonder where that one came from?

And on and on...

Frankly, the way you really ARE going, we are going to start demanding royalites for all the Protestant style things and practices that you one, by one, are implementing, after hundreds of years of doing it THAT WAY, now, more and more, you do it OUR way...

Come on, just be fair, this IS the interfaith board, or is the goal here to turn this into ONLY an RCIA section, if so, just ban all those who are not here for instruction before joining, and dump the pretense of DEBATE, frankly, the tone of thisis the TRUTH is just getting a little to much for me, if it is the TRUTH, the ONLY TRUTH, then I guess that settles it, and just erase anyone that MIGHT have a desire to DEBATE these issues...

SHEESH.

Edited April 9, 2004 by Bruce S

[willguy]

[quote]Frankly, the way you really ARE going, we are going to start demanding royalites for all the Protestant style things and practices that you one, by one, are implementing, after hundreds of years of doing it THAT WAY, now, more and more, you do it OUR way...[/quote]

Fine, and we'll demand royalties every time you use the Bible or mention Jesus, because if it wasn't for the Catholic Church there would be no Protestants.

[quote]Some Catholics don't agree, but hey, who am I ...[/quote]
They can disagree, that doesn't make them right anymore than it makes you right.

See, this is the problem. There's this mindset of "Oh, there's a problem, lets change something. There's an apparent shortage of priests, so lets drop celibacy or let them get married." That's a mindset sprung from Protestantism. "I don't like this denomination, so I'll go form my own and call it the truth." As has been said, the Catholic Church has survived so-called "crisises" before, and we'll do it again.

[Bruce S]

[quote]" THE GATES OF HELL WILL NOT PREVAIL" Sit back and watch brother! lol, Sit back and watch!
[/quote]

The Gates of Hell....

Ah, that is a VERY astute and deep observation Jason, indicative of such a well thought out scripture plucking...

However, are you aware of all the passages from Paul and others about INTERNAL false teachers too, INSIDE of Christ's Church [that is the UNIVERSAL body of Christians?]

Or is that theology beyond your comprehension yet?

Some were even called Anti-Christ by Paul, and they were INSIDE HIS CHURCH, trusted leaders.

Pray on that one, hard, I do all the time, and moreso than ever recently...more than you will ever know, or care to know.

And I'm talking about OUR side of the street first, but reflecting those concerns and prayers to what I see on your side too, but YOU clean up your side, and I will pray for our side, and the Holy Spirit will sort it all out I guess...

[mulls]

touche'

[Bruce S]

[quote] every time you use the Bible[b] or mention Jesus[/b], because if it wasn't for the Catholic Church there would be no...
[/quote]

YOU are responsible for Jesus now too? Does HE, the HOLY HE, God on Earth, come to ALL men, become the creation of, or owned by, the Catholic Church?

Too much for me...

Sorry, this is getting absurd now.

To quote a man, one who has a decent shot at being the next Pope, I will let him speak for me here:

[quote]Or, as a Vatican report on the problem stated, [b]"The church is often seen simply as [color=red]an institution[/color], perhaps because it [color=red]gives too much importance to structures [/color]and not enough to drawing people to God in Christ." [/b]

At the recent meeting of cardinals, Cardinal Francis Arinze pointed out that many of these new religious movements are taking action on the pastoral weak points of the Catholic Church: They supply many forceful leaders and "evangelists" who are trained in a relatively short time where priests are few and scarce; [b]they bring infectious dynamism and remarkable commitment where the Catholic people are lukewarm and indifferent;[/b] they focus on salvation only through Christ and take advantage of widespread Catholic confusion regarding the basis of salvation; they install small communities where parishes are too large and impersonal so that individuals feel loved, appreciated, and given a meaningful role; they assign leadership roles where lay people or women feel marginalized; they celebrate fervent religious services where the sacred liturgy is celebrated in a cold and routine manner; they urge personal commitment to Jesus Christ and strict adherence to the Bible where homilies are intellectually above the heads of the people; they stress personal relationship with God where the church seems presented too much as an institution marked by structures and hierarchy.

Cardinal Arinze calls for self-examination: "What makes people join the new religious movements? What are the legitimate needs of people that these movements promise to answer and that the church should be meeting? Are there other causes of the rise and spread of these movements? What does God want of the church in this situation?...

[b]"The dimension of religious experience should not be forgotten in our presentation of Christianity. It is not enough to supply people with intellectual information. [color=red]Christianity is neither a set of doctrines [/color]nor an ethical system. It is life in Christ which can be lived at ever deeper levels." [/b]

In conclusion, Cardinal Arinze noted: "In front of the dynamic activity of the new religious movements, [b]the pastors of the church [u]cannot[/u] just go on with 'business as usual.' [/b][/quote]

So, Jason, fight with the man that COULD be your next Pope, not me.

Edited April 9, 2004 by Bruce S

[Dave]

[quote name='Bruce S' date='Apr 9 2004, 09:35 AM']
The Gates of Hell....

Ah, that is a VERY astute and deep observation Jason, indicative of such a well thought out scripture plucking...

However, are you aware of all the passages from Paul and others about INTERNAL false teachers too, INSIDE of Christ's Church [that is the UNIVERSAL body of Christians?]

Or is that theology beyond your comprehension yet?

Some were even called Anti-Christ by Paul, and they were INSIDE HIS CHURCH, trusted leaders.

Pray on that one, hard, I do all the time, and moreso than ever recently...more than you will ever know, or care to know.

And I'm talking about OUR side of the street first, but reflecting those concerns and prayers to what I see on your side too, but YOU clean up your side, and I will pray for our side, and the Holy Spirit will sort it all out I guess... [/quote]
Bruce, there have always been false teachers within Christ's Church (which is the CATHOLIC Church) at one time or another, but they have NOT succeeded in destroying the Church. 2000 years and not one has been able to claim victory over the Catholic Church!

[Livin_the_MASS]

Why do you think He picked Judas Bruce? Or do we need to explain that?