SacredHeartAppeal.org

 

 

 

Other Information

 

Sacred Heart’s mission and work in Honduras is described in a writeup by Frank Bellini. 

 

The Sacred Heart Fund seeks applications for distribution of funds to worthy charities.

 

Catholic Parishes Without Priests

A quick search on this topic shows this issue is not new, and some online resources include:

 

1) The cover story for Religion and Ethics Newsweekly of June 20th, 2003 was on this precise topic:  http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week642/cover.html     Watch the video  -- Valente is the reporter – VALENTE: Twenty years ago, the Catholic Church revised its code of canon law. One of the provisions addressed the shortage of priests. That provision says that if a bishop determines that he doesn't have enough priests to serve his parishes, he can appoint a deacon, a religious brother or sister, or a layperson, endowing him or her with "the powers and faculties of a pastor.".   The video needs RealPlayer.    Text of the article is printed on the page so the video is simply a different presentation of the same information.

 

2) http://www.catholic.net/rcc/Periodicals/Homiletic/March98/Pastoring.html  offers a discussion that indicates that with the overall reduction in the number of priests all over the country (and not just in the Western US).    Although it ends in what seems to be a rant that lay people should not try to be priests, it does say the role of a pastoral associate has become well established and accepted in many places with a shortage of priests.

 

3) November 2003, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops approved a revised Sunday liturgy for the then 3,040 parishes (about 16 percent) without a priest to celebrate mass.   http://www.theadvertiser.com/news/html/D8C420DC-2F7D-4D57-B808-0BD8D3EA5A5B.shtml

 

4) Pennsylvania Catholic Conference statistics show that in 2002, http://www.pacatholic.org/statistics/pa02stat.htm -- see the categories  “Parishes without…”

Parishes

·         Parishes:1,266

·         Parishes with Resident Pastor who is a Diocesan Priests: 1,090

·         Parishes with Resident Pastor who is a Religious Priest: 83

·         Parishes without a Resident Pastor Administered by Priests: 97

·         Parishes without a Resident Pastor Administered by Missions: 134

·         Closed Parishes: 5

·         New Parished Created: 0

·         Pastoral Centers: 46

·         Professional Ministry Personnel - Brothers: 11

·         Professional Ministry Personnel - Sisters: 324

·         Professional Ministry Personnel - Laity: 647

 

5) http://www.resourcingchristianity.org/Project.aspx?ID=960320  Ruth Wallace, who is mentioned in the pbs story (first listing above), is working with grant money to report on Catholic parishes headed by people who are not priests. 

Abstract: In recent years, Roman Catholic lay persons have been appointed to administer parishes without resident priests. With the assistance of funding from the Lilly Endowment, George Washington University sociologist Ruth Wallace conducted a pioneering study of this growing phenomenon. Dr. Wallace reported the results of her research on female parish administrators in her widely acclaimed 1992 book, They Call Her Pastor. Now, with additional funding from the Lilly Endowment, Dr. Wallace has launched a study of Catholic parishes headed by married deacons and lay men. During 1996 and 1997, she visited twenty such parishes and interviewed administrators, their families, priests, bishops and parishioners. Some of her findings are presented in her paper entitled, "The Rectory as "Home": An Expansion of Goffman's Regional Concepts," delivered at the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion in November of 1997. In the future, Dr. Wallace plans to present the results of her research more fully in a book accessible to a wider audience.

 

 

6) Wisconsin:   http://www.wausaudailyherald.com/wdhlocal/279134121226741.shtml   The Green Bay Diocese has 18 parishes without resident priests, one administered by an ordained deacon, eight by religious sisters and nine by lay administrators.

 

7) Michigan:    http://www.uscatholic.org/2004/06/cov0406.htm#top  Also mentions Ruth Wallace, George Washington Univ  http://www.gwu.edu/~soc/r_wallace.html

 

8) Pittsfield, NY -- church stays open on reduced schedule, http://www.capitalnews9.com/content/headlines/?ArID=37412&SecID=33

 

9)  The US conference of catholic bishops  http://www.usccb.org/liturgy/q%26a/general/weekday.htm have published provisions for liturgy in situations where priests are not available.   (The guidance is not to encourage liturgy without priests when they are available.)

The book can be ordered for about $6.  

Liturgy Documentary Series, Volume 10: Sunday Celebrations in the Absence of a Priest

Responding to the phenomenon of the priestless Sunday, the U.S. bishops

Secretariat for the Liturgy has developed this resource for use by those who

lead Sunday celebrations in the absence of a priest and for those

responsible for formation. This volume includes the complete texts of both

the Directory for Sunday Celebrations in the Absence of a Priest and

Gathered in Steadfast Faith as well as the introduction to Sunday

Celebrations in the Absence of a Priest: Leader s Edition.

No. 5-105, 64 pp., $5.95

Resource Member Price $3.57

---

but it seems portions are available online:

http://www.catholicliturgy.com/index.cfm/FuseAction/DocumentContents/Index/2/SubIndex/11/DocumentIndex/55

and the Archdiocese of Dubuque (Iowa) has posted their summary:

http://www.davenportdiocese.org/ddo-offices/SCAP_Bulletin_1-4.pdf

 

10) The archdiocese of Great Falls - Billings (Montana) has posted procedures for a lay person to lead Sunday celebration in the absence of a priest or

deacon:   http://www.dioceseofgfb.org/Diocesan_%20Policies/policies_and_procedures_for_lay_.htm 

 

11) back to the US Conference of Catholic Biships-  http://www.usccb.org/ 

à under Departments http://www.usccb.org/depts.htm

à Canonical Affiars http://www.usccb.org/norms/index.htm

There is an index of Norms ?  http://www.usccb.org/norms/norms.htm  for communion without a priest – see item 28) under Extraordinary Ministers, and later sections:

Norms for the Distribution and Reception of Holy Communion
Under Both Kinds in the Dioceses of the United States of America

Approved by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
on June 14, 2001

Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments

 

but there did not seem to be anything about the option for a Bishop to appoint a lay person to a role of a pastor “with the faculties of a pastor?”

 

Then there is the “Extraordinary Ministers”  http://www.usccb.org/laity/laymin/layecclesial.htm  -- not sure if this is the right one.

 

 

 

 

Analysis of Closures --

 

The statistical information gathered from the web site of the Archdiocese of Boston was tabulated and examined in this analysis.   The MS-Word version is available also.

 

Additional ways of looking at the data that has become available on the pattern of closures are also available.  See the Analysis Summary page.

 

 

 

History

An history of the parish published to commemorate its 70th anniversary included a letter from then Cardinal Law commdends the "vitality of spirit" of Sacred Heart Parish.   Two versions are available:   HTML and  MS-Word. 

 

 

 

 

To send a letter to Archbishop Sean O’Malley, use the following address:

 

Archbishop Sean O'Malley

Chancery

2121 Commonwealth Ave.

Boston, MA,   02135-3193

 

Telephone 617-254-0100

FAX 617-783-4564

 

 

The URL for the Archidiocese of Boston is http://www.rcab.org/

The part dealing with reconfiguration is http://www.rcab.org/Parish_Reconfiguration/HomePage.html.

 

 

 

 

Last updated July 18th, 2004 (so).