This article first
appeared in The Universe
Must There be a Priest
Shortage?
By Dwight
Longenecker
Every weekend
my work takes me into a different Catholic
parish. I’ve also been asked to speak
to Diocesan Groups about their planning
for the future. Wherever I go priests
and people are discussing the imminent
shortage of priests. Most Dioceses
have plans for the future, and bishops
are working with their teams to plan
how they can combine parishes, close
churches and withdraw parish priests
because of the inevitable shortage
of priests. I’ve heard two bishops
speak with an odd cheerfulness about
the future. ‘Compared to Africa and
South America’ they point out, ‘we
don’t have a shortage of priests. We
have too many priests.’ That sounds
glib, but try to convince the people
of St Digbert’s that there are ‘too
many priests’ when you announce that
the Diocesan Five Year Plan doesn’t
allow them to have a priest anymore.
The impression I get
from talking to many priests and people
is that our church leaders are more
interested in managing decline than
in mission. I wonder whether we really
have to accept the inevitable shortage
of priests. Our schools and hospitals
are facing a shortage of trained personnel,
but the people in charge are taking
action to recruit more doctors, nurses
and teachers and make the profession
more attractive. What kind of a health
or education system would we have if
our leaders simply sat back and said, ‘Oh
well, it looks like we are going to
have a shortage in teachers and nurses
and doctors. We will just have to close
more hospitals and schools.’
It is even more
disturbing when one hears stories about
men who
are discouraged or turned down for
shallow reasons. Within the last year
I have heard of a young man whose vocation
was formed within one of the new ecclesial
movements. His ordination was held
up because his seminary rector ‘Didn’t
have a good feeling about it.’ A parish
priest told me that he was having dinner
with three married Anglican priests.
They all felt drawn to the Catholic
Church, but felt the Catholic bishops
would not be able to support them and
their families. Several converts from
the Anglican ministry have been put ‘on
hold’ for no apparent reason or for
financial reasons which could be solved
if the bishop really wanted to.
A parish priest
who has been active in the missions kept
contacts with an African seminary rector.
The African seminary is full. The seminarians
and young priests are enthusiastic.
They speak excellent English. The English
former missionary asked his bishop
to invite some of the young African
priests to come and work in England.
He was told the Africans would find
the cultural adjustment too difficult.
But the idea was that these Africans
would actually be missionaries to our
pagan country. Missionaries always
have a difficult time adjusting to
a new culture. That’s part of being
a missionary. If priests from the third
world were to come here it would be
up to us to welcome them. They would
bring great gifts from their culture
and they could help establish creative
links between their home dioceses and
England. In another parish I met a
lively Nigerian priest who is in England
to study. He does supply work for some
of the local parishes. I discovered
that he asked the local bishop for
a parish placement in order to feel
more part of a parish community, but
the bishop refused.
Why should we
refuse priests just because they are
from
another country? Years ago it was a
common practice to go to Ireland and
recruit men to come and minister in
England. It is not only the African
seminaries which are full. Why not
establish links with some of the Catholic
Eastern European countries and encourage
some of their priests to come and serve
in Britain? One of the strengths of
the Catholic Church is that it is universal.
Why don’t we take advantage of that
fact and make the Catholic Church in
Britain truly multi-cultural? If foreign
priests came here we would benefit
from their missionary zeal, their fresh
perspectives and the riches of the
various cultures they bring with them.
I realise that my experiences
are not a scientific study. They are
only impressions from conversations
at the grass roots level. I also realise
that the bishops and their teams are
looking forward with sincerity and
good will. They know the situation
better than I do, and they are planning
for the future they think is going
to happen. But can anyone know the
future? Why plan pessimistically when
you can plan optimistically? Who knows
what the Holy Spirit has up his sleeve?
Another parish priest who is involved
in the high level planning in his diocese
said they were expecting a drastic
shortage in priests ten years ago,
but then a good number of Anglican
ministers came over. Suddenly the immediate
priest shortage was solved. How do
we know there is not another wave of
Anglicans about to come over? Are the
bishops and their teams planning for
that possibility? Are they helping
it to happen? Are they giving the signals
that more Anglican convert clergy would
be welcome?
Converts from
Anglicanism and priests from Eastern
Europe and
the Third World will never fill the
gap totally. We will always need more
vocations amongst our own people. Traditionally
these vocations have been fostered
amongst the young. We will always need
young priests, but why not make a concerted
attempt to recruit more older men?
There may be a good number of single
men in their forties who are eligible
for early retirement or who wish to ‘downshift’ from
a high speed career. In my experience,
you get the future you plan for. If
you plan for a shortage of priests
you will get a shortage of priests.
Plan for an abundance of priests and
work towards that goal with vision
and energy, and instead of managing
decline we will be managing growth.
