I sometimes listen to the Jesuitical Podcast on the America Media site. The presenters are Zac Davis and Ashley Mckinnless. They are informative, but with a light touch. Their latest podcast is titled "In defense of young diocesan priests" and several other topics are also discussed: Podcast: In defense of young diocesan priests | America Magazine
They critique a general perception that younger priests are more conservative and rigid in their pastoral ministry. That has been a topic lately in several articles, including one in the New York Times.
"Joining them to discuss the countercultural decision to join the diocesan priesthood is the Rev. Wade Bass, a young priest who serves as pastoral administrator at Our Lady of Angels Catholic Church in Allen, Tex., a suburb of Dallas."
They discuss Father Wade's call to the priesthood, experience in seminary, and love of the liturgy, and the daily life and duties of diocesan priests today. Fr. Wade came across as a well-balanced, dedicated priest who enjoys his vocation.
My personal impression is that young priests vary a lot, similar to older ones. I think the area that they are from, and where they serve has a lot to do with it. The ones I know are a lot like Father Wade. We are a moderate diocese, which maybe skews a little conservative, but not in a "radical traditionalist" way. It also matters that they are diocesan priests, and not members of a religious order. Which also varies, depending on the particular order.
We have had two men from our parish ordained to the priesthood since we have been here, and another who is in the sixth year of an eight year program. One of them had worked as a civil engineer previous to answering the call to priesthood. The other two went to undergraduate seminary after high school graduation. One thing they told me is that all the men studying for the priesthood now are expected to become bilingual in English and Spanish.
In the interview, Father Wade said that the priests who were ordained in the past several years had at least two parishes that they were assigned to. Which is also true of the priests here; no one has just one parish anymore.
Which brings us to another topic in the podcast, a lot of foreign born priests are caught in the present immigration wars in the US. One diocese is suing immigration agencies over rule changes that could force thousands of priests to leave. The statistics quoted say that one out of four diocesan priests in the US are now foreign born. This is true of the parish in my hometown. After their long-time pastor retired this summer, they now have a priest from India. He has been in the US several years, and I think his immigration status is okay, that he won't be subject to losing his green card.
I wondered how that would work out, Ogallala is ranch and farm country, not a cosmopolitan urban area. But it seems to be coming along well. There's the matter that if people want ministry, the Mass and sacraments, that they need to be flexible.
There's even an Indian restaurant there now. My sister tells me that some of their clientele are the Sikh truck drivers on the interstate. I guess there are quite a few of them now.
Hi Katherine - we've had a string of youngish priests (associate pastors) during my time in the diaconate. All of the ones I am thinking of are immigrants: Polish, Mexican, Colombian, Indian. Some immigrated here and then went to seminary; others went to seminary and then immigrated here.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how it works in other dioceses, but in ours, the priests have some autonomy (some, not complete) in determining which parish they'll be assigned to. They are looking for a good fit: somewhere where they will be comfortable, and made welcome, and where their particular gifts will be put to good use. So I suspect that some of the perception that young priests are conservative, is somewhat self-selecting: parishes that would tend to welcome a conservative priest, might be more likely to get a conservative priest.
There might also be something to the notion that generations aren't all the same, and the generation(s) with young adults (Millenniums? Z's? I've sort of lost track of which generations are which) may be more moderate-to-liberal than would have been the case, say, 30 years ago (which is when I first started seeing the notion that younger priests were more theologically conservative than the Vatican II-generation guys).
Somewhat related, I also think that, over time, the old pigeon holes sort of lose their relevance. I think it's possible that young adults are attracted to some "conservative" forms of spirituality (like women wearing head coverings in church), and also to some "liberal" forms of spirituality (like working for racial justice).
About 25 years ago I read a report from a conference at Boston College where data from studies of young adult laity(college and up to about age 30) beliefs and vision of what the church should be and those of priests were compared. The conclusion was that there could be trouble ahead. The older priests were primarily of the Vatican II generation and saw themselves as servant leaders who worked with laity in their parishes as equals. They embraced parish councils, finance councils, gave volunteer leaders of ministries a great deal of authority etc. The young adults shared this vision of how parish priests should be. However, the compatibility of views diverged sharply when it came to comparing the attitudes and beliefs of the younger priests cohort (JPII/Benedict) with their lay age peers. The JPII/Benedict priests embraced clericalist views. They saw themselves as above the laity, ontologically superior, and saw no reason to work with Parish or Finance councils. They would make all decisions without advice from parish laity, including which parish ministries to support (social justice often got short shrift and abortion was given priority), what kind of music, liturgy in general, etc. The conference results included fears that the divergence seen between the younger priests and the young adult Catholics would result in the eventual loss of many of the young adult Catholics as the young priests moved into pastor jobs, and that is exactly what did happen.
DeleteHi Anne, how is your move back to your home coming along? Hopefully your husband has been able to join you there now, and has been able to access the health services he needs.
DeleteIn the early "aughts" we had a priest of the type who put himself on a pedestal. He stepped on toes all over the place. He ended up leaving the priesthood and going into financial services, or something. Virtually no one shared his vision of what a pastor should be.
DeleteSince then we have been spared having to put up with an autocratic type.
The associate pastor of our parish group now is, I think, 32. He is a dear young man, well liked. An excellent homilist. The senior pastor is in his sixties, a little more formal,, but very nice. We could be a lot worse off.
I think Jim is right that priests do have some choice where they get sent (except maybe their first assignment) but they're likely to get a parish group, unless it's one of the mega church Omaha ones. And those come with their own problems.
Katherine, it’s been wonderful to be home for me. But there have been many problems associated with my husband’s care. I’m so tired. So exhausted after almost a year of non- stop stress. I look out my kitchen window at the woods and stream and it’s so wonderful. It’s a healing view. But the transitional care place my husband is in until I can arrange home care has been a disaster.
DeleteMy prayers now are to find a GOOD caregiver soon -+that we can afford to pay, so that I can get my husband home.
While there is some truth to the repeated findings of older Vatican II servant leader priests versus younger priests who share JP2 high opinion of the priesthood, I agree the world is much more complicated.
ReplyDeleteA lot of those older priests have their own priorities (e.g. no Latin hymns or chant in the Mass) and simply are not open to alternative opinions. Almost all the people who were in the small groups that met in my house appreciated Latin and Gregorian chant and lamented that we never used any of this in church anymore. One person had actually jointed the local community college chorus which did sing some of those things as part of their Christmas and Easter programs. When Benedict became Pope, I hoped we might restore an occasion Latin hymn or chant. Unfortunately, he authorized the use of the Old Mass, causing a lot of polarization around the issue of Latin. The reality is that as long as we are using the current Missal, we can have as much or as little Latin as we want, all up to the pastor.
A lot of the listening and consulting processes of Vatican II priests are just for show. They, in conjunction with their carefully selected staff, make all the decisions. Rarely have any of my many suggestions received a hearing.
As for the young priests, our parish is about the tenth largest, regularly receives them including many as their first parish. They vary greatly; few are either very conservative or very liberal. Recently we did have one who is very much a Pope Francis priest; he was promptly promoted to being pastor of a parish. Of course, our pastor who is retiring might have vetoed any young conservative priests whom he felt might not fit in the parish.
Assigning priests is a complex process. Any one decision usually opens up a new slot to fill. I think the young Pope Francis priest who was assigned to our parish was meant to be the understudy to succeed our pastor. But another pastorate opened up which had to be filled, and this guy was the best candidate.
I am sure when our next pastor arrives everything will probably change within a year, no matter where he stands on the liberal conservative scale. That is what happened to the other parish that I used to frequent. All their pastoral staff except for the deacons have changed. That is even true of our local orthodox parish. The young Notre Dame Ph.D. does things very differently from what the retired priest did, even though the retired priest resides in the parish and sometimes concelebrates the liturgies.
How Catholic priests are assigned and what their powers are is all rather opaque to me.
ReplyDeleteSeems very diff from Anglican system. Vestry pretty much controls the money, does hiring and firing, with bishop making recommendations and sometimes remonstrating where parishes and priest have come to loggerheads. Sometimes friction arises when priest is broad church liberal and parish is full of conservative high church Anglo Catholics.
Unitarians often don't have a minister or they share what amounts to an itinerant minister who shows up for weddings and funerals. No bishop. I never knew a Unitarian minister who didn't have a day job.