Lay Ministers

“Although we have yet to solve the problem caused by the disappearing and graying ranks of the Church's clergy and women religious, recent developments on the parish level provide great hope. ”

While it is a fact that the number of priests serving in parishes and the ranks of women religious has dwindled drastically in recent years most American Catholics are being served remarkably well by Church personnel today. Often they are being served better than ever. That is due to the high quality of service the few remaining priests and women religious are presently offering in their ministries, and it is also due to the services of large numbers of full and part-time laity. The presence and activities of lay people active in ministries within the Church in large numbers is relatively new, and the great majority of these lay people are women.

While American bishops are frequently criticized for failing to make realistic efforts toaddress the issues raised by the dwindling ranks of priests and women religious in this country, the situation is being remedied somewhat by the emergence of large numbers of active lay ministers. This is a development that does not appear to have been planned. It is simply happening. The result is that fewer complaints are being raised about the disappearance of the nation’s priests and women religious than might be expected.

In view of the restrictions the Catholic Church places on the persons and role of women it might seem unreal to describe  the present situation as ‘good news.’ Nevertheless, it is. Women are not acquiring full equality with  men in the Church at the present moment, but they are moving steadily towards it. Their basic equality with men is now recognized by the Church, fullyand unreservedly. The translation of that recognition into equal access to the higher positions within the Church is still thwarted. But, steps are definitely being taken in that direction, and perhaps the next meaningful step in that direction will be the welcoming of women into the ranks of the clergy as permanent deacons. In the meantime, it is to the immense credit of Catholic women that they press for full equality while patiently waiting for it to become a reality.

We should not be so foolish as to believe the problem has been solved. It has not been solved. But, thanks to the initiative of lay people who are leading parish ministries full-time and part-time, who are not content to complain, but are giving of their imaginations and energies to the ministerial activities of the Church, the situation at the present moment is most hopeful. Reform, renewal of the Church is most definitely taking place on the parish level, and that is the critically important level of Church life. It is on the parish level that the institution and the people come together, and are Church. The other principal levels, the diocesan level and the level of the Holy See are vitally important, but they exist to service the Church’s parishes, and not the other way around. If any reality of the Church has become clear since Vatican Council II it is the importance of the parish for the overall good of the Church.

Although we have yet to solve the problem caused by the disappearing and graying ranks of the Church’s clergy and women religious, recent developments on the parish level provide great hope. The people of the Church have been rising to this challenge and motivated by a can-do spirit, evidence of the presence of the Holy Spirit, there is reason to believe they will continue to find suitable solutions.

In the meanwhile, we must recognize the fact that the Church’s ministerial personnel, now largely consisting of lay women, is graying. Most of the lay people, over 80% of whom are women, are aging to the point of compulsory retirement. Actually, most of these women are more elderly than the remaining priests. So, the people of the Church must face the reality that in a short while there will no longer be enough priests to serve the Church’s parishes, in that same time there must be the replacement of the elderly women now active in ministry with other personnel.

This writer has no idea how that will be accomplished. But, this writer also failed to anticipate the emergence of the large cadre of lay ministers now serving the Church. The all-important fact is that the people of the Church have been responding to the challenge and there is no reason to fear that they will fail to respond adequately in the future. 

Hope is essential in the life of the Church. There is every reason to be realistic today, and at the same time, there is every reason to be hopeful.

This type of hope is a reflection of the basic optimism of Jesus Christ. His attitude was completely positive, even if tempered by the most  concrete and specific types of realism. Tempered by, but never blotted out by realism.

We, his followers, must strive to practice this type of hope, combined with this stringent realism.