Chapter 15
Roamin' Catholics
When six-week-old Joseph Garcia Soares, Jr., resplendent in his embroidered white gown, was baptized at St. Anthony's Roman Catholic Church in Wendell, Idaho, Sister Mary Louise Deroin played a key role. And earlier that morning the Holy Cross nun had led an entire Communion service by herself. As "pastoral administrator" at St. Anthony's and St. Catherine's — her other rural parish twelve miles away in Hagerman — Sister Mary Louise knows parishioners intimately and is in charge of the churches' daily activities.1
If you thought Roman Catholicism was a fortress of unbending tradition where only "Father knows best," you've come to the wrong decade.
As the clergy shortage within the within the U.S. Catholic Church grows ever more acute, more and more nuns, deacons, and lay men and women will be appointed to fulfill roles and duties traditionally carried out only by priests. The practice, hailed by some and criticized by others, is shaping the way Catholic churches will be run in the future.
Some church leaders fear parishioners will find the arrangement so satisfactory that they will feel less need for priests — downgrading the sacramental nature of the church and the importance of the all-male priesthood. Others worry that just the opposite will happen: Parishioners will shun non-ordained leaders who aren't able to
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perform the sacraments — thus increasing pressure to ordain women and married men.
Despite objections, the 1989 authorization allows bishops to designate a deacon, non-ordained sister, brother, or lay member to lead prayers, read Scripture, preach, and perform a Communion service if bread and wine consecrated by a priest is available. Following this guideline, Sister Mary Louise is one of the hundreds of nonclergy now being empowered to perform pastoral duties.2
The phenomenon of "priestless parishes" isn't confined to the wide-open spaces of places like Idaho, where more than a third of the 110 parishes in the Diocese of Boise are without resident priests. It's also affecting big-city archdioceses. In Richmond, Virginia, for instance, Father Tom Caroluzza says that by 1996, twenty of its 131 parishes will need to be served by either a nun or a lay person.3
One out of ten U.S. parishes had no regular priest in 1990, according to a survey by the Institute for Pastoral Life in Kansas City, Missouri. At least 1,000 of the nation's 22,733 Catholic parishes have no resident clergy, and almost a third of the dioceses have parishes that occasionally hold Sunday services without a priest. Before 2001, that figure will jump to 85 percent, the institute forecasts.4
Fewer Priests, More Parishioners
Between 1970 and 1990, the number of American priests dropped from 59,000 to 53,500. But the U.S. Catholic population increased by more than 7 million. Now 57 million strong, the church is adding 2 million new members each year. Since 1965 it has gained more than 20 percent — almost as much as Protestantism declined during the same period.5 Perhaps as many as one in five Roman Catholics call themselves charismatic, or Pentecostal,6 and somewhere between 13 and 21 percent say they are born-again Christians.7
In the wake of the Second Vatican Council "reformation" of the mid-1960s, Catholic leadership has assumed a new "center" position on the American religious landscape, presenting a social vision to its members as well as to the larger society.
"The Catholics," says Richard Mouw of Fuller Theological Seminary, "are the calm, dignified, authoritative voices, insofar as there are any at all."8 And church researchers Roof and McKinney believe
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the Catholic Church appears to be "in the best position ever to assume a custodial role for American culture at large."9
Despite absolutist theological stands on many issues, the Catholic Church has become an effective player in national politics. The bishops' high-profile pastoral letters on disarmament and the economy, for example, grabbed the ears of government officials. Martin Marty, among others, thinks the U.S. bishops will continue to be important power brokers — even though they're divided.10
Catholics now account for about 28 percent of the nation's population — a jump of 40 percent since 1947.11 And the number of Latino Catholics, enlarged by immigration and prolific birth rates, comprises the church's most rapidly growing segment. Nearly a third of the country's Catholics are Hispanic; before the turn of the century, half of them will be.12
But Hispanic Catholics are often "roamin' " Catholics. Using information gathered by the National Opinion Research Center in Chicago, sociologist-priest Andrew Greeley concluded that about 23 percent of all Hispanic Americans — despite most of them coming from a Catholic background — are Protestants and that some 60,000 Hispanics join Protestant denominations each year.13 In a 1990 survey by the City University of New York, one third of all Hispanics said they adhere to non-Catholic faiths.14
Father Allan Figueroa Deck, a Catholic theologian who specializes in Hispanic studies, thinks Hispanics often struggle to be noticed in Catholic churches, while evangelicals offer a simplicity and emotional power that is appealing. Evangelical and Pentecostal groups often provide Spanish-speaking ministers and small churches "especially appropriate for immigrants who need all the personal communal support they can get," he told a national meeting of the Catholic bishops in 1989.15
The sprawling, three-county Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the nation's most populous, illustrates Deck's point. In 1990, about 70 percent of the 3.5 million Latinos who lived within the archdiocese were Catholic. But in the early 1970s, that figure was about 85 percent. Many have converted to "the aggressive fundamentalist and Pentecostal churches," said Louis Velasquez, associate director of Hispanic Ministry for the archdiocese. Worse, he added in an interview, probably no more than 20 percent of
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Southern California Latinos who consider themselves Catholic attend Mass regularly.16
That squares with national figures showing a general decline in worship attendance by Catholics over the past thirty years or so. Gallup noted a "dramatic" skid at weekly Mass between 1958 and 1988 — attendance fell from 74 percent to 48 percent.17
The church is losing black Catholics as well. The desire for African-style liturgy and concerns about alleged "institutional racism" have leaped to center stage. These issues will probably continue to be prominent on the agenda of many of the nation's 1.3 million black Catholics, who are served by only about 300 black priests (fewer than one for every 4,000 black parishioners).18
These and other internal problems will cause U.S. Catholic leaders to reach for the Pepto-Bismol often during the coming decade. Tensions with Rome, upheavals over teaching, financial woes, and a growing "pick-and-choose" style of faith — particularly in matters of morals and sexuality — will upset even cast-iron constitutions.
No Surplus in the Surplices
Many mainline Protestant denominations are experiencing a surplus of clergy, but in the U.S. Catholic Church the shortage of priests is the largest threat to traditional Catholic parish administration. Yet, the problem may hold the seeds for a new and previously unexperienced vitality.
First the bad news:
Since 1966, the number of seminarians seeking the priesthood has plummeted from 48,000 to 7,500. The number in the final four-year-program leading to ordination has dropped to only about 4,000.
By 2001, the projected decline from resignations, deaths, and fewer ordinations will leave only 15,000 active parish priests — about the same number as in 1925 and less than half as many as in 1966.
The average age of these priests at the turn of the century will be 65.
Within twenty-five years of ordination, 42 percent of priests will resign, and younger priests are resigning in greater proportion than older ones. The church's requirement of celibacy and a permanent commitment are the most frequently given reasons for not entering the priesthood or for leaving it.
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In the past twenty years, an estimated 19,000 U.S. priests have married, although the church forbids it and rescinds their right to perform priestly duties. Half of all priests under age sixty have married. About 90 percent of all priests who resign eventually marry. By the mid-1990s, the number of married priests is expected to equal or surpass the 26,000 unmarried active parish priests.19
"The vocation shortage is long-term, not just temporary, and the church is powerless to reverse . . . the social pressures causing the downturn," declared Dean Hoge, a sociology professor at the Catholic University of America in Washington.20
Now for the good news. Sort of...
A recent survey of priests in their late thirties found them to be happier than commonly thought. Eighty percent were satisfied with their vocation and would enter the priesthood if they had it to do over again. Ninety percent said they enjoy working with sisters and lay leaders.
"This is a new attitude," said Father Gene Hemrick, who researched the project with Hoge. "The spirituality of the laity is helping them [the priests] in their own lives . . . It's supposed to be the other way around. In the past, priests would never say they're inspired by the laity they're serving."21
At the same time, most of the "thirtysomething" priests said they disliked being assigned to rectories. They would prefer to choose where they live.
At least 5,000 priests who have chosen to marry would serve their church in an ordained capacity if allowed to do so. Thirty to forty of the nation's 188 dioceses do permit married priests to function in church jobs but do not allow them to administer the sacraments. Another eighty to 100 married priests teach theology at the university level — half of them at Catholic schools.22
Some seminary officials consider their schools more than just a training ground for priests. They see them as a way to equip Catholic laymen for leadership that doesn't require ordination.23
Some attending seminary never plan on ordination. Sister Katarina
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Schuth, OSF, coordinator of a Lilly Endowment-funded study, notes that about 4,000 nuns and lay people are pursuing graduate degrees in theology in seminaries across the country. Twenty years ago, there were none. Training the laity to take on religious tasks frees the clergy to concentrate on sacramental duties like saying Mass.
Then, too, more paid lay parish managers are presiding over business and administrative tasks once performed only by priests. In the future, these lay professionals may oversee three or four parishes, both priestless and staffed, church planners say.
Some innovative efforts are in place now. In Indianapolis, a laity-founded cooperative connects parishes by shared staffing. It's doing "a good Band-Aid job — keeping the parishes from falling apart," commented Father Clarence Waldon of Holy Angels Parish in the center city.24
Bishop Raymond Lucker of New Ulm, Minnesota, a pioneer in dealing with priestless parishes, predicts that even if priests were to become plentiful again, the emphasis on lay ministry would continue. The church can't go back to the days when "Father did it all," he said. "What started as an answer to a practical problem has opened up a new vision."
But he has also warned his fellow bishops that they can no longer ignore the ordination question.25
Sociologist Hoge speculates that if priests were given the option to marry, the number of candidates would quadruple. In a massive study, he found that 16 percent of college-age Catholic men would be interested in the priesthood if the celibacy requirement were removed. The number of candidates "would go up so high, the church would have to institute quality standards and could be more selective," he said.26
There seem to be three possible solutions to the priest shortage: ordain women priests: relax the celibacy standard for men; allow and encourage more laity participation. It doesn't take a crystal ball to figure out which one they'll try first.
Cafeteria Catholics
Although the Pope isn't ready for married priests, many U.S. Catholics are. Recent polls show that more than half of the priests
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and at least 60 percent of the laity favor optional celibacy for priests. A slight majority of Catholics also favor the ordination of women priests.27
But then, lack of uniform opinion is a hallmark of Americanism in the 1990s, and the diversity of our society has become a characteristic of the U.S. Catholic Church was well — to the consternation of hardline Vatican officials. Pope John Paul II cautioned American Catholics in 1987 that dissent had its limits, to which a few brave Catholics politely but firmly responded that the pontiff didn't understand America.
"Today there is no longer a single Catholic culture or even a single vision of church in the United States," wrote Jane Redmont, who has been a campus and parish minister in a variety of Catholic settings. "A diversity of opinion exists about moral and social questions, about church authority and ministry. The language of prayer itself is no longer uniform, but reflects a plurality of cultures, styles and spiritualities."28
American Catholics are more likely to follow their own conscience or personal preference than to assent unquestioningly to papal pronouncements. In no area is this more true than matters of sex and lifestyle. Not only do a large majority of U.S. Catholics disapprove of the church's teaching against contraception, they also favor a limited pro-choice position on abortion.29
And many Catholics agree with dissident theologian Father Charles Curran who says that homosexual behavior, masturbation, premarital sex, and divorce aren't always sinful.30 (About one-fourth of U.S. Catholics have been divorced and half of these have remarried.)31
Curran, who was fired from his teaching post at Catholic University for his unorthodox views on sexual ethics, predicts that the role of women in the church "will be the most divisive internal issue facing Roman Catholicism" this decade.32
While the Pope keeps calling for traditional values, American Catholics keep finding their own. But they still consider themselves "good" Catholics, loyal to the church as they see it.
"Roman Catholics continue to be devout, believe in God and Jesus and go to church," priest-novelist Andrew Greeley declared. "But they no longer trust their leadership." He added wryly: "If we [clerics]
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haven't driven the lay people out in the last 25 years, then we'll never be able to."33
Future Directions
One new feature of Catholicism — the "magnet" parish — is drawing lay people in rather than driving them away. Magnet parishes, the Catholic equivalent of Protestant megachurches, are faith communities that attract people with common interests, not a common residence. These interests may be social activism, style of worship, or the charisma of a certain pastor.
Church canon defines a parish as a community of people. This simple definition allows Catholics to find parishes where they feel comfortable, said Jesuit Father Pat Carroll, pastor of St. Leo's in Tacoma, Washington, a magnet community that draws from far beyond its immediate borders.
"The scary thing is that if people don't like what's going on they just go away," Carroll added. "That's been one of the curses [of] the Protestant churches."34
Religion expert Jeffrey Hadden believes continuing conflict within American Catholicism will stem from Pope John Paul II's desire to replace liberal U.S. priests with conservatives.35 Tensions between Rome and liberals in the U.S. hierarchy reached crisis proportions in 1986 when the Vatican disciplined Seattle Archbishop Raymond G. Hunthausen for laxness in pastoral administration — a situation many bishops thought could have been settled without Vatican intervention. Though that imbroglio was resolved, others wait in the wings.
In the decade's closing years, academic freedom and fidelity to church teaching at Catholic institutions, particularly higher education, will be publicly debated.
The Catholic parochial system will provide an important alternative to public schooling for the next century. These schools will be staffed mostly with lay teachers rather than clergy or persons in religious orders. Half or more of students in inner-city parochial schools will be non-Catholic, and large majorities will belong to ethnic minorities.
In Southern California, 93 percent of Catholic inner-city school
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enrollments in 1991 were children of color. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles's school system — second-largest of all systems, public and private, in the state — has a dropout rate of less than 1 percent. And 86 percent of Southern California students who graduate from Catholic high schools — where they perform two grade levels above the national average — go on to college.36
But throughout the nation, financial and personal cutbacks have forced Catholic schools and parishes to close. Nationwide, Catholic schools still enroll about 2.5 million students, but that's down about 45 percent from the peak of 4.5 million in 1964.37 Consolidations and closures that have already hit Detroit and Chicago will spread to other big cities unless new sources of income and leadership are recruited.
Meanwhile, the church will be hard-pressed to come up with enough money to provide decent retirement programs for a growing flock of retired and elderly priests, nuns, and brothers.
Greeley points with alarm to continuing cash squeezes and lighter collection plates. Back in the 1960s, Americans were giving about 2.2 percent of their income to the church. Protestants still give that much, but Catholics give a paltry .9 percent — resulting in an income loss of about $7 billion annually.38 Sister Sharon Euart, RSM, who helps the U.S. Catholic Conference make long-range plans, agrees the church is in for a time "of diminishing resources in terms of finances and shifting personnel."39
Perhaps Clarentian priest Rosendo Urrabazo, president of the Mexican-American Cultural Center in San Antonio, Texas, sums up the best-hope scenario for a "reformed" American Catholicism of the 21st century. He believes the church must challenge the social structures of the nation and take the side of the poor — which includes immigrants and large segments of the black and Latino communities. And, he says, the services need to be adapted to the Hispanic community and culture. "The festive community that celebrates and sings and is joyful wants to express that worship, and, for many, in Spanish."40
