ARTICLES

Will They Die With Their Boots On?

Sacramento Diocese Planning for Fewer Priests

BY ERIC RESLOCK

The diocese of Sacramento is making plans that may include eliminating the role of pastors as the central component in the life of many of its churches. The diocese will not confirm this is the intention of its initiative called "Planning for the Future," but the implicit message in diocesan documents points to the impending retirement of many of the diocese 's priests as the central cause.

From January through March of this year, every parishioner in the Sacramento diocese was invited to fill out a lengthy questionnaire which rates parish life from both a general and specific point of view. The questions covered such topics as, "overall satisfaction with the parish," "the quality of the liturgy," "its open, welcoming spirit," "its commitment to social justice," and so on. Census data that breaks down according to age, race or ethnicity, zip codes, and marital status have been brought to bear on the project. The survey was designed by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University in consultation with the diocese of Middletown for the exclusive use of the diocese of Sacramento. The questionnaires were sent back to the center for data entry. The results are to be shared with parishes this fall as part of the diocese' Planning for the Future initiative that is scheduled to be finalized in February 2004 at a diocesan synod.

Each parish representative, after receiving a synthesized summary of their parish survey results from the center, must present a report that gives a summary of the responses, ending with an analysis of parishioners' written responses to the question, "on what need or program should the parish most focus?" For southern parishes of the Sacramento diocese, chairmen from each parish will meet to share their preliminary parish reports with the diocesan planning committee on September 21 in Sacramento. Northern parishes will have their meeting in Red Bluff on October 5.

Before the final implementation of the initiative, the diocese plans to look at the response to the question of what each parish should focus on in order to guide a diocesan-wide downsizing in the number of churches where Mass is going to be available, while keeping open churches that will no longer provide Mass. The cause of this is a shrinking supply of priests. According to diocesan documents, the description of this stage is the formation of "parish clusters." The basic idea is to find out the particular strengths of each parish and to find a way to continue to offer those aspects of Catholic life that are most popular to parishioners.

The shortage of priests is a serious problem in the Sacramento diocese. According to material from the diocese, of the 214 priests, 89 are age 65 or older. This constitutes 42 percent of the total. Another 72 (or 35 percent) are between 50 and 64. Only 49 priests, or 23 percent of all the priests in the diocese, are under age 49. Unless the diocese has a staggering increase in vocations, in a short time it will have few priests to cover the diocese's 42,597 square miles and to minister to the roughly 500,000 Catholics who live in it.

Father Charles McDermott, spokesman for the diocese of Sacramento, said that it would be wrong to assume that the demographic data on priests tells the whole story. He said, "the first question is, will any of the priests retire? Many, like me, will die with their boots on."

I asked him how he accounted for the staggering generational difference in the number of vocations -- why there are so many priests of retirement age like him and so few younger priests. He said, "it's an extremely complex web of influences." The first cause he cited was the increasing importance placed on affluence in modern American life. "People want to be masters of their own destiny, which has no place in the priesthood, which requires giving oneself to God and accepting a certain discipline. Also, young people have so many other opportunities today, which can also cut both ways. To some, the heroic virtue required to become a priest has a certain counter-cultural draw. I also think the uncertainties since the second Vatican Council have contributed to this -- I say uncertainties on the conservative side as well as, how should I put it. the contrary as well. Plus, seeing so many people leaving the priesthood has not been a good motivator either." He added, "I think the whole sexual atmosphere has something to do with it as well, but it is a complex situation."

I asked him how many ordinations the diocese has had recently. Father McDermott said, "I do not know the exact number. [There are] not as many as one would wish. But there is a steady two or three coming in each year." He then said that the vocational department of the diocese was doing a good job and working very hard to encourage new vocations.

Father McDermott said that the main purpose of the study was to gather information for the diocese so it has a better idea how to serve the people. When asked specifically about the diocesan goal to create parish clusters, he said, "I don't know about that." He then cautioned against people engaging in "certain prognostications." When I pointed out that the term "parish clusters" came from diocesan material, he said, "I suppose if we were to have a severe shortage, it may make sense." He then cited Canon 517, which lays out the regulations for priests to share responsibility for multiple parishes.

Father McDermott downplayed what appears to be an impending shortage of priests, saying that the problem is being dealt with partially by drawing in foreign priests. He said, "we have been drawing candidates from Colombia, the Philippines, Mexico, and other countries, and we have our local candidates." Asked whether the diocese would look to other orders to get more priests before resorting to downsizing into parish clusters, Father McDermott said, "the diocese is constantly trying to get as many vocations as possible. We are doing this constantly."

I asked Michael Rose, author of Goodbye, Good Men, what other options the diocese should look into for dealing with a shortage of priests. He agreed that importing priests, as long as they are from orthodox orders, could be part of the solution. He then said, "first, in long-range planning, Sacramento needs to look to those dioceses that have been long successful in attracting vocations to the priesthood. I suspect that orthodoxy has not exactly characterized clerical life in the diocese of Sacramento for the past three decades. The successful dioceses are those that willingly embrace the teachings of the Church, especially on the priesthood, and who support orthodox vocations to the priesthood. Unswerving allegiance to the pope and the magisterial teachings of the Church is the simple solution. Good, orthodox priests naturally attract good, orthodox men who want to pursue their calling."

The seminaries that the diocese sends vocational candidates to are St. Patrick's in Menlo Park; Mount Angel in Oregon; the Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio; and Assumption Seminary in San Antonio, Texas.

Three of these seminaries have questionable reputations. St. Patrick's had as its academic dean, Father Carl Schipper, who was arrested for soliciting sex with minors and distributing child porn over the internet in 2000. San Francisco archbishop William Levada invited Father Gerald Coleman to take his place. Coleman is well known as a supporter of what he calls "chaste" homosexual unions and publicly opposed Proposition 22, the defense of marriage initiative. Michael Rose interviewed seminarians at Mount Angel seminary in Oregon for Goodbye, Good Men, who said their superiors persecuted them for praying the rosary. Rose interviewed another seminarian that had a similar experience in the early '90s at the Josephinum in Columbus. His rosary group was also singled out to the point that the participants were given bad marks on their evaluations because the faculty thought their piety was a pretense and bad form. Another seminarian at Mount Angel said that in 1991 students were required to study a textbook called Our Sexuality, that promoted masturbation and anal intercourse. According to a handout the instructor gave the class, the instructor asked the seminary students a series of questions, one of which was, "if you were to talk to your genitals, what would you like to say to them? What would they like to say to you?" The seminarian on September 15, 1991 took the matter up with Portland's bishop, who was then William Levada (who became archbishop of San Francisco in 1995). But only after an unflattering story appeared in the October 13, 1991 Wanderer did the text get pulled. Another seminarian Rose interviewed attended Mount Angel a year after this controversy and objected to having to take classes with non-Catholics, some of whom were professed lesbians and witches. All of which raises the question: if the Sacramento diocese is getting their priests from such seminaries, what good will they do? In light of the recent scandals, a better question is, what harm may some of these men do to the diocese both spiritually and financially as a result of their disordered formation?

I asked Father McDermott whether the diocese was concerned that certain abuses might take place in the event that parish clusters are formed and certain Catholic churches no longer have a pastor as their center. In particular, sources told me that at St. Francis in Sacramento, there are weekday "communion services" where lay people go up to the altar and say a few prayers and then help themselves to consecrated hosts in the tabernacle. Father McDermott replied, "I have no knowledge of that. But the Holy See has offered liturgical guidelines for when a priest is not present." He went on to say that such communion services require a deacon to be present. He added, "sometimes one has to be careful about reports that come in. Often these are quite imprecise."

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