Story by
Steve Euvino
This story
has been edited for Web space. Entire story can be read in the print
edition dated March 21, 2010.
MERRILLVILLE —
The ongoing shortage of priests in the U.S. Catholic
Church has resulted in changes, with multiple-parish
pastoring the most common solution. While one priest for
two or more parishes poses challenges, it also sets the
stage for personal and spiritual growth for clergy and
laity alike.
Educator-author Kate Wiskus
addresses pastoring multiple
parishes at a priests' meeting
at Ss. Peter and Paul,
Merrillville, March 11. (Tim
Hunt photo)
Kate Wiskus, an educator
and author, shared that message with priests of the Diocese of Gary at a meeting
March 11 at Ss. Peter and Paul.
Calling herself a “person in the pew,” Wiskus related information contained in
“Pastoring Multiple Parishes,” a book she co-authored with Mark Mogilka,
director of stewardship and pastoral services for the Diocese of Green Bay, Wis.
While interviewing priests
serving multiple parishes, Wiskus and Mogilka found that clergy were tired from
the extra duties, and yet priests also found the good coming from the situation.
Serving more than one parish did not negatively affect their sense of priestly
ministry, the co-co-authors found. Rather, Wiskus said, this extra duty
“amplified their sense of ministry.” An associate dean of formation at the
University of St. Mary of the Lake, Mundelein Seminary, Wiskus pointed to a
movement away from “it’s about me” to “it’s about Christ” as clergy and laity
adjusted to serving multiple parishes.
“There’s nothing more non-Christian as
‘we stand alone,’” Wiskus said. “Don’t just be concerned about your local area.”
Father Gerald Schweitzer, pastor of three parishes in LaPorte County, said that
over the past four years “we’re developed a great ministry among the three
parishes. It’s about who we are.” Wiskus noted that from her research, “each
priest felt blessed to have been called to that particular ministry.” Wiskus
said that as priests recognized this new ministry of serving more than one
parish, “they were being built up, as well as the people. It was a tremendous
sign of the Holy Spirit.” Priests serving multiple parishes are nothing new,
Wiskus and Mogilka state in their book. According to the Center for Applied
Research in the Apostolate, as early as 1965 this country had 549 parishes (3
percent of the U.S. total) without a resident priest. What is new, the writers
state, is the growth of this practice.
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VATICAN CITY
(CNS) -- Homilies should be
no longer than eight minutes --
a listener's average attention
span, said the head of the synod
office.
Priests and
deacons should also avoid
reading straight from a text and
instead work from notes so that
they can have eye contact with
the people in the pews, said
Archbishop Nikola Eterovic,
secretary-general of the Synod
of Bishops.
In a new book
titled, "The Word of God," the
archbishop highlighted some tips
that came out of the 2008 Synod
of Bishops on the Bible. The
Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore
Romano, reproduced a few
passages from the book in its
March 10 edition. The archbishop
wrote that it's not unusual for
preachers to recognize that they
have less-than-perfect
communications skills or that
they struggle with preparing
homilies. Everyone should spend
an appropriate amount of time to
craft a well-prepared and
relevant sermon for Mass, he
said. He said Pope Benedict XVI
starts working on his Sunday
homilies on the preceding Monday
so that there is plenty of time
to reflect on the Scripture
readings from which the homily
will draw.
Archbishop
Eterovic praised an initiative
by the archdiocese of Paris,
called "Improving Homilies,"
that has been offering courses
and guidelines for priests and
deacons Among the guidelines'
many helpful suggestions, he
said, is that "the homily in
general should not go over
eight, minutes -- the average
amount of time for a listener to
concentrate."
A preacher
would do well to find
inspiration from not just the
Bible, but from the newspaper,
too, so that the homily can
address the current concerns
facing the world or the local
community, he said. A homily can
also offer ideas for what people
can do after Mass in the way of
prayer, readings, and activities
at home, work or in society to
help carry out Gospel teachings.
Homilies can be written out,
Archbishop Eterovic said, but a
preacher should work from brief
notes or a bare outline that
lets him follow the logical path
of his talk while still being
able to engage and look at the
congregation.
END
03/10/2010 9:37 AM ET
Copyright (c) 2010 Catholic News
Service/U.S. Conference of
Catholic Bishops
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (CNS) --
On her second medical
mission to Haiti since the Jan.
12 earthquake, Patty Skoglund, a
disaster response expert with
Scripps Health in San Diego,
sees an evolution in medical
treatment taking place. "It went
from a completely surgical focus
to a chronic-care focus," said
Skoglund, whose team saw 200
patients at St. Francis de Sales
Hospital in the center of the
most devastated part of the
Haitian capital March 1. The
hospital has been caring for 65
patients -- about half its
normal number -- at any given
time, under tents and tarps.
A man assists a woman in a
wheelchair at St. Francis de
Sales Hospital in
Port-au-Prince, Haiti, March 1,
seven weeks after the massive
earthquake left more than
200,000 dead and the capital in
ruins. (CNS photo/George M.
Martell, The Catholic
Foundation) (March 2, 2010)
Because of the
limited number of hospitals and
trained health professionals,
the demand for routine care is
great. Complicating the
situation is the recent heavy
rains and flooding, leading to
more cases of malaria.
At St. Francis
de Sales, the U.S. Agency for
International Development
erected several surgical suites.
Still, Skoglund said she is
concerned about medical teams
working outdoors.
Dr. Edgar
Gamboa, chief of surgery at El
Centro Regional Medical Center
in San Diego, who arrived in
Port-au-Prince Feb. 28 for the
second time since the
earthquake, said he was pleased
to learn the hospital now had
semi-permanent outdoor tent
facilities, regular patient
meals made possible by CRS,
portable showers and toilets.
"The pharmacy
is also better stocked and now
has a computerized inventory,"
he said. "The challenge is to be
able to get commitments from the
different volunteer groups and
find out how to collaborate and
work together to effect
efficient and sustained patient
care, because while the acute
phase is winding down, the
semi-acute phase and chronic
illnesses phase is starting,
along with getting back to
everyday emergencies" He said he
was alarmed, however, that three
patients recently died of
tetanus, a preventable
infectious disease which enters
the body through open wounds.
It's a situation that
underscores the dire need for
tetanus vaccinations in Haiti,
he explained. "Half of the
children here are not immunized,
and only a third of people had
access to medical care before
the earthquake," he said. "The
most important thing is
sustainability because once
Haiti is out of the news there
is always fatigue," Gamboa
added. "We must concentrate on
the fact that the medical care
needs to be supported on a
long-term basis." END
03/02/2010 11:22 AM ET
Copyright (c) 2010 Catholic News
Service/U.S. Conference of
Catholic Bishops
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The new
English translation of the Roman
Missal might not be in U.S.
parishes for as long as two
years, but Father Rick
Hilgartner hopes Catholics are
talking about it now.
This sacramentary rests on the
altar in the Pastoral Center
chapel in Merrillville. The new
Roman Missal, which will replace
this book, is expected to be
ready by Advent 2011. (Tim Hunt
photo)
Mention of the
upcoming changes in the prayers
at Mass might come in the
occasional bulletin insert, in
adult religious education
classes or Bible study groups or
in a homily at Mass, said the
associate director of the U.S.
bishops' Secretariat of Divine
Worship in Washington. "Anything
to heighten people's awareness,"
Father Hilgartner added in a
Feb. 2 interview with Catholic
News Service.
Along with
such organizations as the
Federation of Diocesan
Liturgical Commissions and the
National Association of Pastoral
Musicians, the divine worship
secretariat is gearing up to
help educate the nation's 68
million Catholics on changes to
the language of the Mass that
were initiated in 2002 when Pope
John Paul II issued a new
edition of the Roman Missal in
Latin.
The last time
a new edition of the missal was
implemented was in 1975. For
nearly a decade, representatives
of bishops' conferences in 11
English-speaking countries,
including the U.S., have been
working on the English
translation of the 2002 missal,
which each conference has
approved in sections over the
years. A news release issued at
the Vatican in late January said
the Congregation for Divine
Worship and the Sacraments is in
the final stages of reviewing
the last sections of the
translation before issuing its "recognitio,"
or approval. Once the Vatican
approval is received, the
president of each bishops'
conference will decide when the
new missal will start being used
in each country.
But before
that can happen, priests and
people must be involved in a
"two-tiered catechetical
process" that starts with
"general and broad" discussions
of such issues as the "nature of
the Mass, how it builds up the
church and how we encounter
Christ," Father Hilgartner said.
"Some people want to jump right
to conversations about the
texts" themselves, without the
proper context and background,
he added. But some of the
liturgical texts that have been
translated date to the fourth
century and "were not crafted in
the 21st-century American
sound-bite culture" that
communicates in "short, simple
statements," Father Hilgartner
said. He said those who have
criticized the new liturgical
language as out of touch with
today's Catholics are not taking
the context into proper account.
"The way I might send a text
message to a friend is not the
way I'd speak in a job
interview," Father Hilgartner
said. "And the way we speak in
prayer ought to communicate a
sense of reverence."
Further
information and resources are
available at a Web site launched
by the U.S. Conference of
Catholic Bishops,
www.usccb.org/romanmissal.
U.S. publishers are gearing up
to offer other resources, such
as the World Library
Publications' recently announced
"Prepare and Pray" recordings of
the new eucharistic prayers, as
read by Bishop J. Peter Sartain
of Joliet, Ill. "I imagine that
priests will find it useful and
time-saving to play the CDs in
their cars while traveling, or
even downloading them to their
MP3 players to listen while
exercising, walking and taking
time in prayer," said Jerry
Galipeau, associate publisher of
World Library Publications.
END
02/09/2010 1:11 PM ET
Copyright (c) 2010 Catholic News
Service/U.S. Conference of
Catholic Bishops
