Picking up the slack
As they prepare to close the "public" part of their November meeting, the U.S. bishops are preparing guidelines for the formation of "lay ecclesial ministers"--basically lay people doing all kinds of church work, from religious ed to youth ministry to parish administration. Those who receive a salary and work at least 20 hours a week now number more than 30,000, an increase of 53% since 1990. They work alongside about 42,000 U.S. priests, down from more than 57,000 in 1985. Add to that the scores of volunteer lay parish ministers, and you'll get a good picture of who is keeping the U.S. church afloat.
Oh yeah, by the way, 80% of those lay ecclesial ministers are women.
posted by CtotheL @ 11:31 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Perhaps the Spirit is at work here.... calling people forward to serve. Perhaps the "priest shortage" is the will of God. I should clarify the "shortage" is of ordained priests. But in actuality there is no "priest shortage" -- so I can agree with Archbishop Curtiss when he claimed this -- more than once. It seems there are plenty of priests (and priestesses) coming forward, just not the ones he wanted. Yes, I do believe the Spirit is truely working here... Now if the hierarchy would just get out of Her way!
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