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PAGE 8 — The Georgia Bulletin, January 19, 1989 OFFERTORY GIFT — Celeste Marlene Dela Garza, 3, has her own gift in mind as she leans forward to give Detroit Cardinal Edmund C. Szoka a kiss during Offertory procession at St. Ann parish. (NC photo by Elizabeth DeBeliso, The Michigan Catholic) U.S. Bishops' Study Celibacy Among Top Causes Of Low Morale With Priests BY JERKY FILTEAU WASHINGTON (NC) - Many U.S. priests feel “trapped, overworked, frustrated” and suffer low morale, says a study issued by the U.S. Bishops’ Commit tee on Priestly Life and Ministry. The growing shortage of priests and a feeling by many that their years-long work to implement the Second Vatican Council “is now being blunted or even betrayed” contribute to the low morale, the study says. It also cites loneliness, tensions over sex ual issues and polarized views of the church as key factors. “Generally every study or commentary done on the priesthood and shortage of vocations mentions sexuality — and specifically mandatory celibacy — as a major reason a) for leaving the priesthood, b) for shortage of vocations and c) for loneliness and personal unhap piness of those who stay,” the report says. It says that sexual tensions involve not only questions of “personal and interper sonal levels of sexuality” for individual priests, but also “what might be called ‘the politics of sexuality’ which would include the issues surrounding feminism, married clergy, optional celibacy, the role and place of homosexuals in ministry, just to name a few.” The report was completed and sent to the U.S. bishops last spring, but it was not made public at that time. In September the Administrative Committee of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops approved publication and wider distribution of the report, and the NCCB Public Affairs Office released copies to the press after Christmas. The report, titled “Reflections on the Morale of Priests” and printed as a 20-page booklet, was the work of a subcom mittee, headed by Bishop John L. McRaith of Owensboro, Ky., of the priestly life and ministry committee. Another source of frustration for priests, the report says, is the fact “that some solu tions to the clergy shortage are precluded from discussion and that not all pastoral solutions and options can be explored. “Discouragement,” it continues, “comes from the acute awareness of priests that some possible avenues of relief are not to be considered or discussed. Those most commonly referred to are or dination of married men, effective use of laicized priests and expanded roles for women in ministry.” “The priest must deal with those who are angry and disillusioned with what they consider the slow pace of renewal; he must also face the unreasoning and often well- organized opposition of the self-styled or thodox and of those who simply do not believe in the decisions and directions of Vatican II... (Priests) find themselves caught in the middle,” the report says. What a bishop can do to ease the demoralization of priests "is not easy and is definitely limited,” the reports says. It says that what priests often want most from their bishops is “more personal con tact, greater interest in their ministry and ongoing moral support.” According to the report, one way to im prove morale among priests is to give them greater say in their future by invol ving them more fully in the selection of diocesan officials, including bishops, and in the development of diocesan policies. Priests’ “need for a sense of community, common vision and mutual responsibility” can be met in part by encouraging col laborative forms of ministry and by establishing policies in areas such as health care and retirement which show a sense of caring, the report says. It says priests may feel a closer sense of com munity with "bishops who are frank and honest ... about their own frustrations and questions.” “Priests do not expect from their bishop all the answers and solutions to the issues that confront them,” it says. “What they do look for is the opportunity to dialogue with their bishop in the issues that affect their lives. These issues generally include a vision for the diocese, collaboration, shared ministry, as well as the tensions of parish life, rectory living, celibacy and sexual maturity.” While noting the many practical issues that affect the morale of priests, the report stresses that all such questions "need to be placed within the context of discipleship which is central to spirituality for the priest today.” 31 Detroit Parishes Shut, 25 Given Year's Reprieve DETROIT (NC) — Cardinal Edmund C. Szoka of Detroit, ending three months of uncertainty over a controversial parish reorganization plan, announced Jan. 8 that 31 Detroit parishes will close and that another 25 will be given a year to “reach viability” or close. Two of the 31 parishes will reopen as one parish with a new name. Members of the other parishes being closed will be ab sorbed into existing parishes. The cardinal disclosed his final decisions to pastors of the affected churches in private meetings before he made his for mal announcement in a Sunday afternoon press conference Jan 8. Pastors were given permission to tell their parishioners during weekend Masses. Cardinal Szoka said resources were not available to operate a total of 112 parishes in Detroit and the enclaves of Hamtramck and Highland Park. Of the 82 remaining, 25 were deemed “questionably viable." Each of those, he said, has until Dec. 31 “to demonstrate its ability to make genuine progress toward viability" in the areas of worship, spiritual and religious formation, evangelization, service, parish staff, organizations and parish property. There are to be periodic reviews. “Can they do it? I honestly don’t know,” the cardinal said during the press con ference. "But it does appear reasonable to hope that they can and they certainly have my encouragement, my cooperation and my prayers that they will.” He said there would be disappointment over the decisions that have been made and that he personally shared in a “com mon sorrow and sadness” over any parish closing but said the resources "are not there” to keep them all open. Cardinal Szoka said the church of Detroit was committed to “a strong, per manent presence in the city” as evi denced, he said, by having its Sacred Heart Seminary there. He also called for “a stirring up of bap tismal waters” of Hispanics and blacks and said the emergence of black and Hispanic lay leadership was essential. Parishes are expected to close by June 30 and parish priests will be reassigned. Berman said he did not know how many parish staff members would be affected by the closings but that the Office for the Church in the City would assist in their placement elsewhere. The reorganization plan was outlined Sept. 28 during an archdiocese-wide telebriefing releasing the preliminary recommendations of two archdiocesan committees, the Urban Advisory Board and Implementation Committee. The two were formed in 1987 to strengthen the church in the urban areas in light of falling parish enrollment, the declining number of priests and rising costs. The original recommendations included closing 45 Detroit parishes and'one parish in nearby River Rouge, designating two parishes as shrines, and establishing five new parishes. Fifty-four hearings were held for af fected parishes from Nov. 1 to Dec. 10. Auxiliary Bishop Patrick R. Cooney, chairman of the two committees, presented final recommendations to the cardinal Dec. 19. The three months were marked by prayer vigils, petition campaigns and large-scale meetings in an effort to save parishes. In the last two weeks before the final announcement, groups of mothers and their children greeted the cardinal each morning at his residence and asked him not to close their parishes. Religious Orders Plan Challenge In Court On Employer Sanctions BY TRACY EARLY NEW YORK (NC) — The Intercommuni ty Center for Justice and Peace, which in cludes more than 40 religious orders in the New York area, plans to go to court to challenge employer sanctions in the 1986 immigration reform law. Darlene Cuccinello, a spokeswoman for the Manhattan-based center which represents both men’s and women’s religious orders, said in a Jan. 6 interview she did not know how many orders would enter the suit, but that a court test was now certain and would likely be filed in February. Under the law. employers who hire il legal aliens are subject to fines ranging from $250 to $10,000 per alien. The law allows levying criminal penalties, in cluding six-month jail sentences, for “a pattern or practice of violations” by an employer. Miss Cuccinello said she had met Jan. 5 with Bruce Lupion, an official in the New York district office of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and officials of two of the center’s member-orders who had asked their orders be exempt from com plying with the sanction provisions of the law. Lupion told them that “the answer is no,” Miss Cuccinello said, and that their only recourse was through the courts. Verne Jervis, INS spokesman in Washington, said Jan. 9 that INS does not have the authority to offer any exemp tions. “The law didn’t exempt anyone,” said Jervis, adding that Congress would have to amend the law or the courts declare it un constitutional . for exemptions to be al lowed. The American Friends Service Commit tee had already filed a suit challenging the sanctions in California. The meeting was set up in response to a letter sent Dec. 23 to INS Director Alan Nelson in Washington and District Direc tor Charles Savy in New York. It was signed by Sister Monica McGloin, presi dent of the Dominican Sisters of the Sick Poor, Ossining, N.Y., and Sister Joanna Ohlandt, a Sister of St. Joseph who is ad ministrator of the Maria Regina Convent for sick and aged members in Brentwood, N.Y. Both nuns attended the Jan. 5 meeting. Sisters McGloin and Ohlandt had said in their letter they felt “to deny persons employment, when their survival depends upon a job, or even to discriminate against them by checking their documentation, seems to us to violate the most basic right to exercise our religious beliefs." Auxiliary Bishop Joseph M. Sullivan of Brooklyn sent Savy and Nelson identical letters Dec. 27 supporting the nuns’ re quest for exemption. “As a member of the National Con ference of Catholic Bishops. I have sup ported our position of opposition to employer sanctions,” he wrote. "I would hope that as a first step in removing the sanctions which cause undue hardship for many poor undocumented aliens that religious organizations would be exempt from these provisions.”
