Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 13 — The Georgia Bulletin, February 15, 1990
BY TRACY EARLY
NEW YORK (CNS) -
Panelists for a national
teleconference on lay
parish ministers called for
increased support both
from local pastors and
from diocesan and national
church leaders.
The use of nuns, brothers
and other lay people in
parish leadership positions
— a phenomenon that has
grown increasingly signifi
cant with the worsening
shortage of priests — has
enabled the church to pro
vide important ministries
for many parishioners, the
panelists agreed.
But they warned that lay
ministers faced numerous
problems requiring atten
tion, and that building a na
tional corps of qualified
and spiritually prepared
lay workers had been
hindered by failure of the
church thus far to address
some key issues.
Originating from studios
of the Archdiocese of New
York, the teleconference
was held Feb. 1 as part of a
series sponsored by the Na
tional Pastoral Life Center
in New York.
In December the center,
headed by Father Philip
Murnion. began a 19-month
study commissioned by the
bishops and funded by the
Lilly Endowment in In
dianapolis to identify fac
tors that help or hinder lay
parish ministry.
The teleconference,
transmitted to listening
groups across the country
by the U.S. bishops’
Catholic Telecommunica
tions Network of America,
was used as a hearing
where people especially
concerned with lay
ministry could present
their views.
It began with a brief
statement by Bishop
James R. Hoffman of
Toledo, Ohio, a member of
the bishops’ Committee on
Pastoral Research and
Practices and chairman of
the Subcommittee for the
Lay Ministry Study.
Speaking from Toledo, he
told of recently interview
ing a lay applicant tor a
parish administrator posi
tion and said that bishops
TV Pact Boosts ND Student Aid
WASHINGTON (CNS) -
Proceeds from the Univer
sity of Notre Dame’s ex
clusive five-year contract
with NBC Sports to televise
all Fighting Irish home
football games will go into
a student financial aid en
dowment fund.
Boosting the endowment
fund was “the major
reason for going through
with it,’’ university
spokesman Dennis Moore
told Catholic News Service
Feb. 8.
The payout of the deal,
announced Feb. 5 and
which takes effect in 1991,
was not disclosed. Notre
Dame sports information
director Fred Heisler told
CNS a Feb. 8 estimate by
USA Today of $37
million-$38 million “is not
too bad.”
Notre Dame hopes to
boost its financial aid fund
by $100 million over the
next 10 years, Moore said.
The fund was created in
1987.
Of Notre Dame’s 7,600
undergraduates, about
two-thirds receive some
form of financial aid,
Moore said. Those getting
help from Notre Dame
number in “the high hun
dreds,” he said.
Financial aid will “con
tinue to be a top priority for
the university until the next
decade, as far as we can
see it,” Moore said.
The contract will stay in
force despite any dips in
the ratings or the Irish’s
won-lost record.
“There are no ‘out’
clauses,” Heisler said. “In
fact, NBC w’as looking for
more ‘in’ clauses.”
Notre Dame’s “out”
came by not signing a con
tract with the College Foot
ball Association, which
negotiates television rights
for its 64 member schools.
University officials were
unhappy with the number
of national network ap
pearances it would make
under the terms of the con
tract, made with ABC in
January. And Notre
Dame’s financial share of
the package would only
have been $4 million at
most, Heisler said.
“We face a demand for
television exposure of our
games from fans and alum
ni not just in our immediate
area but all over the coun
try,” Notre Dame athletic
director Dick Rosenthal
said in a Feb. 5 statement.
NBC Sports spokesman
Doug Kelly in New York
told CNS that 1989’s four
top-rated football games
all featured Notre Dame.
The NBC-Notre Dame
deal was apparently made
in just 12 days, after the
ABC football package was
announced Jan. 19.
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and lay ministers alike
were operating in "new ter
ritory.” He expressed hope
the study would bring
together the corporate
wisdom of the church, and
said the bishops were
ready to listen.
In addition to Father
Murnion, who was mod
erator, the teleconference
had as listeners and ques
tioners: Harry A. Fagan,
managing director of the
National Pastoral Life
Center; Notre Dame Sister
Rosemary Dilli, a center
staff member and coor
dinator of the study; and
Father James Mahoney,
planning director of the
Diocese of Paterson, N.J.,
who has been enlisted by
the center to serve on a
part-time basis as survey
director
Those .making presenta
tions and later responding
to questions from listening
groups were Jean Marie
Hiesberger, director of the
Institute for Pastoral Life
in Kansas City; Michael
Liberato, director of the
National Conference of
Diocesan Directors of
Religious Education in
Washington; and Virginia
Sullivan Finn, associate
dean of students at Pope
John XXIII Seminary in
Weston, Mass., who is
chairwoman of the Na
tional Association for Lay
Ministry.
Ms. Hiesberger said sup
port by the pastor and the
bishop was a key factor in
the success of lay workers
serving as directors of
religious education, youth
ministers and workers in
other parish positions.
The way a lay worker is
presented to the parish by
the pastor and supported
by the bishop, she said, is
crucial in providing
“legitimization of the
role.’’
Liberato, speaking par
ticularly of religious educa
tion directors, called for
diocesan and national
structures and standards
that would make the life of
the individual lay minister
less subject to the par
ticular outlook and per
sonality of the individual
pastor.
A change of pastors, he
said, too often becomes
disruptive because the new
pastor has such a different
view of the lay minister’s
job. Similarly, he said, a
lifetime career in lay
ministry becomes difficult
because moving from one
parish to another and one
diocese to another requires
adjusting to such diverse
expectations.
Ms. Finn said lay
ministers were increasing
ly sure of their vocation as
a calling from God. but that
A sign of
FUTURE
current practice did not
sufficiently encourage
their spiritual formation.
Those who employ them,
she said, often emphasize
professional education
more than spiritual forma
tion, and her own institu
tion is rare among
seminaries in the degree to
which it encourages
spiritual formation for lay
students.
Ms. Finn stressed the
importance of a “col
laborative’ ’ parish staff in
giving the lay ministers a
sense of job satisfaction.
But she said that after a
period oi affirming the
"adulthood” of the laity,
the church now showed a
mood for more “protection
of the status quo” in regard
to structures of authority.
Identifying governance
with ordination, she said,
was a problem for people
engaged in lay ministry for
a number of years who
wonder about their future.
Panelists also identified
financial problems as a
hindrance to developing a
body of professionals serv
ing the church for a
lifetime in lay ministry.
These problems, they said,
included not only basic
salary levels inadequate to
support families but also
such matters as lack of a
national system to assure
pension benefits.
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