Many Catholic communities in Europe are grappling with a priest shortage, too. The Vatican Insider has a short article about the issue in Germany. A snippet:
To respond to the problems, the church has been seeking to centralize, creating larger structures when the smaller ones are left without priests. A hypothesis to which Müller is strongly opposed, since it is precisely the local dimension that is lacking today. Revising the centralized model, the theologian explains, will lead to a profound overhaul of the models of local church in force today. Müller notes: "The Church, despite the restriction of having to save money and the lack of staff, will definitely remain local. It is desirable to strengthen the community, indeed, new ones should be born, starting from the Church's entrusted task to gather men, and from her mission."
Read it here. So, it appears in Germany they are seeing a lack of community when they centralize around one large church. Ya think?
The irony is we create large parishes and then start various groups and ministries, trying to break down into smaller groups, to build community. But many people don't have the time/inclination to join these groups. So we're left with a few connected people and many feeling lost.
ReplyDeleteExactly, Susan.
ReplyDeleteTrue, Susan. Does anybody have an update on the status of the proposed sales of IHM and Saint Vincent's?
ReplyDeleteI'm sure we'll hear about it through the Leader. Or a mid-mass film.
ReplyDelete