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The Priest-most Important Person In The Parish?; Two tier laity?
Topic Started: Wednesday, 11. October 2006, 23:24 (1,517 Views)
Ned

maklavan
Jul 28 2007, 02:07 PM
I would have thought that every person in the parish is equally important in the eyes of God.

Other than that, the little old lady fingering her beads and talking to Jesus on the back row.

Looking at it from that angle then it is the 'lost sheep', the lapsed catholics,
who are the most important.
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In a radio reflection for the feast of the Cure d’Ars, patron of Parish Priests,Argentinian Archbishop Jose Maria Arancedo said that the first requirement of a parish priest is to be “an authentic disciple of Jesus Christ, because only a priest in love with the Lord can renew a parish.”
Catholic News Agency
he went on to say
Quote:
 
In the parish,” he continued, “a priest lives the mission of Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, in a full and concrete way,” through which shines forth “the entire ecclesial dimension of the person and ministry of the pastor.”

Seemed relevant to this thread so I thought I would post the above link to the article

KatyA
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Ned
Jul 27 2007, 09:41 PM
About twenty years ago I spent a short time in a very rural part of Kerry where, because of depopulation, and a shortage of priests, several parishes had been combined into one. The local church, which was a substantial one, was a chapel-of-ease. There was only one Mass a week, on the Sunday.

The Parish Church, with the PP and two curates, was in a small market-town two or three miles away.

The arrangement seemed to work very well. I don't know why we cannot have the same arrangements in our larger English cities where parish churches are sometimes in an easy walking distance of one or two others.

Priests are too valuable to be tied down in the smaller urban parishes

Ned in the situation you describe, the churches were only three miles apart.

In English rural areas, a priest can have three churches, with one of them twenty miles away in one direction and the other twenty miles away in the other direction. Sadly there are moves afoot to persuade the punters that all are members on "One Single Worshipping Community". In other words, everything is centralised. The clergy look upon us as little outposts. Catechesis for the sacraments takes place in "the parish" premises, so little children preparing for First Holy Communion are taught by strangers, with whom they will lose touch after First Communion Sunday. Prospective converts are expected to travel up to twenty miles, after a day at work, for RCIA catechesis.

Our rural parishes (oops, sorry, communities - we are no longer parishes) are grossly neglected.

The only solution is MORE PRIESTS. Where do we get them from? How can we foster vocations when the youngsters only see their own priest once a week, for Sunday Mass? Many churches do not even have scheduled confession times.
Keep the Faith!

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