A Catholic pastoral worker in the north-west of New South Wales, Mary Anne Gordon, says she spends about half of her time on the road conducting funerals, baptisms and other services in the area.

When the local priest is unavailable, Gordon's pastoral area covers an area of about 90,000 square kilometres.

She says even with herself and the priest they could not always be around if a funeral was required.

This in turn forces families to look for other options at what is already a distressing time.

"Recently we had a problem where both of us were away and there was a funeral in one of our villages, and eventually the family settled on a pastor from another denomination and they led the service," she says.

"You like to have your first choice and if you're Catholic you like to have a Catholic priest if you can, or somebody Catholic doing your service."

In another western NSW town, 20 people recently learned how to conduct a range of liturgical services in a course run by the Australian Catholic University (ACU).

One participant notes "In a rural community we don't often have the opportunity for a weekly mass celebration.

"Also in the case of funerals and baptisms where we don't have a priest, it's really important that we as a community have the capabilities and the knowledge to step up and preside over those important events for people.

"In fact, this particular small town has had a parish priest for four years but when the previous one retired they were left on their own for months."

The period without a priest saw parishioners step up to help.

"It was left to me to organise weekend services and visiting the hospital, so I simply asked people to help and from there we've just contributed when we've had no priest around," parishioner Beth Coffey says.

Parishioners initially started doing Sunday services but there was soon a need to preside over funerals as well.

Coffey says the church dealt with the same issue in the early days of European settlement, and that it could actually make faith communities stronger.

"A priest would come on horseback once a year and he would marry everyone that wanted to be married and baptise all the babies that needed to be baptised and the people were used to burying their own families."

"So we're sort of going back to times that we've already had in that we're quite accepting of lay people leading us in our faith when we have to."

Getting younger people involved and ordaining women as priests and bishops are seen by some parishioners as viable options going forward.

Source

• ABC
• Image: Oukas.info

Just as Chile's 34 bishops resigned in May after revelations of sexual abuse and corruption, US bishops should also submit their resignations to Pope Francis.

Doing so would show the public an act of penance and a "willing abdication of earthly status," say those who are urging the bishops to resign.

"Only then might the wrenching work of healing begin," a blog from the group says.

The call for the bishops' resignation came in response to Tuesday's release of a grand jury report that detailed seven decades of sexual abuse by clergy and cover-up by church leaders in six dioceses in Pennsylvania.

The report followed recent allegations that former archbishop of Washington, Theodore McCarrick, sexually abused two children and adult seminarians.

"We are brought to our knees in revulsion and shame by the abominations that these priests committed against innocent children," the statement said.

"We are sickened in equal measure by the conspiracy of silence among bishops who exploited victims' wounds as collateral in self-protection and the preservation of power. It is clear that it was the complicity of the powerful that allowed this radical evil to flourish with impunity."

While the group acknowledges some bishops are "humble servants and well-intentioned pastors," it still urges a collective resignation by all bishops because of the "systemic nature of this evil."

"Systemic sin cannot be ended through individual goodwill. Its wounds are not healed through statements, internal investigations or public relations campaigns but rather through collective accountability, transparency and truth-telling," the statement from the group said.

"We are responsible for the house we live in, even if we did not build it ourselves," it said.

The statement also expressed support for "sound proposals" such as those for external investigations like the one in Pennsylvania, which "would begin to convert this ecclesial culture of violence into one of transparency, accountability, humility, safety and earned trust."

But "truth-telling and repentance are prerequisites to conversion" at the institutional as well as individual level, the statement said, noting that "no genuine process of healing and reform can begin" without such a demonstration of repentance.

Source

• National Catholic Reporter
• Daily Theology
• Image: USA Today

Held in Denver late last month, the aim was to brainstorm and swap ideas about improving parish life, the Catholic News Agency reported.

The newly-founded Amazing Parish movement seeks to provide a one-stop shop for resources to pastors and parish leaders so they can create a thriving parish life.

The conference featured Catholic speakers and workshops on topics such as parish leadership teams, formation programmes and evangelisation.

Many of the speakers were Catholics serving in leadership roles for big companies, who are adapting tricks of the trade of company leadership to practical ideas for parish leadership.

"The Church is larger than maybe any company that these kind of guys work with, so we have to be strategic," said Amazing Parish staff member Chris Stefanick.

"We have to have the best practices and good team building skills and so I think what we're given is really unique here and it's been received really well."

Mr Stefanick is also a social media evangelist at reallifecatholic.com and helped host the conference, which filled to its 500-person capacity before it was even officially advertised.

"Both that and how it's been received, it just confirms that it's meeting a very huge need in the Church," he said.

For Mr Stefanick, the biggest hope he had for the parishes who attended was that they come away with clarity of both vision and practice.

He called for reduced complexity and a focus on what parishes can do well with what they have.

Everyone at the conference received a binder with guiding questions and planning sheets for each of the seven foundational parts needed to create an amazing parish.

These are made up for three foundational traits: a reliance on prayer, a real leadership team, and a clear vision, as well as four other traits, which are the Sunday experience, compelling formation, small group discipleship and missionary zeal.

During the conference, parish representatives were encouraged to focus on those things that made their parishes unique and how they could work with those characteristics.

Tim Weiske, a parishioner at St Clements in Chicago, said he thought a good goal to focus on for their parish was forming their large young adult population.

Sources

• Catholic News Agency
• Amazing Parish
• National Catholic Register
• Image: Catholic News Agency

Since it started from discussion at the 1988 and 1998 diocesan synods, Cardinal Tom Williams says the programme and the lay pastoral leaders it forms have become indispensable.

The candidates must pass 18 papers for an NZQA-approved Diploma in Pastoral Leadership. This includes planning and carrying out each year a mentored, supervised and evaluated pastoral project. Once passed they are eligible for appointment to a parish or chaplaincy, complementing the ministry of parish priest or priest chaplain.

Source

• Welcom
• Launch Out