Stop Hitting Yourself: A Few Ideas on How Parishes and Dioceses Can Turn Things Around

When I was a kid, one of the many, many ways my brothers and sisters would torture each other was by grabbing each other by the wrist and using their own hand to hit them with, we would say, “Stop hitting yourself!”  We thought it was riot.  Mom and dad did not share in our assessment.  In it, though, is a little life lesson. Sometimes, we hurt ourselves.  Sometimes we inflict our own wounds.  Many of those wounds come as a matter of stupidity (as my trips to the ER and resulting stitches will bear witness to) or recklessness (also involving stitches, and casts).   Sometimes in fear or depression we can inflict further wounds.  Sometimes the self-inflicted wounds come as a result of poor stewardship of our health.  Many times, we can be our own worst enemies.

               What is true for individuals is many times true for institutions.  It makes sense as institutions are made up of human beings.  Even when that institution has a divine helper, its human element can inflict grave harm on itself.

               However, the opposite can also be said.  Inasmuch as we inflict harm on ourselves, we can also do great good for ourselves.  Being wise and prudent bears great benefit.  Being good stewards of our health bears great fruit.  Taking the time to learn, to grow stronger physically and otherwise, to use the benefit of discipline, and investing ourselves in life-giving relationships all can bear positive results.

               Which course we follow, though, is up to us as individuals and collectively as institutions.  Whether we thrive or decline is largely up to whether we are willing to do the things to thrive.  It is also determined by how well we learn the lessons from our self-inflicted wounds.

Where we are

               Our diocese is doing what many dioceses are doing in this country.  We are gathering together to try and map out where we go as the number of priests decline.  This has been a long time coming.  The influx of borrowed international priests has afforded us the opportunity to kick this can down the road.  Now, though, there is no more road. 

               I posit that the decline in the numbers of priests is a symptom of the disease and not the disease itself.  This number corresponds with other numbers: Mass attendance, religious sisters and brothers, number of marriages, children in Catholic schools, and now the number of parishes as a whole. According to the figures released by CARA (Center for the Applied Research in the Apostolate), between 2000 and 2016, the number of priests dropped by 8500.  That means we lose 530 or so priests every year.  About 7200 new priests replaced them.  That deficit will increase as the Baby Boomer generation of priests, the largest group numerically, starts to retire. The influx of ordinations to replace those retiring will not keep up with the departures.

               In the same time period, dioceses in the United States have closed a net total of 2003 parishes.  There are now 17,233 parishes in the USA.  Although the Catholic population has risen by 3.2 million in the same time period, only 22% on average go to Mass regularly.  In that same time period, a net of 1527 Catholic parochial schools were closed.  This trend will continue.  In fact, just about all numbers, save Permanent Deacons and Lay leadership, are trending down, in some cases steeply down.  Bishops and dioceses are left to wrestle with how to shepherd in such circumstances.

               So are we on a sinking ship?  I don’t think so.  There is no self-inflicted wound that cannot be undone.  We have to learn to quit hitting ourselves. We have to learn from our mistakes and change course.

Changing Course

               Changing course isn’t so much going to uncharted waters, but returning to the shipping lanes from which we departed.  It isn’t as if the Gospel has been found wanting.  It may have been dismissed as inconvenient or difficult, but it is not wanting.

               The answer is simple: learn the truth, preach the truth, live the truth, and provide for the future.  It sounds simple, but it will be difficult.  It will require us to right the ship. It will take us admitting the path we took didn’t work.  It will require us to stop making the same mistakes.  It will require us to stop hitting ourselves.

1.      Learn the Truth.  It is the responsibility of every individual to take ownership of their faith.  The Catholic faith has content.  We call it the Deposit of Faith. It is not a buffet.  I know many catechetical tools have fallen far short in passing on the faith, treating the content of faith as if it were all a matter of opinion or as a lifeless body of facts.  The truth is to lead us to a relationship with God and His Church.

2.      Preach the truth.  The Christian message is not one that lies dormant.  It is by its nature to be proclaimed.  Having found the truth, we have a responsibility to proclaim the truth.  Given that only 22% of Catholics see Mass as necessary, we have a lot of proclaiming of the truth to do.   Given that there are 30.1 million that call themselves former Catholics, we have a lot of proclaiming to do.  Many left because of poor catechesis before, here is our chance to right the ship.

3.      Live the truth.  We can’t put our faith and God into a compartment separate from everything else in our lives.  The truth, because it is based in God’s self-revelation to us BECAUSE He wants a relationship with us and how we model our faith through our interactions with others matters.  We cannot preach one way and then live another.  That we have done that repeatedly within the Church has been the ultimate self-inflicted wound that, like a cornucopia from hell, has brought much harm.  Allowing others to see how our relationship with God transforms us, especially in that grace given through the Eucharist, makes the strongest compelling case for people to come home or find a home with us.

4.      Provide for the Future.  This falls in three parts.  First, we have to make sure we keep up the parish structures we have; not to just maintain the status quo, but plan for and expect growth.  The lower our expectations, the lower our results.  The higher our hopes, the higher the results.  Our parishes, even in their physical structures and programs, must plan for a bright future. Second, we must be willing to invest in that future with our time, energy, and resources.    We have to put our time, energy, and money where our hopes and mouth are.  Third, we MUST get serious about promoting, nurturing, and sustaining vocations.  We need more priests.  Many more priests.  We need more religious sisters and brothers engaged in the work of the Church.  We need more sound and holy marriages which are THE incubators of all vocations.  The health of the family will determine the health of every other structure in our parishes and dioceses!

We can do this!  I have no doubt about that!  With God’s grace and our obedience to God’s grace, we can do this!