I have said it before and will no doubt say it again, if someone were to personally design a purgatory (or worse) suited specifically to me, it would no doubt be centered around reading internet comment boxes all day. A few weeks ago I wrote about a new Vatican instruction concerning parish life and leadership. I found much of it to be a necessary call to review the way we have always done things and put our resources towards evangelizing an ever-changing world. But this week I read a myriad of comments from folks around the country who saw the document differently, and my heart sank.

Because this document reiterates the fact that, ordinarily, a priest should serve as the pastor and leader of a faith community, many have taken it to be another instance of rank clericalism that derides the role of the laity. One less than charitable commentator wrote that in their nearly a century of practicing the Faith, they had met only three priests who could be deemed as competent, and even fewer who were decent preachers. Perhaps this person has had poor luck in the parish, but that certainly doesn’t reflect my experience of the Church, and hopefully it doesn’t look like yours, either.
 
Beyond the simple matter of disagreeing over governing styles, I was more profoundly upset by the strong inference that the roles of the priest and the laity must be reversed to save the church. From the very day that I was installed as a pastor, I have had at the forefront of my mind the reality that in order to have healthy parishes, we have to embrace the ways in which our vocations are complementary. This doesn’t mean that everyone should just shut up and do what I say and stop asking questions, nor does it mean that I am called to holiness any more than any one of my people. But the reality is that there is an element of pastoral leadership that is proper to the office of pastor, and no amount of poor leadership or bad pastors changes the fact that Our Lord has
entrusted His Church to the Apostles, their successors, and the people to whom they delegate the care of souls, pastors and parish administrators.

I will be the first to point out a long list of the people who do yeoman’s work in our region and are the foundation of the work that is done here. My leadership team, staff, parish and finance councils, PSR teachers, groundskeeping volunteers, liturgical ministers, you name it, are the backbone of what happens in the region. It is a false dichotomy to say that parishes are either clerical or lay-driven. They must be both, because God has modeled the working of the Church and distributed the Gifts of the Spirit accordingly. Much of the New Testament is geared toward helping early church communities
understand how we can help each other on the way to Heaven.
 
Heaven knows that there were and are parishes where the contributions of the people are underappreciated and underutilized. I pray that our parishes are not in that category. But it is human individuals who are broken, not the ideal model of a priest, as a pastor, working cooperatively with the men and women who have built up the church in their local area to continue to bring more souls to Christ. Perhaps this column is more of a rant than usual, but I think it’s worth it to be able to say something that cannot be reiterated too often: the priesthood and the laity are both essential, and to divide them and pit them against each other will never be the solution. Pray for me that I may live out my vocation, and this office, with integrity, and know that I pray the exact same thing for each
of you, every day. Pope St. Pius X, when he saw his mother for the first time after his election as the Holy Father, raised her up from where she was kneeling and, pointing to his papal ring and her simple wedding ring, said “Always remember that I would not have this ring if it were not for yours.” I thought something similar when I blessed my mom and dad for the first time immediately after my priestly ordination.
 
The Mission of the Church was given by Jesus Christ Himself, and it is too important to allow ourselves to be drawn into these distractions. I hope that you are all willing to constantly call me to a higher standard and pray that I have the grace to do the same for
my people.
 
Prayers always,
Fr. McC