Priest shortage leads to closings

Christian Century, Dec 23, 1998

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Edmonton, which has about 300,000 members and is one of the Canadian Catholic Church's biggest geographical units--roughly the land area of the United Kingdom--is planning to close almost half its parishes because of a shortage of priests, following recommendations in a 110-page report.

John Acheson, author of the report, "Faithful into the Future: A Pastoral Plan for the Catholic Archdiocese of Edmonton," said recently, "I think that this is a phenomenon that is hitting every diocese in North America and in Western Europe." But he insisted that the church is not in a crisis, and that the lack of priests gives laypeople an opportunity for involvement in church life.

The report, which took Acheson and a committee 18 months to prepare, was made public November 17. "The plan is to move ahead with the recommendations," Acheson indicated. The archdiocese has 79 priests serving 166 parishes. In many of the parishes mass is said only once a month or so. The report calls for consolidation of 78 parishes; nine have already been closed.

Acheson acknowledged that every parish in the archdiocese would feel the effects in one way or another. But he added: "No one will have to travel more than 30 minutes to go to mass on the weekend." According to Acheson, the archdiocese has "only 42 of what we call diocesan priests, the other 37 are members of religious orders," and in the next three to five years it is expected to have a total of 50 diocesan priests.

In Acheson's view, the situation should be seen not as a crisis but as an opportunity to implement some of the changes discussed in the early 1960s by Vatican II. "I think many ... folks in the mainline Protestant areas are way ahead of us in the involvement of the laity," Acheson said. "I would argue that maybe we don't have a shortage of priests. Maybe the Holy Spirit is muddling around in our lives and saying this is how the church is supposed to be."