Training for the nitty-gritty; diocesan school prepares lay ministers - Nation

National Catholic Reporter, May 31, 2002 by Arthur Jones

Not long after her mother died, Elvira Orozco decided to become more involved in the church from which her mother was buried--St. Edward's Parish in Stockton.

Mother and grandmother Orozco, who was working at an electronics plant, spoke to the pastor, Fr. Leo Suarez, and pitched in where help was most needed--initially cleaning the bathrooms.

Four years later she is director of religious education.

Nationally in those same four years, it is likely--the final figures are not in--the number of Catholics in paid lay ministry has surpassed the 45,000 working priests. Each year, the kind of training that is going on in Stockton and other places is becoming more essential to a church where the clergy ranks continue to diminish. Laypeople are taking a range of training, from more extensive courses needed to qualify for employment to courses that better prepare volunteers.

A 1997 survey by the National Pastoral Life Center showed 30,000 laypeople had gone through ministry training, with a further 30,000 in training. Not all of those laypeople land parish or diocesan jobs. Even so, thousands more have graduated from programs like the Stockton diocese's School of Ministry that has changed Elvira Orozco's life.

To be counted in the center's survey, the lay ministers had to be working 20 or more paid hours a week. That matches the retired priests working halftime, though not today's average pastor who is probably working well beyond anyone's normal workweek.

Bathrooms to classroom

In the four years from bathrooms to classroom, Orozco's job folded, she retrained as a dental technician but, most important, she went on a parish retreat. At the same time, Carlos Hernandez, parish director of evangelization, asked Orozco to work with a Monday night catechists class.

He also encouraged her to take the evening Stockton programs he was giving. He's an adjunct staff member of the diocese's ministry school, one of less than a dozen such lay formation programs around the country accredited by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Hernandez taught in Spanish.

These days, parish employee Orozco is taking the School of Ministry's course again, this time in English. "I'm hearing everything twice," she said. "It makes increased sense and, as I'm bilingual, it's an enrichment for me."

Orozco is one of almost 3,000 Stockton diocese Catholics who, in the past decade, have gone through the school's programs, said its executive director, Sr. Diane Smith of St. Joseph of Carondolet.

"We're not training people for jobs," emphasized Smith, "we're training volunteers who do the nitty-gritty parish work. Not the youth minister, but the volunteer who comes in on a Tuesday night to work with the youth."

Nonetheless, the School of Ministry programs have proved to be first rung on a church career ladder for people like Elvira Orozco.

Smith said the school's 27-week core course prepares them for the shorter courses that lead to certification in whatever field they next choose--being a catechist or working in the grieving ministry. A further two-year advanced course provides some parishioners with steps toward teaching School of Ministry programs.

"We have a good faculty," said Smith. "Some already have master's and Ph.D.s. They're all involved in other ministries and parishes and have full-time jobs." At Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Modesto, the Wednesday evening instructor is Bill Brennan, a permanent deacon at Stockton's Presentation Parish. By day he's a history professor at the University of the Pacific.

Paying God back

Wednesday evening student Doris Sanders of St. Patrick's Parish in Ripon wasn't active in her parish until she retired as an AT&T engineer in 1999. "I decided it was time to get involved and pay God back," she said.

Her parish needed baptismal preparation teachers. "Fr. [Mark] Wagner really encourages people to take courses," she said. So Sanders signed up for the eight-week program on working with new parents and godparents.

In 2001, as her husband was dying of cancer, Sanders took the grieving ministry course--"I was going through a lot of the steps."

What she's learned along the way, she said, is that she'd taken for granted a lot about her religion and the sacraments. Now she wants to be an accredited catechist. Then she'll tackle LIMEX. It is a Loyola University, New Orleans, extension master's program in religious education or pastoral ministry--four years of part-time study under a local facilitator.

"Never too old to learn," said Sanders, who added that her two grown sons think her involvement "is great."

Her enthusiasm rubs off. Fellow parishioner Virginia McElroy, at the time studying to become a Catholic, was encouraged by Sanders to take the core course, too.

McElroy, who made her first Communion this Easter, said she may eventually teach catechism. "But right now I'm really just concentrating on learning about my `new family,'" she said.

Thursday mornings, Wanda and Gerard Scheuermann lead the classes at Presentation Parish. Both have their master's in religious education from Regis University, Denver; Gerard is adult education director at St. Anthony's Parish in Manteca, Wanda an editor with Resource Publications.