National Corpus Christi Day of Prayer About
Eucharist, Future of Catholic Priesthood

Forty celebrations planned around the U.S.

FutureChurch has named June 22nd, the feast of Corpus Christi as a national day of study, reflection and prayer about the Eucharist (the Catholic Mass) and the future of the Catholic Priesthood. Referring to a recent papal encyclical on the Eucharist, FutureChurch director Sr. Christine Schenk said: "While the Pope writes beautiful statements about what the Eucharist means for Catholics, most Catholics in the world have no regular access to Mass at all." She cited recent statistics from the Vatican showing 105, 530 of the world¹s 218,196 parishes do not have a resident priest. The 2001 Vatican yearbook reported that the world¹s Catholics increased by 15 million to 1.06 billion worldwide but the number of priests declined by 111 to only 404, 956. By contrast, the number of lay people people involved in pastoral care rose from 3.6 million catechists, nuns and deacons in 2000, to 3.9 million in 2001.

An estimated 40 celebrations and educational programs about the priest shortage and loss of Eucharist will be held in parishes and small faith communities throughout the United States this year. (Locations listed below). FutureChurch encourages Catholics to learn about the priest shortage, their right to have Mass and receive the sacraments, their responsibility to voice their opinions to church leaders and other contemporary challenges facing the priesthood.

"We need to make our leaders understand that the Mass is more important than mandatory celibacy,"said FutureChurch cofounder, Fr. Louis J. Trivison. Quoting Catholic canon law and the second Vatican Council Trivison noted: "we have the right to receive in abundance...the spiritual goods of the Church, and it is our right and duty to make our views known on matters which concern the good of the Church."

"It is very difficult to listen to Vatican statements, especially encyclicals, that are so far removed from the daily struggle of priests, pastoral ministers and bishops to provide even the minimum sacramental care that Catholics need and deserve," said Trivison. "Catholics in Central and South America are lucky to have Mass once a year, let alone once a week" he said, noting that in Central and South America there is one priest for 7,000 Catholics while in North America the ratio is one per1300 Catholics.

"Many lay pastoral ministers and catechists already serving the church would consider ordination if it were opened to them,"said Schenk. "There is no need for any Catholic to go without Eucharist because we have many qualified people ready to serve as priests if the Vatican would change ordination rules."

FutureChurch is also spearheading an international campaign to ask cardinals and bishops in the Roman Catholic Church to make the priest shortage and availability of the Eucharist Catholicism¹s first priority. Grassroots Catholics are encouraged to become educated about the priest shortage and possible solutions, and write, fax or email letters of concern to the cardinals of their country and send copies to their local bishops and the FutureChurch office. Activists can log on to www.futurechurch.org for education/advocacy resources and contact information for cardinals and bishops.

Participants are asked to request the reinstatement of priests who left the active ministry to marry and discussion of opening ordination to "all Catholics called to it by God and the people of God,"including women and the married, rather than lose access to the Eucharist.

"Most bishops are already only too aware of the problems as they struggle to staff parishes"said Schenk. "Letters, faxes and emails to higher ups in the Church hierarchy can provide outside support for what the bishops already know from the inside. Something needs to be done, and it needs to be done quickly."

The Corpus Christi Celebration is included in a specially designed Parish Dialogue Supplement which engages parishioners in open ended discussions about contemporary challenges in the priesthood. The program builds on FutureChurch¹s original Call for a National Dialogue on the Future of Priestly Ministry project partnered with the national Call to Action and its 41 regional groups which calls for opening ordination to all the baptized and contains education and advocacy materials about the history of celibacy, women in the church, and the priest shortage. It has attracted nearly 5000 grassroots activists in the last four years.

Locations of Celebrations around the U.S. (contact info. available upon request):

FutureChurch
17307 Madison Avenue
Lakewood, Ohio 44107 USA
Phone: 216.228.0869 | Fax: 216.228.4872
E-mail: info@futurechurch.org

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