FutureChurch Prays Spirit’s Guidance on Pope Benedict XVI, Asks Open Process at October Bishops’ Synod on the Eucharist

Discussion of Authority, Selection of Bishops, Solutions to the Priest Shortage Urgently Needed

FutureChurch prays God’s guidance on Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI the 265th Pope and Bishop of Rome. “Our new Pope has significant challenges to address as he exercises the Petrine Ministry for the good of the whole Church,” said Sr. Christine Schenk, director of FutureChurch. “Foremost among these is the worldwide priest shortage which, if nothing is done, will bring significant change to the Church, regardless of who is Pope.”

“We respectfully call on Pope Benedict XVI to make sure next October’s International Synod on the Eucharist is an open process so that solutions to the worldwide priest shortage, including optional celibacy and women deacons, can be thoroughly discussed,” said Schenk. Convened by Pope John Paul II, the Synod is a worldwide gathering where Bishops can meet with each other and give advice about Church practice, in this case about the Eucharist or the Catholic Mass.

“In past Synods, Bishops complained about a closed process which did not listen to their concerns, ” said Schenk. In 1999, Scotland’s Archbishop (now Cardinal) Keith O'Brien acknowledged that the ordination of married men was discussed, but never became part of the Synod statement because of a “lobby” by curial Bishops (The Tablet, 10/30/99) . “Pope Benedict could change that by making sure Bishops’ recommendations are taken seriously and included in the final report of Synod proceedings,” she said.

“Another important priority will be to implement the values of participative decision-making in the Church as outlined by Vatican II,” said FutureChurch co founder Fr. Louis J. Trivison. “Only last year at Cardinal Koenig’s funeral, Cardinal Ratzinger said that perhaps centralization of Church decision making had gone too far, Laity should participate in the selection of their Bishops. The Bishops of the world should be given appropriate autonomy to make non-doctrinal, pastoral decisions for the Catholics in their care. This could include the decision to restore the tradition of married priests to provide Mass and the sacraments,“ Trivison concluded.

Millions of Catholics throughout the world do not have access to the central celebration of the Catholic faith, the Eucharist, because of a shortage of priests. In the past 28 years the number of Catholics increased by over 50% from 710 million in 1975 to 1.1 billion in 2003 while the number of priests has remained the same at roughly 405,000.

An estimated 125,000 priests have left the active ministry to marry. Permitting priests to marry would open the way for the Catholic Mass and sacraments to be more readily available. Worldwide, there are 783,000 nuns and over 1.5 million female lay ministers. Opening the female diaconate could provide a huge new pool of ministers to meet the sacramental needs of an expanding church and reopen the conversation about full inclusion of women in Church ministry and decision-making.

In the United States, many dioceses are closing parishes right now while projecting devastating declines in numbers of priests over the next twenty years. Yet Europe and North America have the best priest to parishioner ratio in the world at one priest for about 1300 Catholics. By way of contrast, Central and South America have one priest for 7000 Catholics and Africa has one priest for 4,800 Catholics

FutureChurch is a coalition of parish based Catholics seeking the full participation of all Catholics in the life of the Church. FutureChurch strives to educate fellow Catholics about the seriousness of the priest shortage, the centrality of the Eucharist (the Mass), and the systemic inequality of women in the Catholic Church. It seeks to participate in formulating and expressing the Sensus Fidelium (the Spirit inspired beliefs of the faithful) through open, prayerful and enlightened dialogue with other Catholics locally and globally. It has 5000 dues paying members and an additional 10,000 activists who use their resources to encourage widespread discussion about opening ordination to all baptized persons who are called to priestly ministry by God and the people of God.