For Immediate Release September 26, 2005

Contacts:
Sr. Christine Schenk, (FutureChurch)
216-228-0869 (office)
216-513-3647 (U.S. cell Until Oct. 2))
011-39-06-339-564-1658 (Oct. 2-23 Rome Cell)

Linda Pieczynski (Call To Action)
630-655-8783
630-399-6924 (cell)

Emily Hoag (U.S. FutureChurch)
216-228-086

U.S. Groups Lobby Synod to Discuss Priest Shortage,
Mandatory Celibacy, Women Deacons

• Laity and Priests Deliver 35,000 signatures to Five U.S. Bishop Delegates
• Surveys of 15,000 priests in 55 U.S. Dioceses Support Discussion
• National Week of Prayer Begins October 4, Feast of St. Francis of Assisi

“ The Mass means everything to Catholics, we just hope it means everything to our bishops too,” said Sr. Christine Schenk of FutureChurch. “Finding solutions to the worldwide priest shortage should be the top priority of the Synod on the Eucharist.”

FutureChurch, in partnership with Call To Action conducted a three-year campaign to get the priest shortage on the agenda of Eleventh General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops to be held in Rome October 2-23.

The groups surveyed over 15,000 priests in 55 U.S. dioceses and found 67% believe mandatory celibacy should be discussed. They collected 35,000 signatures on a petition asking the synod to discuss mandatory celibacy and female deacons as possible solutions to the priest shortage. On the October 4th feast of St. Francis of Assisi, they will launch a National Week of Prayer for the Synod.

Catholics are also being asked to contact U.S. Synod delegates and the Pope directly via e-mail addresses listed on the FutureChurch website.

Lay Leaders Deliver Petitions, Priest Survey To Bishop Delegates to Synod from U.S. Dioceses

During the last two weeks of September, Catholic delegations in five U.S. dioceses met with and/or delivered copies of the petition signatures and priest survey results to U.S. Bishop delegates to the Synod. “We wanted each of our U.S. delegates to hear from people in their own dioceses who represent tens of thousands of Catholics, including many priests who are worried that more parishes will close and we will lose access to the Mass if nothing is done about the priest shortage,” said Schenk. (For a list of Bishop delegates and lay leader contacts in each of five dioceses see below).

Schenk will also deliver survey results and petition signatures to church officials in Rome.

National Week of Prayer Begins October 4. Thousands have pledged to pray individually and an estimated 35 prayer services will be held around the U.S. to pray for synod proceedings and that synod delegates will open discussion of mandatory celibacy and women deacons.

“Jesus told Francis to 'go and repair my house, which you see, is falling down,'” said Schenk. “Our Church IS falling down. The priest shortage is getting worse. Over the past 24 years, according to Vatican statistics, the world's Catholics increased by 42 per cent to 1.11 billion but priests decreased by 2% ( 8,150) to 405, 450. It is a wonderful work of the Spirit that the Synod on the Eucharist begins just before the Feast of St Francis of Assisi”

“The loss of access to the Mass is devastating to our Catholic people, “ said Linda Pieczynski of Call To Action. “While so many parishes are closing and clustering in the U.S. it is much worse in Honduras where there is only one priest for 45,000 Catholics. Importing priests from needier developing countries to serve wealthy nations is just plain wrong.”

According to Georgetown's Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, Africa has one priest for every 4,700 Catholics. In Central and South America there is roughly one priest for every 7,000 Catholics. But in North America there is one priest for every 1,576 Catholics and in Europe there is one priest for every 1,386 Catholics. Even so, some demographers predict that 10,000 U.S. parishes could have no resident priest in the foreseeable future.

“Our members, including many priests, circulated the petition in their parishes, small faith communities to family members and on the internet for the past two years,” said Emily Hoag of FutureChurch, “Many U.S. parishes are being forced to close and that really spurred the campaign.”

Opening the diaconate to women could give us a huge new pool of ministers to preach, baptize and witness marriages,” said Pieczynski. “Women ministers are holding the Church together. Eighty two percent of an estimated 65,000 lay ministers in the U.S. are women. Worldwide, there are only 405,000 priests but we have 783,000 nuns and over 1.5 million female lay ministers.”

The petition asks synod leaders “to place the spiritual and sacramental needs of the People of God above every other consideration and begin a wide-ranging discussion among laity, priests, pastoral ministers and bishops about the need to remove mandatory celibacy as a requirement for the priesthood and to open the diaconate to the tens of thousands of qualified women serving the Church right now.” (see attached)

Petition signers claim their right under canon law to “make their views known about matters that concern the good of the Church” (c212). The petition pointed to the worldwide shortage of priests, the disciplinary (not dogmatic) nature of the celibacy rule and first century women deacons like Phoebe, as important reasons to open the desired discussion,”

Since 1996, FutureChurch and Call To Action have been working to educate about the danger of losing the Mass and sacraments as one consequence of doing nothing about the priest shortage. Schenk herself has given educational programs about the priest shortage in over 100 U.S. dioceses.

Call to Action is a national organization of 25,000 laity, religious and clergy with its national office in Chicago and 41 local chapters. It advocates for reforms in the Catholic Church such as equality for women and homosexuals in the Church, optional celibacy for priests, more focus on the church's social teaching, and consultation with the Catholic people on church decision making.

FutureChurch is a coalition of parish centered Catholics who seek 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.

Official Catholic Directory statistics for every U.S. diocese

Results of our survey of priests in 55 U.S. dioceses

List of U.S. Bishop Synod Delegates and Catholic Laity and Priests Requesting a Meeting and Delivering Petitions

Bishop William Skylstad Spokane Diocese, President of USCCB bishop@dioceseofspokane.org

Spokane FutureChurch Member Maggie Albo met with Bishop Skylstad on September 8th. She reminded the Bishop of the signers' great love for the Eucharist and their desire that it be available to all Catholic worldwide and then Bishop Skylstad graciously accepted the packet of over 30,000 petition signatories. Albo also told the Bishop that she believes it will require bold thinking on the part of the delegates and she promised prayer for the guidance of the Holy Spirit throughout the Synod.
Media Contact Maggie Albo( 509-928-8009 m_albo@comcast.net)

Most Reverend Wilton D. Gregory, Archdiocese of Atlanta
archbishop@archatl.com

Laura Ward-Bogle, lay leader from Call To Action Atlanta gave Bishop Gregory a packet of materials and sought a meeting but his secretary said he is unavailable to meet prior to the Synod He did receive the e-mail but did not respond (“he receives about 100 a day”) Ward-Bogle will personally deliver the thirty thousand signatures to his office early in the week of Sept. 12 and “We will be praying for guidance from the Holy Spirit during their October meeting.”
Media contact Laura Ward-Bogle (770-682-9906 laurawardbogle@bellsouth.net)

Cardinal Justin F. Rigali, Archdiocese of Philadelphia
archbis@adphila.org

Joe Ruane, a married priest of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and a FutureChurch member will seek a meeting with Cardinal Rigali’s office.
Media contacts are Joe Ruane( 215-596-8906 w. 215-387-7998 h j.ruane@usip.edu ) and FutureChurch member Regina Bannan (215-545-9649 bannan@temple.edu)

Bishop Donald W. Wuerl, Diocese of Pittsburgh
clergyreligious@diopitt.org

Lay and priest leaders from the Association for Pittsburgh Priests were told that Bishop Wuerl would not meet with them because the APP has lay members. He would meet with the priests at any time. At the September meeting of the APP, people will sign a cover letter and send it with the petitions to the Bishop. The group plans a press conference October 1 or 2.
Media Contact is Fr. John Oesterle (412 824-2644 johnoesterle@adelphia.net) and Ms. Sarah Wellinger (412-344-7493 SarahWellinger@aol.com

Alternates:

Bishop Donald W. Trautman Diocese of Erie
BishopOfc@erieRCD.org
Call To Action Lay Leaders in Erie, Pa published a newspaper ad in Erie asking for more petition signatures and are investigating meeting with Bishop Trautman.
Media Contacts are Barbara Roseborough (814-868-0129 popmomrose@msn.com) and Jane Kirk (janematheiskirk@msn.com)

Bishop Blase Cupich, Diocese of Rapid City, SD
605-343-3541
Was sent a copy of the Petitions and Survey in the mail.