Worldwide Priest Shortage, Authority of Local Bishops,
Should Be Top Priorities for Next Papacy

New Pope Should Open Discussion of Mandatory Celibacy and Female Deacons at October 2005 International Synod on the Eucharist

FutureChurch prays the guidance of the Holy Spirit on the Cardinals meeting in conclave to elect the new Pope. The next Bishop of Rome faces many challenges in exercising the Petrine ministry on behalf of the universal Church. Perhaps foremost among internal challenges is the worldwide priest shortage.

“The next Pope must encourage open discussion of ending mandatory celibacy for diocesan priests at the Synod on the Eucharist to be held in Rome next October,” said FutureChurch Executive Director, Sr. Christine 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.

“We also need to talk about opening the diaconate to women as a next step toward full inclusion in all the ministries of the Church,” said Schenk. 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.

“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. “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.

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.