The Other Health Crisis In Commonweal, November 23, 2007, Father Paul Stanosz, pastor of St. James Church, Franklin [stats D15 14th/18 30%], starts with the financial state of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, then goes on to the state of its presbyterate.

Among priests, meanwhile, there is much talk of high stress, poor health, and low morale.

He could have stopped after saying "Among priests, meanwhile, there is much talk". For example,

At the archdiocese’s spring assembly of priests last May, I heard a lot of talk about how the limitations of canon law and parish structures add to the administrative burden and stress experienced by priests.

Continuing our priests' unbroken streak of extrospection.

There was a keen sense of the many pitfalls and the growing personnel crisis within the priesthood, and of the polarization that exists between recently ordained and long-time priests-what some call JPII priests and Vatican II priests, respectively.

After some meetings of the local priests union, he approached Archbishop Dolan with these issues, and was appointed to the Wellness Committee.

The committee meetings made clear that while there are no easy solutions to the malaise afflicting priests today-as a group we struggled even to name the problem and its causes-certain facts must be acknowledged if progress is to be made.

A diagnosis of wallowing in self-pity comes to mind. He says, first, that bishops should acknowledge the problem.

At a recent Milwaukee Council of Priests meeting, the vicar for clergy announced that "the wheels are falling off the wagons," and that he was overwhelmed with the problems of priests under fifty years of age.

Instead of Vicar for Clergy, why not title him the MetaMope?

Many people are afraid that speaking about the problem will affect vocational recruitment.

You too can have a career in hand-wringing!

In any case, simply ordaining more priests will not resolve the malaise.

Apparently we'd have to also eliminate the "Vatican II priests", who Father Stanosz is unwittingly describing as a disease vector.

Bishops in recent years have been too quick to fill seminaries with fervent men who may or may not have genuine vocations. As a result, our seminaries now house a new breed of unsuitable candidates, men with poor relational and leadership skills.

Wouldn't the new priests need only keep their wheels on to be an improvement? Running down the MAPA roster, I don't see anyone who I've heard produced measurably improved results from superior relational and leadership skills.

Ordained into a U.S. church that is losing its vitality, these men often seek to turn back the clock by embracing disciplines and devotional practices that flourished in the middle of the last century.

Back then, they knew how to tighten the lug nuts. I recall SRO crowds at Sunday Mass and a thousand kids in the parish school. Fr. Stanosz goes on to tell us more about his inferiors coming out of the seminary these days.

All too frequently these men are filled with a sense of their own sacred status, and are prone to conflict with the laity and fellow priests.

I'm inclined to give them a try after decades of being jerked around by "Vatican II priests" on liturgical and other issues.

Such men, my research suggests, are more likely to become unhappy and disgruntled when their sense of chosenness and elevated status no longer sustains them through the more prosaic ups and downs of the priesthood.

How much worse can they be after he's described "Vatican II priests" like candidates for a suicide watch?

Worse still, their unhappiness often leads priests to break their vows of celibacy or fall into addictive behaviors.

Didn't some of our "Vatican II priests" engage in some activities that were a factor in our Archdiocese's straitened circumstances?

He sees another problem in priests becoming pastors after only a few years as associates (though that's a problem "simply ordaining more priests" would help alleviate).

They have little opportunity to learn about administration.

If more formal training in parish administration can't be fit into pre-ordination training, it could be done post-ordination in connection with the on-the-job training as associate pastors. Some "Vatican II priests" are stressed because they don't have administrative skills, like delegating, so associates won't learn it from them. It can't be left to even an increased continuing education program.

Father Stanosz then goes on to analyze the decline of the Church in the U.S. over the last forty years in terms of trends and forces beyond control.

In Milwaukee, archdiocesan officials often mandate well-intentioned programs to slow the drift away from the church. Parish priests, pushed by diocesan officials to implement these new programs, feel frustrated when the end result is the same: the people aren’t filling up the pews or supporting the church financially.

Could a problem in implementing such programs be that people in the pews can tell Father's heart isn't in it?

And while I doubt that a return to preconciliar practices would reenergize the church and halt its decline, neither am I convinced that the progressives’ agenda-women’s ordination, married clergy, same-sex unions, the easing of divorce restrictions, and the acceptance of abortion under certain circumstances-would revive moribund parishes and bring a return to Sunday Mass. One widely shared perception is that it is precisely those mainline Protestant denominations that have embraced such positions that face the steepest declines in membership, while strict groups such as Pentecostals, Evangelicals, and Mormons continue to grow rapidly.

Fr. Stanosz draws no lesson for the Catholic Church from the preceding two sentences. His immediate prescription is lowered expectations, starting with guess who.

I’ll learn to say “no” when diocesan officials ask me to take a third, fourth, or fifth parish.

How about if they ask him to serve the people of those parishes? If he still says no, can he be asked retroactively about the second and first?

I’m not advocating apathy in the face of decline; I’m merely recognizing that the decline began before me and will continue after me.

Or, as Homer Simpson would say, it was like that when I got here.

And so I anticipate ministering to a shrinking Catholic flock as I grow old.

That is, he anticipates collecting his pay for an ever-decreasing work load. And he says it in an article for publication. At least anyone on the payroll at my parish who shares this sentiment isn't publishing it in Commonweal. Further, he anticipates decline even though he's pastor of a parish in one of Wisconsin's fastest-growing areas. In contrast, his Parish History at its website says,

2004 our present Pastor Fr. Paul Stanosz was assigned to St. James. Today we celebrate unity, growth, and disipleship [sic] as we move forward to celebrate our 150th Anniversary.

Growth? Must have been his Pastor Jekyll rather than his Commonweal Hyde at that meeting.

Embracing this reality decreases my anxiety, sharpens my vision, makes my expectations more realistic, and makes my spirit less likely to burn out; it leads me to care for my health, so that I will be able to care for those entrusted to me.

As long as they are declining in number.


There are no official Archdiocese of Milwaukee standings for published presbyteral mopery. There are regular contenders in the MAPA minutes. Rev. Bryan N. Massingale probably holds the record for his See, I Am Doing Something New! Prophetic Ministry for a Church in Transition, presented a the 20th Annual Spring Assembly of Priests. In it, he proposed the image of Church in hospice. Fr. Stanosz later used "Church in Hospice" as the title of his weblog. Alas, he deleted his blog after a few weeks of posting, perhaps when he had a fuller understanding of what "Comment" entailed. With this Commonweal piece, though, he may be back in contention.


P.S. Cathleen Kaveny post and comments at dotCommonweal.


Update: The Cautionary End of the Spirit of Vatican II by Dr. Jeff Mirus, Catholic Culture, January 17, 2008
(via Dad29)  ¶ 11/26/2007 06:59:00 AM