The Diocesan Plan/Vision Reflecting upon the process as a Parish Priest.

The Diocesan Plan/Vision

Reflecting upon the process as a Parish Priest.

Matthew 18 12-14

What is your opinion? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills and go in search of the stray?And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not stray. In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost.

I have been a priest since 1992. For 24 of those years, I have been a parish priest. I have been a parish priest in Walsall, Birmingham, Cannock and now Coventry. I strive to serve the gospel by fulfilling my role as a priest, celebrating the sacraments. The Mass is at the heart of my ministry. I try to celebrate every Mass as if it were my first, and also as if it were my last. I have never grown tired of the Mass, never lost my understanding that Christ calls me and loves me and that my serving the “People of God” helps define who I am. I am a secular priest who lives in a presbytery and leads the parish community. Parishes have changed so much over the thirty years of my ministry. There is a vision being employed by the diocese and I am engaging in that, through prayer. And also there are a few blog post reflections I am writing on the subject, this is a follow up to my last post.

What disheartens my priestly ministry at this point of time is the difficulty of bringing the gospel to two, perhaps even three generations of lapsed Catholics.

I have just finished this last month in the parish two ceremonies that mark the steps in the journey of faith, Confirmation and 1^st Holy Communion. Just under sixty Year Six children were confirmed, it was a lovely Mass, I was told this by many who were present. The children were most sincere in their intentions. The next Sunday and the one after that the sixty children and their families did not come, despite the lovely Mass comments. Something is not right, the message is not getting through.

We then held 1^st Holy Communion Masses. Sixty children received Holy Communion and their intentions and motivations were wonderful, they were reverent sincere and joyful. It was a lovely Mass, I was told this by many attending. The next Sunday most of the sixty children and their families were not at Mass, despite the lovely Mass comments, something is not right, the message is not getting through.

The reality of the Journey of faith is like this:

I baptise children of lapsed families, who do not really understand or get what they are saying when they promise me, they will be coming to Mass more regularly than before. The fact is the next time I see most of them is in Year Three, when preparing for 1^stHoly communion. I re-introduce myself and encourage them to see coming to Mass as the legacy for faith. I speak about Christ, and I say if he is not in your heart then this will be a one-off occasion. The next time I see them is in Year Six preparing for Confirmation. I reintroduce myself and repeat the encouragement. I am told the Masses are lovely. I am also told by a family who have just attended a Confirmation Mass, that’s it now “job done” they are going to secondary school and can leave all this church business behind! I know that they only dipped their toes in, they attending a Catholic school yet the are in effect lapsed. The next time I will see them in church is for weddings, baptisms and funerals.

As a chaplain to a secondary school, I meet students, not so much in the pandemic but that is another story! I was in the yard one afternoon after celebrating a Mass, chatting with students and one said to her friend that’s Fr Pat he used to be my priest! I said I am still your priest, you just don’t come to visit the church! The priest is still therein the parish, the church building is still there, but for how much longer, because as the Diocesan vision understands this is not a sustainable model, not financially anyway.

The “Vision” despite its “intentional disciple” speak and flowery language in parts is brutal as a construct. It will identify and close parishes that are not sustainable. It will reduce parishes and deaneries and yet the problem at the heart of decline remains, full school places of baptised children and empty pews lacking those same baptised and their families who fill the schools.

The secondary school situation is frighteningly a battle ground for the faith. I do not always recognise my own Catholic faith presented. Just because someone is good (or not) at dancing it does not make it an essential part of liturgy. The Mass is not always loved by the students but endured, and not always patiently ether!

I am a secular priest, not a religious, I am not sure I want to be forced into a “community lived experience” as a priest in a presbytery. I am not willing to become part of a forced community, constructed through decline and the modern day need for intensive support and smothering of my ministry. I want to breathe, without each breath being analysed and critiqued upon! I get my support from the knowledge that I am loved, and my priesthood flows from the Mass and leads back there too. I don’t need smothering, I remember common sense.

So, the conclusion I have reached is that the plan needs to embrace reality, acknowledge decline, seek ways to bring back the lapsed, the lost sheep too.

Action Points

Ask some experienced parish priests to meet and put together a survey for parents who attend our schools, with the remit to find out why they do not come to Mass. Changing culture is not simple, but to find out what this culture is that prevents attendance of the parish and how it positions a person’s place within it would be helpful.

Are people bored, so not engaged? This begs the question do they know the Mass is about worship and not entertainment. If it’s about worship then Jesus needs to be in your heart, otherwise boredom breaks out!

Do people still believe the teachings of the Church? Do they even know what the Church teaches?

When the Mass times changed in Coventry people did not automatically flock to the new times for Mass, some never came back, some went to Mass at a time in a parish that suited them. Just culling parishes without lovingly offering a credible solution will result in losing some who do come regularly. Its not a blame game after all.

I am not at all sure that the feeling of being disheartened I feel is captured in the Diocesan Plan/Vision. I just hope when all is implemented I will not have that aching feeling unease for the future.