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Pastoral
Letters
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The Call to Ordination -A Pastoral Letter for Vocations Sunday 2000Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ, With the onset of spring and the promise of summer, I have been facing once again the challenge of trying to match the needs of our parishes and communities with the priests who will serve them best. This is the time for making the appointments for next year. I must admit that I don’t look forward to it very much because it is becoming increasingly difficult to answer your needs and expectations in the parishes with our diminishing number of priests. I want to be able to provide as effective pastoral care as I can but, inevitably, it is not always possible. It has to be a time for hard decisions and sacrifices. I want to put some statistics before you all, which I shared with the clergy and those of you who joined me in the celebration of the Chrism Mass in Holy Week. Today, we have 114 parishes in the diocese served by 139 priests, 30% of whom are religious. The last time we had a similar profile was in 1946. Then, we had 74 parishes served by 134 priests. However, whereas just over 50 years ago we had an average of 2 priests per parish, now we have very few parishes with more than one priest, though we are blessed with 20 permanent deacons, 11 of whom have been ordained since 1989. We flourished in the post-war years and I believe we will flourish again but we have to live in the real world. As far as priests are concerned, we cannot continue to cover parishes and Masses as we have done in the recent past. I have already had to ask a number of parishes to share a priest and this trend will continue. We need to regroup and restructure and the planning for this has to be a shared and urgent priority for us all. Despite the shortages – we currently have only 5 seminarians - “the fields are white for the harvest…but the (priestly) labourers are few” which is why I ask you today to pray with me that the Lord may send us labourers for his harvest. I am sharing with you today the particular need we have for a generous response to the Lord’s call to priesthood and the diaconate because, in so many ways, the healthy growth and development of our diocese depends on that response. I am deeply aware that the call - or vocation – to Christian life is for all. I do not want in any way to diminish the importance of that. But the priest and the deacon have a particular and vital role to play in the life of the community, so I make no apology for emphasising that call and putting it before you today. The ministry of Word and Sacrament is the lifeblood of our spiritual lives as individuals and as communities and it depends on the priest for effective leadership. Without the preached Word and our gathering to celebrate the Eucharist, I cannot see how, as Catholics, we can be adequately equipped for a life of communion and mission. We need priests and deacons to sustain us and lead us in the Catholic life that we treasure so much, even though we know that there can be no return to the old system of one parish/one priest as we have known it. I am deeply saddened when I hear people – and particularly parents – say that the last thing they would do would be to encourage one of their sons to consider priesthood as a vocation. The priests we need can only come from our families and from our parishes. That’s where the call is given and where it is heard and nothing should be allowed to frustrate the call of the Lord. I’ve been a priest now for 35 years and I can honestly say that I feel increasingly fulfilled in that calling with each passing year. I love being a priest; I love working with those for whom I have pastoral care and each day brings new riches and experience as I do my best to be faithful to the Lord’s call. It is the bishop’s greatest privilege to ordain others to share in his ministry and to know that, through the generous response of those ordained, the work of the Good Shepherd can continue and flourish. Since I have been in the diocese, no year has passed when I have not ordained someone to the priesthood or diaconate. I hope there will never be a year when there is no ordination. I have no doubt that the Lord is calling, but we need to encourage those so called to respond and say “here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.” Neither the Lord, nor I, can offer the sort of career that will bring riches and fame, nor would we want to. All we can promise is a life lived in the footsteps of “the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep.” The so-called wisdom of the world may call us foolish and think we’re mad, but a life lived in generous response to the Lord’s call to feed his sheep is a life of love and a life of deep satisfaction and fulfilment. As they say, I have been there and I know. I can speak from experience. Today, the whole Church prays for vocations to ministry, both in the diocese and in religious life. Join with me in making this day a special day of prayer for our need for priests and deacons in our parishes. If any of you hearing or reading this letter feel that you have a call to the priesthood or the diaconate, please contact me or one of the members of the Vocations Team. We look forward to hearing from you. May God bless you all, + Crispian To be read and made available at all Masses on the weekend of 13th/14th May, 4th Sunday of Easter. |
