By Chris Eckl

The Senate of Priests, created in late November, has raised the salaries of pastors and assistants and started work on a constitution.

The pay raise, retroactive to Jan. 1 and provisionally approved by Archbishop Hallinan, includes the following scale:

Pastors, from $125 a month to $200 a month; pastors (after five years) from $125 a month to $215 a month; assistants, from $90 a month to $145 a month; assistants (after five years), from $100 a month to $160 a month. The Lay Congress recommended that priests be given a higher pay scale.

Father Walter J. Donovan, president of the Senate and pastor of Most Blessed Sacrament parish, said the pay raise was one of the first topics discussed because it was concrete. “It takes time to work on a constitution dealing with the spiritual and intellectual welfare of priests,” he said.

“The Senate has discussed a constitution, and in order to write it we have contacted 20 or 30 dioceses with constitutions. About three of them were respectable,” he commented, “but most of them looked like constitutions for Boy Scouts, written by chanceries.”

The veteran priest of 23 years said the Synod said one of the concerns of the Senate was the material and spiritual welfare of priests. “The two are combined because man’s body and spirit are intertwined,” he said.

Father Donovan said the Senate is continuing its study on stipends, stole fees, automobile provisions and retirement.

He said the pay raises were needed so priest can make some provisions for retirement. “Social Security based on past salaries is not sufficient and the archdiocese has had no uniform, systematic retirement program,” he said.

Discussing salaries, stipends and stole fees, the priest said he was personally in favor of paying priests salaries and letting them provide for their own food, clothing, shelter and transportation.

“I think most priests in the archdiocese are in favor of eliminating stole fees (contributions made when they say a nuptial or funeral Mass or baptize a child”).

“When you take a communion to a sick person, some families insist on a donation to the priests,’ he said. “If you go back often then they may think you are after another donation and if you don’t return frequently, they may think they didn’t give you enough. These fees are confusing.”

He said stole fees also create inequities in income because priests in larger parishes have more opportunities to receive them.

Father Donovan said stipends (offerings made for Masses of special intentions) may present some difficulty. “Maybe stipends should be put in the parish treasury.”

The priest said adequate salaries also would permit priests to save money so they could take a study sabbatical. “One of the things necessary for the continual growth of priests is time for study, but it can’t be done unless some provision is made. This growth can’t be done with an occasional lecture—a lecture may help create interest—or an hour or two of daily reading.”

Father Donovan said he had once read where the laity’s function was to ‘pray, pay and obey.” He said, “It seems to be the idea of some that priest should pray and obey without pay.”

Father Donovan said the establishment of a Senate is a progressive move and said he hopes the body will be consulted on such matters as establishment of new parishes, abolishment of old ones, the transfer of priests, appointment of pastors and other matters.

“The Senate was created to provide priests with an opportunity to voice their convictions and to hear their views on affairs of the archdiocese. The meetings are open and I hope every priest will attend them,” he said. The Senate meets the second Friday of every month at 1 p.m. at Sacred Heart.

Other members of the Senate are Fathers John Stapeton, Thomas Roshetko, Paul Kelley, Dale Freeman, R. Donald Kiernan, Frank Ruff, Eusebius J. Beltran, Michael Anthony Morris and Msgr. Michael Manning.

Commenting on the actions of the Senate, Archbishop Hallinan said that he and Bishop Joseph L. Bernardin have been invited to attend half the meetings of the Senate to insure better communications. He said, “To guarantee a proper independence for its frank discussion and actions, we will not attend the alternate meetings.

“I am confident that after matters regarded now as urgent have been settled, the Senate will get down to the task which the Archdiocesan Synod and Vatican II assigned it. These include a priests’ formation program of conferences and opportunities to learn; better communications with the bishops; assistance to the bishops in the pastoral guidance of the archdiocese, and sustenance for priests.”

“The last-named is a complicated matter involving salaries, stipends and stole fees, provision and maintenance of the majority of automobiles, major medical care and retirement plan. So far, only salaries have been acted on, and I have approved the provisional increase proposed by the Senate, retroactive to Jan. 1, 1967, and effective until the sustenance program has been agreed upon.”

“In my opinion some present increase is urgently needed to meet the cost of living. Our priests should receive enough to live as Christ’s servants in a frugal but self-respecting way. I am sure that the laity know that out of this salary must come clothing, purchase of needed books and periodicals, medical care, travel to conferences, recreation, insurance, help for others including their own family.”

“Our priests have a long tradition of an unselfish and zealous ministry. The Senate, and its excellent officers, will multiply the opportunities for greater service for the archdiocese and for the priests themselves.”