Church leaders from 18 dioceses discuss parish staffing challenges

Published: 2005-10-06

LOS ANGELES (CNS) -- Facing the future staffing needs of churches in an era of continuing priest shortages, church leaders from 18 Western dioceses gathered in Los Angeles to share and discuss new models of parish pastoral leadership. The Sept. 21-23 event, co-sponsored by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the National Pastoral Life Center in New York, drew 70 participants to study national trends and challenges in parish staffing. In his welcoming remarks, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles urged the group not to be fearful as they considered new structural models for future pastoral leadership of churches. "It isn't about what we don't have, but rather what we do have and the new ways of being church with Jesus Christ walking forward with us," said the cardinal, who predicted in a recent pastoral statement that the number of lay parish life directors in the archdiocese would "increase considerably" beginning next year. He noted that the early church functioned in "a very creative way" with few paid ministers. "There isn't one model of parish pastoral leadership that has all the answers," the cardinal said.

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