RITE AND REASON:The clustering of Catholic parishes as priest numbers fall is far more than a practical matter, writes Eugene Duffy
SEVERAL CATHOLIC parishes are facing the fact that they will be deprived of a resident priest over the next five to 10 years. At present, the only practical response is to "cluster" parishes, that is, to draw a number of adjacent parishes into a long-term and committed relationship of collaboration in order to plan and provide pastoral services for their respective communities.
Clustering involves the sharing of personnel, resources, programmes and facilities so that the needs of the constituent parishes can be addressed without straining the resources of individual parishes. The process strengthens rather than diminishes the individual parish.
It can liberate new gifts and energies in communities, thus building up rather than diminishing the local church.
We are not long removed from a situation where the local priest was not only the spiritual leader of the community but also the chairperson of several social and voluntary organisations in the locality.
The result often was that other potential leaders could not emerge and communities were unwittingly disempowered.
The absence of a priest in numerous local communities in the future will call forth new leadership roles and facilitate parishioners to assume responsibilities for the life and wellbeing of their communities in ways not possible in the past.
Indeed, it will ensure that aspects of the vision of church put forward by the Second Vatican Council will be implemented.
The conditions will be right for more people to become more conscious of their individual responsibilities for the mission and ministry of the church.
Among those in ordained ministry there will be a greater opportunity to be more collaborative in their approaches to ministry, no longer assuming that their own "territory" is an independent zone within which they are self-sufficient and in total control.
This will open up their ministry to a much more explicit collaborative approach more in line with the vision of Vatican II than many have practised up to now.
The mention of clustering can often appear threatening to parishes with strong local identities. This need not be the case. No parish has all the gifts and talents required to resource fully its local membership. Once parishes are grouped together they can better explore major pastoral issues; there is a bigger pool of gifts and talents to provide a response; costs of training and ministerial provision can be shared.
It has been a cause of much frustration for many people who have invested significantly in theological and pastoral formation that their expertise has not been tapped by their local parishes.
In the context of clustered parishes this situation can be more positively addressed: there is greater scope and freedom to avail of the wide variety of gifts that each community can offer.
Apart from the practical considerations pushing Irish dioceses into clustering arrangements, there are very sound theological reasons for doing so.
As individuals and communities we are called into relationship and mutuality, not isolation and independence. The God of the Christians is the Triune God, a God of love and relationality. Indeed, our image of God is crucial to the way we image ourselves and our social relationships.
The Brazilian theologian Leonardo Boff named the issue well when he said: "Sticking only with faith in one sole God, without thinking of the Blessed Trinity as the union of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is dangerous for society, for political life and for the church. It can lead to totalitarianism, authoritarianism, paternalism and machismo" (Holy Trinity, Perfect Community, 7).
Thus one can see that the clustering of parishes is far more than a mere practical arrangement. It is a reality that is profoundly theological, spiritual and pastoral, enabling us to live in deeper relationship and communion, mirroring something of the divine life that we are called to share.
These issues associated with the clustering of parishes were explored at a conference held at Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick, last week.
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Rev Dr Eugene Duffy is a lecturer in Theology and Religious Studies at Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick