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What's The Scoop On Pastoral Associates?


Lisa

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A few months ago, I went to Mass in another state and was a little bit... shocked. Other than liturgical abuses that made me shudder, there was a woman as the homilist. Clearly, this was not ok...

When I asked someone who attended that church, she said it was a Pastoral Associate- a product of the priest shortage. What boggled my mind is that the priest was clearly in the building; there was also a deacon there. Why didn't they give the homily???

Thanks be to God, we have a growing number of seminarians and have never had Pastoral Associates in our diocese.

So, my question for the Pham:
1. Do you have Pastoral Associates?
2. What (if any) is the legitimate ministry of a P.A.?

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she_who_is_not

I thought the ministry of a pastoral associate was purely administrative. Giving homilies seems a bit outside of the scope of employment.

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Never heard of this. Then again, my parish has 5-6 priests, so that might be why. I've never run into anything like this at my diocese though.

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LaPetiteSoeur

I'm not sure about Pastoral Associates. I do know about Pastoral assistants, as I worked as one for two years.

1. We had two pastoral assistants. One spoke Spanish and English (the church was inner city and the congregants were mainly Mexican) and I spoke English and French (sort of useless, but I could read Spanish and figure out the general jist). Since I moved, there's a new pastoral assistant.

2. I never gave homilies, I never did any "priest stuff." I coordinated our summer religious education program, worked at funerals and weddings (behind the scenes stuff, lectoring/eucharistic ministering when there wasn't one, altar serving if need be, cantor, etc). I answered phones, wrote letters, proofread letters, ordered Bibles, opened doors. That's what Pastoral assistants are supposed to do, at least in my old diocese. The general duties of a pastoral assistant are to help out the pastor. So, I prepared lessons for retreats he gave, put together a religious ed program, taught religious education, and did anything (and everything) else. One of my jobs was to clean out EVERYTHING (old parishes rarely throw stuff out): the library, the file cabinets, the basement.

My home parish has only one priest in residence. There's a weekend associate who says Friday Mass and one each weekend. If our pastor is gone (he's head of Catholic Charities in the area), he has a Jesuit replacement (totally cool guy) or an Oratorian.

My pastor (and family friend) is kind of liberal, but he WOULD NEVER have a woman give a homily. That's just weird stuff... As we said, no one wants to be excommunicated and no one needs to get the bishop involved--our bishop has too many things to worry about and we didn't need to add to them!

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I was once asked to be a pastoral associate of sorts. The pastor, a priest who I deeply respect, was beginning to get dementia of some kind and would do things like forget parts of mass etc. I was instructed to help MC at mass, so that he would not forget any parts. I was also supposed to help with other things too, which were not immediately specified. I found out afterwards that the pastor had NOT been consulted! I was terribly embarrassed, as I had assumed he knew about it! I immediately apologised and quit on my first day. Needless to say, I am pretty much forever going to be sceptical of pastoral associates.

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We used to have one. When she died, we could afford to replace her. She organized the RCIA, sacrament prep, scheduled the readers and altar servers, that kind of thing. She didn't give homilies. There are pastoral administrators in parishes without resident priests. They sometimes lead communion services where there are readings and a distribution of previously consecrated communion. They are given their authority by the bishop, and only under extreme circumstances.

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Basilisa Marie

They're pretty popular out by me (Pacific Northwest), since we're hit pretty hard by the priest shortage. They just run the "business" end of the church - keep programming running, make sure the lights stay on, etc. Occasionally lead a communion service or a holy hour, but that's the extent of their liturgical role (which isn't really designated to them because of their pastoral role, just falls to them). Without them there would be far fewer parishes around here. Of course it'd be ideal to have enough priests to go around, but unfortunately that's not a reality. Although some can be a bit...weird...overall they really do a lot of good. :)

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When my aunt Betty died a priest was not available to lead the rosary at her wake in Columbus Ohio, they sent a pastoral associate, a large woman who was also a sheriff. She led the rosary and offered a few words about the " woman she never met who seemed to be loved by all who came to her wake", it was a weird scene to say the least. I know I am wrong for saying this, but this woman seemed like she was, or wanted to be manly rather than feminine. She had real short hair, almost buzzed, and walked, talked and almost looked like a man. She seemed real nice though, but I would have been happier to just have a family member lead the rosary.

ed

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We have one; she mainly does administrative stuff and manages the parish staff. She also helps set up the RCIA stuff, books retreats, etc. She never has any role at all in the Mass though.

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SuscipeMeDomine

In my archdiocese a pastoral associate requires a minimum of a master's degree in theology or a related field. They are then commissioned to work in parishes. The specific work depends on the parish. Basically they do the work that a second or third priest might have handled once upon a time. The only thing they can't do would be related to the sacraments since they're not ordained.

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Ok, thanks everyone! I was just wondering if they were that off-the-wall everywhere. It sounds like for the most part, she is an isolated case of Pastoral Associates working beyond their qualifications.

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dominicansoul

the scene you describe is clearly blatant abuse and proof that the evil one can and does attend Mass ...

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It was extremely painful. There was more, too and when I talked to my brother about it later, he literally asked "are you sure you were in a real Catholic church?" A lot of prayers need to be said for that diocese; they are going through some really tough times as a result of priests' actions. I'm not even sure the people there know what it's supposed to be like. They looked at me like I was crazy when I looked shocked about the P.A.

This might sound dumb, so let me know. Would it be ok to write a letter to the Priest and/or Bishop of that church? I was just visiting but really feel like something needs to be done. Phamily, what would you do?

Edited by Lisa
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LaPetiteSoeur

[quote name='Lisa' timestamp='1313067956' post='2285868']
It was extremely painful. There was more, too and when I talked to my brother about it later, he literally asked "are you sure you were in a real Catholic church?" A lot of prayers need to be said for that diocese; they are going through some really tough times as a result of priests' actions. I'm not even sure the people there know what it's supposed to be like. They looked at me like I was crazy when I looked shocked about the P.A.

This might sound dumb, so let me know. Would it be ok to write a letter to the Priest and/or Bishop of that church? I was just visiting but really feel like something needs to be done. Phamily, what would you do?
[/quote]

It might be good for the bishop to know what's going on. PAs aren't supposed to give homilies or do any priestly stuff. If I was at that church, I'd feel like I HAD to say something, as I was a PA. Write to the Bishop.

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