However, I wish I could share with you the article and pictures from OSV. (the online version is available only to subscribers and doesn’t include the pictures.) One picture shows Ms. Foley dressed in a white alb prancing about with an aspergillum sprinkling holy water at some sort of worship activity. Don’t you think that will inspire the young men of the parish to consider the priesthood? Many who still seek the ordination of women as priests see women in the role of pastoral-life coordinator as a stepping stone to full ordination. This replacement of priests with laity for liturgical functions may be a short-term fix but it will exacerbate the shortage of priestly vocations in the long run. If the laity want to be administrators, that is fine. But let the priests be priests.
UPDATE: I thought perhaps the parish web site would have some of the pictures from the OSV article. What I did discover was that no where on the web site or in the Sunday bulletins could I find any mention of a priest. I am assuming there is a priest who says Mass but he is left out of all information on the parish. If you are interested in vocations, speak with the Pastoral-life coordinator--Ms. Foley. Ms. Foley also has her own little "corner" of the bulletin each week for spiritual reflection and teaching. While they don't seem to have ready access to a priest, they do have an outdoor labyrinth and peace pole.UPDATE #2: See also this post.
UPDATE #3: Fr.Z also has some words about this arrangement.
UPDATE #4: As I searched for more information about the function of the pastoral life coordinator I came across this obituary:
Mass for Mr. Alejandro C. "Alex" Villamil, 67, will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Saturday, at Mary Queen of Heaven Church, 426 N. West Ave., Elmhurst. Mary Foley, pastoral life coordinator, will officiate.
Need I say more?
4 comments:
I think I'm glad I can't read the article; it would cause me to be even more upset than I am just hearing about it.
So did the article praise this woman? If so, then I am having second thoughts about the publisher.
Aaah, run away! Labyrinths are so new-agey. So the parish coordinator's playing dress-up with an alb and aspergilium. A certain unnamed cardinal in the west coast is pushing heavily for parish coordinators. I have a bad feeling about PCs, they're stealth priestesses.
15 years ago I was a member of a parish in New Jersey where the "Assistant Pastor" was a lay woman. (She wouldn't have that title now, I'm sure.) She was very well qualified, with an M.Div. and an S.T.L., and provided a lot of continuity to the parish. The parish had experienced rapid turnover of pastors (always a priest) but she had remained the assistant pastor for well-nigh a decade.
She never, ever, performed any liturgical function.
She spent her time visiting the sick (also as an extraordinary minister of communion -- but not during Mass), counseling the troubled, doing marriage prep, planning liturgies, and assisting with the youth group. I'm sure she had various office administrative duties as well, but I didn't have cause to see those.
It seemed pretty much licit and fruitful to me. I'm glad I experienced that.
It would be best if you would go to this parish and meet Mary Foley who does an amazing job. A priest is necessary for sacramental functions. The bishop would not allow Mary or any other non-ordained person to preside at sacraments. Apart from presiding at sacraments, a lay leader can do anything else. Mary Foley is an extremely well-educated, God-loving, people-serving, compassionate human being who has tremendous pastoral skills. Anyone seeing her ministerial skills in action would be inspired to be the face of Christ to others as our baptism calls us all to be. She would not be there without the bishop's express support and encouragement. It isn't her fault that there aren't enough priests to minister to God's people. Don't blame her for being a servant of God, the Church, and the people of God.
Mary Foley works harder than anyone I've ever met. She is being faithful to God's call in her life; how dare you criticize her faithful response to God's call.
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