by a purple ferraiolone, a silk cape worn over the cassock.
The parish priest
The parish priest (also known as a pastor) is the next clergy in the hierarchy after the vicar general. Pastors are appointed by the bishop and represent the bishop to the local parish, which is a collection of neighborhoods in one small region of the county within a given state.
Some pastors are helped by a priest called a parochial vicar (formerly known as a curate or an assistant pastor) and/or sometimes by a permanent deacon, religious sister, or lay parishioner as a pastoral associate. The parish council and finance committees, which are made up of lay parishioners for the most part, advise and counsel the pastor but don’t have administrative or executive authority.
Tough training
The typical Catholic priest isn’t what you see in movies or on TV. Priests are expected to obtain a graduate, post-graduate, or doctoral degree, and they often spend anywhere from 4 to 12 years in the seminary, which is the equivalent of Protestant divinity school. Most have at least a master’s degree in divinity or theology, if not a higher academic degree on par with medical doctors and attorneys.
Besides scholastic training, seminarians also receive practical experience from apostolates, which are weekly or summertime assignments in parishes, hospitals, nursing homes, prisons, classrooms, and such, to unite pastoral education with theological and philosophical education.
A busy job
A parish priest celebrates daily Mass, hears confessions every week, gives marriage counseling, provides prenuptial counseling, gives spiritual direction, anoints and visits shut-ins and the sick in hospitals and nursing homes, teaches Catechism (a book that contains the doctrines of Catholicism) to children and adults, baptizes, witnesses marriages, performs funerals and burials, attends numerous parish and diocesan meetings, prays privately every day, does spiritual and theological reading, and finds time to relax now and then with family and friends. And once a year, he’s expected to make a five-day retreat in addition to doing his regular spiritual direction and daily prayer. Yeah, it’s a busy job.
With 1.34 billion Catholics worldwide (17.7 percent of the world population) and only about 414,336 priests to minister to their spiritual needs, that leaves an average of about one priest per 3,234 Catholics. Some areas have as many as 6,000 or more people per priest.
The hub in the wheel: The parish church
The parish church is where the priest does his job and where most Catholics hang out on Saturday evening or Sunday morning to attend Mass.
The local Catholic parish is often named after a title of the Lord Jesus Christ, such as Blessed Sacrament or Sacred Heart; after a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary, such as Our Lady of Good Counsel or Our Lady of Seven Sorrows; or after one of the saints, such as St. Ann, St. Bernadette, or St. Joseph. The parish is the heart of the diocese because it’s where most Catholics get baptized, go to confession, attend Mass, receive Holy Communion, are confirmed, get married, and are buried from.
Some American parishes have a parochial school connected to them, but few of them have a convent of nuns who staff the school, although you can still find them here and there. Catholic grade schools were once the bread and butter of vocations and often fed into Catholic high schools and colleges. In other words, these parish schools encouraged boys and girls to consider becoming priests and nuns, and most students continued their Catholic education all the way through college even if they didn’t have a religious vocation. But economics, demographics, and declining numbers of religious sisters and brothers have resulted in the consolidation and closing of many parish schools. Public schools in many places are well staffed, well funded, and more accessible.
An even rarer occurrence is the parish cemetery. Nowadays, the diocese has centralized schools and cemeteries, but a few old country parishes still have a graveyard in the back of the property.
Father, are you a diocesan or religious priest?
Catholic priests are diocesan (secular) or religious (regular). Diocesan priests belong to the diocese that they’re located in, but religious order priests, such as Franciscan or Dominican, belong to that order.
DIOCESAN (SECULAR) PRIESTS
The typical parish priest is usually a diocesan priest, meaning he belongs to the geographical area of the diocese, which often comprises several counties in one state. He makes a promise of obedience to the local bishop and a promise of celibacy. Diocesan priests are also called secular priests to distinguish them from the priests who belong to communities and orders.
A diocesan priest gets a modest monthly salary from the parish. In addition, the parish or diocese normally provides room and board (meals and lodging) and health insurance, but only a few dioceses also provide car insurance. Diocesan priests live in parishes alone or with another priest, but basically have their own living quarters inside the rectory — the house where the parish priests live. They do their own work and relax on their own, usually just sharing one meal together.
Diocesan priests are responsible for buying and maintaining their own automobiles as well as personal property — clothing, books, computers, televisions, and so on. The individual diocesan priest pays his federal, state, and local taxes, including Social Security taxes. After making monthly car payments, paying for insurance, and possibly paying off banks loans from college, not much is left of the monthly salary, but the parish or diocese provides his necessities. Honoraria and gifts from baptisms, weddings, and funerals differ from parish to parish and from diocese to diocese, but it’s very important to note that a priest never charges any fees for his services. Free will offerings are often made to him or to the parish, but it’s sinful, sacrilegious, and rude for any cleric to ask for money while performing his sacred ministry.
Canon law (see Chapter 11) guarantees every priest one day off per seven-day week and one month (30 days) of vacation per year, not including the one-week annual retreat. If you think 30 days of vacation every year seems like a lot, keep in mind that most people get two days off per week. Priests work an extra 52 days each year to earn their 30 days of vacation!
RELIGIOUS (REGULAR) PRIESTS
Religious priests are referred to as regular because they follow the regula, which is Latin for “rule,” the structured life of a religious community. The Rule refers to how a religious order trains, lives, governs itself, and practices. Religious priests are more commonly known as order priests after the religious order that they belong to, such as the Franciscans, Dominicans, Jesuits, Benedictines, and Augustinians. They wear particular habits (religious garb) and take solemn vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. They don’t own their own cars or personal possessions. Many use community automobiles that everyone in the order shares. They have the clothes on their back and little else. They don’t get salaries like diocesan priests but are given an extremely modest monthly allowance to buy toiletries and snacks, as well as to go out for dinner or a movie once in a while. If they need to buy something expensive or want to take time off for vacation, they must ask permission of the superior who authorizes the money to be given them or for the bill to be paid.
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