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A longer read today – prompted by my entering my fortieth year of Diocesan Priesthood this week, and also nudged to write by the line which leapt out at me in today’s gospel reading: “Go in Search of the Stray”.
I think you might find it interesting – so I share in the hope that you might give me a bit of a leave to ramble on my 39th anniversary!
As always your own thoughts and are welcome and appreciated in the comments space below.
an ultimate adventure:
Diocesan Priesthood
Last year’s national census revealed that more than fifty percent of the people of Aotearoa identify as “no-religion”. This number includes many of our own friends, neighbours, workmates and family who were Baptised and raised as Christian.
We appreciate too that many of those who still identify as Catholic have no regular contact with the Catholic community in parishes or schools. Across the country parishes report that more than ninety percent of those who are Baptised or receive First Communion are not a part of the worshipping life of the parish in the weeks, months and years following these celebrations.
In my sabbatical months this year I gave considerable time to reading, reflection and especially to wide-ranging conversations about this reality.
My reflection has been prompted in considerable part by the fact that when I meet these people, it is not too long into a conversation about faith before I am moved by the depth and practice of the faith of so many of them, and the intimacy and vibrancy of their relationship with Jesus Christ.
Indeed they are “practicing” Catholics.
Yet the church to many of them is like an irrelevant and even a foreign institution.
I am left wondering: have these faith-filled people distanced from the church institution or has the church institution distanced from them?
Many Catholic churches across Aotearoa (especially in cities) might be packed on Sundays, but could this be due to the consolidation of parishes and church closures greatly reducing the number of available Sunday Masses?
While reduction of the number of parishes might be a wise move to prevent unnecessary duplication of resources (why employ five secretaries, five accountants and five photo-copiers when one of each can do the job), many parishes have also closed churches and presbyteries and cancelled Masses making the life of the Church and the presence of a priest less easily available for the majority of faith-filled people.
While these closures might have the helpful consequence of gathering more people for the remaining Sunday liturgies the downside is that many of those who were an active part of parish communities a decade or two ago, with the closure of their church or parish or the removal of Mass at the only time they could be at Mass (given work, sport and family commitments), may have drifted to the fringes of the faith community and feel too distant to easily re-connect even when they might have a desire or a need for the Sacraments and faith-community life.
I’m thinking of one community which fifteen years ago had five churches and almost twenty weekend Masses. In the years since, this community has closed four of its churches and is left with half a dozen Sunday Masses. Remaining parishioners report that many long-time parishioners have not made the shift to the new one-church one-parish structure.
One respected senior parishioner commented to me recently that the funerals of many of his Catholic friends now are held not in churches but at funeral homes or social venues without the presence of a priest.
Have our well-intentioned efforts to re-structure parishes and get them organised for a new era inadvertently resulted in a loss of the community networks and commitments which parishioners of past generations laboured to imagine, to fund, to build and to nurture?
Since the arrival of the first Catholic families in Aotearoa – I’m thinking of (among others) Mary and Thomas Poynton who arrived in New Zealand in 1828 (ten years before the presence of the first priests) – the energy of people of faith was for outreach and networking.
From 1838 the first priests travelled great distances to ensure the easy availability of the Sacramental life of the church to people in every part of the country.
Most of these first priest-missionaries were of the Society of Mary but the first Catholic bishops of our land saw it as a priority to establish a seminary for the formation of Diocesan Clergy.
I wonder if the unique charism of Diocesan Priesthood is at risk of being lost as removal of priests from neighbourhoods is presumed and automatic when parishes and churches are closed.
Perhaps a lack of neighbourhood visibility of the unique nature, characteristics, lifestyle and adventure of Diocesan Priesthood might explain why young people who are open to discerning life as a priest are more likely to opt for life within a religious community.
I struggle to understand this.
After almost forty years as a Diocesan Priest, I can honestly say that if I had known what life as a Diocesan priest was really like, I would not have hesitated as much as i did before saying YES!
In my late-teens I felt a deep attraction to the unique charism of Diocesan Priesthood. While I was taught by many inspiring priests of the Society of Mary in Timaru and have a great respect for the Marist charism and community life, it was the adventure of Diocesan Priesthood which captured my imagination. I likened it then (as I still do) to being ready to “go to the ends of the earth”.
When I entered the New Zealand Diocesan Seminary (then in Mosgiel) in 1980, the rector Monsignor Tom Liddy, Diocesan Priest of the Christchurch Diocese, challenged us to the adventure of priesthood within a diocesan family.
He explained that priests of a Religious Community (Marist, Dominican, Jesuit etc), when serving in a parish and living in a house with two or more others, understand that the house they live in must be their first community.
Tom went on to clarify that for a Diocesan Priest, even when living in a house with two or three other priests, the prime community for each of these priests is not the house (presbytery) they live in but the parish community or chaplaincy they are appointed to serve.
The first parish I ever lived in – albeit before my memory since I was only two years old when we moved away – was the town of Otematata on the south bank of the Waitaki River in North Otago. Otematata was a rapidly growing community then due to the construction of the Benmore hydro project and was the new natural centre of the parish of Kurow half an hour downstream.
The local Parish Priest Fr. Reg O’Brien understood that as a Diocesan Priest it was necessary that he live with and among his parishioners so he without any fuss quietly moved from the comfortable Kurow presbytery to take up residence in the sacristy of the pre-fab Otematata Church.
A Diocesan Priest belongs not in a monastery-cloister or a comfortable apartment complex but in the neighbourhoods and down-to-earth lives of the people.
Yes times have changed and now there are occasions when parishioners inform a bishop that for the good of their community it would be best for them to join with a neighbouring church or parish, perhaps resulting in the closure of their own church. I know that bishops take such parish discernment seriously. However this should not necessarily mean the loss of a priest living in their neighbourhood. since many previous presbyteries (many now rentals) remain in church ownership and the use of these for priests would return to parishioners the priests for whom they funded and built these presbyteries.
In many of the communities in which I have served, the day-to-day mission of Diocesan Priestly parish life happened when I was shopping at the corner store, exercising in the neighbourhood street, drinking at the local café or bar, every place busy with spontaneous encounters with people who would not otherwise get to chat informally with (or even find) a priest.
Many of these people would never venture to phone a parish office to arrange a baptism or to ask for a priest to visit a sick relative, but easily in the bread aisle of the Four Square, or at the local gym or café a chance encounter and informal conversation leads to a baptism or wedding date or a life-changing death-bed anointing.
This neighbourhood model of priestly presence among the people rather than apart from the people is at the heart of the unique ministry and mission of Diocesan Priesthood.
This is the model which our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents wisely imagined and generously funded.
In my experience living in the rural communities of Westland, North Canterbury, time spent on the Chatham Islands and Christchurch city, local neighbourhood living enabled a shared responsibility and accountability between priest and people, with the happy side-effect of not requiring the construction of large monastic-style and apartment accommodations.
I know one Diocesan Priest who has chosen to live among people in a local retirement community where after 65 years as a Diocesan Priest he continues an active priestly presence and Sacramental ministry. This model is not new. Others in retirement have opted to live in simple accomodation in local neighbourhoods because a Diocesan Priest is a Diocesan Priest until death and he will serve as he is able until death.
Priests of Religious Communities will often serve a province as large as country or even a region of nations. But Diocesan Priests give their lives for ministry among people of one particular geographical local Church, that is a diocese. Priests of a Religious Community will serve for a time or meet a particular need before a superior calls them further afield. But working under their local bishop a Diocesan Priest will baptise, marry and bury, comfort and accompany and challenge generations of the same families and the same parishes within the same local diocesan church for as long as he lives.
As a result Diocesan Priests will spend forty, fifty, sixty and more years among the people of one diocese. The people therefore will get to know their Diocesan Priests well over this time. They will know his strengths and his weaknesses. Every story and rumour about his gifts and his imperfections will travel and grow quickly across the diocese.
It’s a bit like a family really.
And that family for the Diocesan Priest is the family of the local diocese where a Diocesan Priest is at home.
Any adult who lives with others whether in a family, a flat or a religious community will acknowledge that living in a house with others is not a magical solution to the human reality of loneliness which is at times a part of the life of every monk in a monastery and priest in a parish and husband or wife in a home. I think the times when I was most lonely in life were when I was living in a seminary with forty others, and the times when i have felt most accompanied and cared for (by parishioners) is in city or rural communities while living alone in a presbyery.
In recent years I have become more aware of and deeply challenged by the concerns I outlined in my opening comments – the increasingly “non-religious” population and the distance many faith-filled people feel from the community of faith.
Perhaps it is time for a re-discovery of the heart of the adventure which is Diocesan Priesthood as presence among, with and for, accessible and available to all people in the neighbourhoods of our country.
In another of his inspiring talks Tom Liddy spoke again about priesthood suggesting that someone who felt called to priesthood could be a Dominican priest like St. Dominic, a Franciscan priest like St. Francis, a Jesuit priest like St. Ignatius, or a Diocesan Priest, like Jesus.
I like that.
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Take an initiative and send me a date time and place for a FFF cafe-catchups john@fff.org.nz. I’ll advertise these on each morning’s post throughout Advent.
Wednesday 11 December 10.30am with Christina
Zenders Cafe and Venue
44 Hopkins Rd Newstead, Hamilton
Thursday 12 December 10.00am with Joan
Stumble Inn, 200 Mangorei Road
Merrilands, New Plymouth
Monday 16th December 11.00am with Gillian
Cypress Café 10 St Heliers Bay Road
St Heliers, Auckland
Tuesday 17 December 10.30 with Catherine
Colombus at Mitre 10 MEGA
25 Bouverie St, Petone, Lower Hutt.
Thursday 19 December 10.00am with Joan
Stumble Inn, 200 Mangorei Road
Merrilands, New Plymouth
Oh I loved these comments and reflections. Fr John. Thank you for sharing your insights, vocational positioning and loving ministry with us all. This morning I offered up prayers of joy and thanksgiving for all the remarkable priests and religious who have so lovingly shared and assisted me with my Faith formation and positively impacted my life journey. Ongoing Blessings in abundance and Thank you.
Thank you Father John. I really enjoyed your reflection this morning about life as a Diocesan Priest. Congratulations on your 40 years of service to your communities but also for your outreach of Lectio Divina, Reflections and Retreats around NZ. You have broadened my thinking and my faith.
God bless you in your work and I look forward to reading many more Reflections in 2025.
Wishing you a Happy and holy Christmas.
Loved loved loved this reflection.
I hope you are able to blast email to every priest (incl the religious orders who work/live in our communities; as they ready themselves with boxes big and small, to Marie Kondo their stuff
ready for their next, post-Christmas, adventure. Our Priests are our treasured brothers and uncles in the community. Wise Koro’s who can see what is not being said and understand the confusion of the old and young alike. Thank you for lifting my spirits in appreciation once again.
Well done John
Break out the rosé
Or maybe a coffee
John that is exactly what a Diocesan priest should be – among the people. Congratulations on your anniversary & I give thanks to God for not only having you in our Diocese but your work internationally as well. May God Bless You.
Congratulations John on your anniversary of ordination. Thanks for this reflection.
How can diocesan priests best receive support for their growth in maturity, growth in faith? Some are introverts, or shy, of new cultures to me. Perhaps it’s a journey of faith, praying for each other, being patient, taking things slowly, open to learning how Jesus did things. Best wishes for those preparing to change parishes.
53 years ago I was ordained an Auckland diocesan priest. I have served in many roles since then-in parish ministry, as an urban missioner, as a prison chaplain, as a hospital chaplain, as a frontline senior social worker, as an elder abuse resolution advocate, as victim support coordinator with the police, as health care chaplain for the local hospital and forensic mental health services and chaplain to the local rehabilitation Centre for brain injury. As a supervisor and spiritual guide for theological students, it is my view now that the best seminary for aspirants is within a faith community/parish. It is important that the student seek a partner to marry before ordination. For a faith group to grow in our modern society it needs to be a connecting, equipping and empowering community. It needs uplifting music and great homilies. A good model is Kingdomcity. It was first established in Singapore, spread to Perth and now in Auckland. They have much to teach us about growing Christian communities.
I have only recently been introduced to your daily reflections and I am finding them very interesting and helpful.
Today’s contribution on diocesan priests was heartfelt and so right! But, from the perspective of a parishioner, it feels to me that the request to close churches and merge parishes always comes from the top, never from the people. And the reason it comes from the bishop is that he does not have enough priests to have one in each new parish, let alone one for each community.
“The harvest is rich but the labourers are few.”
We need more labourers! I think part of the answer is more deacons, more paid lay pastoral assistants, and most particularly, allowing married priests and women priests.
I know that celibacy is a vocation, but one that can be for any person, not just for priests. The community life of religious priests involves the vow of celibacy, but the Scriptures do not say this for other priests and bishops, in fact the opposite – the priest or bishop should be a good family man. The young priest who officiated at our marriage, more than 50 years ago, told my (non-Catholic) husband to be that his vocation to priesthood was a separate vocation to his calling to celibacy. He was soon after married and had a child before we had our first and the church lost another wonderful priest – I knew so many like this in those post-Vatican 2 years.
When we get the priests, we can again pastor the communities.
We often hear the church articulate these ideals, but practical examples of what they mean are rarely provided. Most work six days a week, with many juggling two or three jobs just to make ends meet. By the time they get home, they are exhausted from the day and then have to manage the responsibilities of raising children alongside everything else. Many families struggle to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table, making homeownership feel like an unattainable dream. Typically, both parents need to work to support the family. So, how do they step away from this cycle in practical terms? Simply organizing the kids and getting to Mass is a significant challenge, especially if they have to also contend with work commitments. We no longer live in a society where Sunday is universally observed as a day of rest. Could these ideals be the reason our churches are emptying as people see them as unattainable and fill them with guilt?
Congratulations John on your anniversary!
I was impressed with your input today. As I see it, and experience it, you are so correct about what is happening in the parish community today.
YES!
Thank you for this insightful column. I often think of the older people who used to walk to Mass in their local parish and who are now unable to attend due to the distances imposed by restructuration. They were the ones who financed and supported the parishes throughout their adult lives and now, in their later years, they are often deprived of contact with the priests and with the sacraments. It seems very unjust. Are they not the ones pushed to the margins?
I congratulate John and I thank you for your wonderful reflections. I loved it.
Such an interesting, informative description of Diocesan priesthood. Adventure, and rewards yes, but potentially very challenging and often exhausting – 24/7! DPs are to be treasured. Many congratulations John, thank you for your energising Ministry.
Don’t get us started on church/presbytery rentals etc!!
Interesting reflection Fr John, thank you for sharing on life as a Diocesan priest, we have been mightily blessed by your choice! As always it’s never easy watching the tide go against us, but go against us it does and we must adapt and adjust as the Disciples did, or there would be no church. I find as I age lamenting the loss of the life I had growing up (in Timaru particularly), realising this serves no useful purpose, especially to my children as they have little connection with the thoughts and feelings I express, it certainly doesn’t get them entertaining any thought of following in my footsteps, yet that is what they appear to be doing. Treating God as some foreign concept, useful only at funerals, as for Jesus there is more fun to be had in following someone on TikTok or such like. Do they see the joy I’ve found in knowing him? I guess not, maybe I need to better demonstrate it by showing the joy I have in knowing them? Perhaps that would work better, as I look into the beauty of things to come, letting go of the things I had, sharing the joy in what I have.
This reflection is powerful and captures the essence of the ministry it is spirit filled. We have made choices about parishes with the head not the heart. The Jesus story is a heart story not a head one. So many communities have been devastated by the so called amalgamation. But those who protested were not listened to perhaps because they lacked the words to express the reason why their communities should have stayed together from where they could grow where there was history a place they recognised as their parish their community their home. Why too are priests moved from a community they serve where they are loved and where they have become part of the family just because they have been there for sometime with no consultation with the people of the parish. It is as if familiarity is something to be avoided rather than celebrated and encouraged.