Faced with a critical shortage of priests and an aging clergy, the Diocese of Brooklyn has begun planning for a major reorganization that could include merging the operations of an undetermined number of parishes in Queens and Brooklyn.
Over the next five years, only about 15 priests are expected to be ordained for the diocese, while 90 will become eligible to retire. Of the diocese's approximately 400 active priests, about 337 work in its 217 parishes.
"We're not kidding when we say there's a shortage of priests,” said Msgr. John Brown, the director of clergy personnel for the diocese. "The reality is we don't have enough priests to do what we've been doing. In the future, there may have to be staffing by area.”
Staffing by area means grouping priests into "multiparish teams.” For example, four priests who live in a central rectory might serve five parishes.
Another possible scenario, Brown said, would be to merge parishes, which would bear a hyphenated name to preserve their original identities. If two parishes were merged, one possibility could be that Mass would alternate between the two church buildings.
The shortage is part of a nationwide trend that has seen the numbers of priests falling, and the numbers of Catholics rising, since the 1960s.
In the Brooklyn diocese, the worsening shortage of priests has been "accelerated” by the current priest sexual abuse scandal, Brown said. The diocese has been forced to place priests on leave as a result of past allegations of sexual improprieties, but Brown would not disclose exactly how many.
As the reorganization plays out -- and officials emphasize they are moving slowly -- parishioners accustomed to convenient neighborhood Mass and easy access to their parish priest could find things changed considerably.
Other measures being considered, according to Brown and other officials, include offering fewer Masses, combining Masses of several parishes in a neighborhood location, and having trained deacons, religious or lay ministers run parishes, doing everything but celebrating the sacraments. Some of these steps have been used in a limited fashion, but the reorganization is likely to expand their use.
Brown said that closing parishes would be considered only as a last resort.
"Right now we haven't considered closing any parishes and I don't think Bishop Daily will consider closing any,” Brown said.
Daily sent a letter March 4 to priests in Queens and Brooklyn, asking them for recommendations on how to staff the Roman Catholic Church's operations with only about 400 active priests.
Meeting in clusters, the priests are to make recommendations to Daily by October. Daily's letter to priests in March followed a pastoral letter in November 2000 in which he asked priests to preach on a shortage he called "urgent and serious.”
At that time, there were 416 active priests in the diocese. The shortage has become even worse in recent months, exacerbated by the deaths of six priests this year in addition to forced leaves growing out of sexual abuse allegations.
As of this month, the number of active priests will decline to about 400, according to Brown.
The diocese's next step, Brown said, will be to hold meetings with lay Catholics to get their ideas on how to deal with the situation.
Despite the worsening shortage, some parishioners are not yet aware of the problem, according to one Queens priest, who asked not to be identified.
"You have people in the pews who haven't grasped the idea we have a shortage,” said the priest, who attended a meeting in April in which Brown briefed priests on the shortage.
Predictions for what will happen during the next decade are dire, with the number of men studying for the priesthood falling far short of the number eligible to retire.
Fifteen seminarians are studying in Huntington and Rome for the diocese -- with an average of three expected to be ordained annually for the next five years.
But during that same five-year period, about 90 of the diocese's priests will reach 71, the age at which they are eligible to retire.
Staffing is a particular problem in the diocese, partly because of the varied languages spoken and continuing influx of different ethnic groups. Masses are said in about 30 languages, according to Brown.
"Trying to figure out how to deal with the shortage is different here even than in [the Diocese of] Rockville Centre,” Brown said. "The change in language needs and ethnic needs are very difficult to keep up with.”
One way of addressing the shortage is the concept of clustering, in which parishes share personnel and programs. The office of Cluster Planning and Collaboration, directed by the Rev. Neil Mahoney, is developing ways parishes can share resources.
In Maspeth, Middle Village and Rego Park, for example, six parishes -- Holy Cross, Our Lady of Hope, Resurrection-Ascension, St. Margaret, St. Stanislaus Kostka and Transfiguration -- are working with Catholic Charities to jointly hire a full-time social worker for families in distress, according to Mahoney.