Editorial

From September 25 to 28, Catholics in the Diocese of Madison may ask, "Where is Father?" They might notice that there are no priests in their parishes and institutions. Where are they?

Most of our priests will be at the Chula Vista Conference Center in Wisconsin Dells. But they won't be on vacation. They will be attending the 25th annual Presbyteral Assembly. This gathering gives priests an opportunity to get away from their usual busy schedules. It's a time of prayer, socializing, discussion, and building unity and fraternity among priests and the bishop.

Keynote speaker. "A Vision of Hope" is the theme of this year's assembly. Keynote speaker will be Fr. Eugene Hemrick, who has done quite a bit of research on the priesthood. Father Hemrick is director of the National Institute for the Renewal of the Priesthood in Washington, D.C. He is also a research associate with the Life Cycle Research Institute at the Catholic University of America and coordinator of institutional research at Washington Theological Union. (You also may notice his column from time to time in the Catholic Herald.)

Father Hemrick's mission at the National Institute for the Renewal of the Priesthood is to spiritually and intellectually energize leaders in pastoral ministry via the Internet. I'm sure Father Hemrick will discuss this new effort to renew the priesthood at Chula Vista.

Besides his current work, Father Hemrick has written Grace Under Pressure: What Gives Life to American Priests, which became a best seller in 1995. He has studied seminarians and priests, including the problems of aged and infirm religious. His work helped pave the way for the establishment of the Catholic Church's national collection for retired religious. Father Hemrick should give our priests much food for thought.

Strategic planning. At the assembly, the priests will also discuss the Diocese of Madison's strategic planning process with diocesan leaders involved in setting a course for the future. Priests will be completing a survey to help with this process.

As we have written about in past issues of the Catholic Herald, we are facing fewer numbers of priests to serve growing numbers of Catholics in our diocese. While we must work and pray for more vocations to the priesthood and religious life, we should also support and encourage our current priests.

They need a pat on the back, some positive words, perhaps even a hug! Priests might appreciate being invited to your home or a restaurant for dinner. Or perhaps give them a ticket to a concert or football game - depending on their interests.

Pray for our priests. Above all, priests need our prayers. Next week - while our priests are meeting at Chula Vista - I encourage Catholics in the Diocese of Madison to pray for our priests. Here is one simple prayer from the Serra Club:

Prayer for the Perseverance of Vocations

O God, You have constituted Your only-begotten Son supreme and eternal Priest for the glory of Your majesty and the salvation of mankind: grant that those whom He has chosen ministers and dispensers of His mysteries may be found faithful in fulfilling the ministry they have received.

We hope our priests come back renewed and refreshed from Chula Vista - energized for the challenging times ahead of us all.

Mary C. Uhler

Mailbag

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Not enough people in the pews

To the editor:

In a side-bar to an article on the new diocesan planning process entitled "Did you know?" there is an expression I, personally, would like to see banned: "too many Masses." I do not think we have too many Masses in most cases. What we have, or, perhaps it is better to say, what we DO NOT have is enough clergy to maintain the Mass schedules to which we became accustomed in the United State over last century. What we also DO NOT have is enough people in the pews.

If you think a given Mass is superfluous, I suggest that you mentally multiply the number of people you see in the pews by four or five, and then ask yourself if that Mass is superfluous. If I understand Mass attendance rate statistics, that crowd you see in your imagination is the crowd that would be present if Catholics alone were being faithful to their Sunday Mass obligations. This does not even count the unchurched, those who belong to anti-Catholic groups, or those who have yet to be told the Gospel, who should have been brought into the church through the neighborly evangelization and apologetic activity of those who are themselves now not practicing the Catholic faith.

Indeed, if we had all been doing our jobs these past 50 years, the problem we would be having is finding sites and clerical staffing for all the new churches we would have had to build to accommodate the crowds - the ideal being for every parish to be able to accommodate the entire parish at a single Sunday parish Mass.

Of course, getting through the current drought of clergy requires reducing Mass schedules. My own parish has gone from five English-language Sunday Masses to only one over the course of the past 23 years. It probably is going to mean switching back to the old circuit system (Sunday Mass at your parish one or two Sundays per month) for a number of years in some areas if we are to avoid closing or merging parishes (in my opinion a very short-sighted thing to do).

It seems important to avoid falling into the trap of thinking of "Mass number reduction" as an end in itself or even as desirable (except for the case wherein a large number of Masses of convenience are fragmenting a parish). This has to be viewed as a concession - and a temporary one at that - to practicality made for the physical and mental welfare of our clergy while the ranks of the clergy are renewed.

I think the prime call of Christ is to fill those pews with his disciples and THAT should principally be occupying our thinking.

Too many Masses? No! Too few people!

Richard Bonomo, Madison

Supreme Court not highest court

To the editor:

As the Supreme Court chief justice nominee John Roberts navigates a lengthy confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, it would serve us well to remember that while the Supreme Court is the highest court in "our" land, it is not the "highest court."

Let's take a mental trip. As we walk up the steps to the Capitol Building, which houses the Supreme Court, we see near the top of the building a row of the world's lawgivers. Each one is facing the one in the middle who is facing forward with a full frontal view of Moses and the Ten Commandants.

As we enter the Supreme Court courtroom, the two huge oak doors have the Ten Commandments engraved on the lower portion of each door. As we sit inside the courtroom, on the wall above where the judges are seated, there is a display of the Ten Commandments. These are the same commandments which are disappearing from public places all over this land.

The very first Supreme Court justice, John Clay, said "Americans should select and prefer Christians as their rulers." Let us pray that our country selects just and faithful leaders. Let us be thankful that our last and final judge will be Jesus, the Son of Justice.

Jim Holden, Watertown