Simon rightly emphasizes the importance of good preaching and sacred music at Mass. I would have preferred that the third characteristic of thriving parishes (“they excel on Sundays”) be the interpretative key that guides the discussion of the other three.
PASTOR MEANING CATHOLIC CHRUCH PROFESSIONAL
Wealthy parishes will have the means to hire what Simon calls “lay professional ministers.” Many parishes, in my experience, are not in a position to do this. This of course requires that the parish have sufficient income to cover the costs involved. In this scenario, the success of a parish is highly dependent upon its ability to hire a stable staff of lay people. In practice, this means the involvement of both paid and volunteer lay people to carry out tasks that in the past were mostly done by the pastor and his priest assistants, often with the help of women religious.
Simon seems to imply that the first thing a parish needs in order to thrive is shared leadership. What may be controversial is the order in which Simon proposes them. These characteristics of healthy parishes are not controversial. Simon proposes, instead, four important characteristics: Great parishes share leadership they foster spiritual maturity and plan for discipleship they excel on Sundays and they evangelize. Wow.īut money cannot buy dynamic parish life. Simon calls the staff of Parish Catalyst the “co-authors” of this book, which is the fruit of extensive interviews with 244 pastors around the country (60 percent drawn from the Northeast and Midwest, 40 percent from the South and West).Īs a pastor who has served in two parishes in New York City during the past eighteen years, I found Simon’s book eye-opening-as when I read that 10 percent of the parishes surveyed take in over two million dollars annually in the offertory collection. Simon earlier founded an organization, Parish Catalyst, to study parish life in America. has undertaken to set forth what makes for dynamic parishes. A parish is made up of a priest and his people who come together to worship God, to receive the help of the sacraments, to hear God’s word proclaimed and explained, to carry out the spiritual and corporal works of mercy, and to bring the good news of salvation to those who do not yet know Christ or His Church.
PASTOR MEANING CATHOLIC CHRUCH CODE
What is a Catholic parish? The Code of Canon Law states: “A parish is a certain community of Christ’s faithful stably established within a particular Church, whose pastoral care, under the authority of the diocesan Bishop, is entrusted to a parish priest as its proper pastor” (canon 515).
Great Catholic Parishes: How Four Essential Practices Make Them Thrive
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