Bishop Christopher Coyne and Father Jonathan Meyer conclude their conversation about the challenges facing the Church, priests and parishioners when it comes to having a pastor responsible for multiple parishes. Father Meyer currently is pastor of 3 parishes and shares with Bishop Coyne some of the joys and burdens of such an assignment. Noteworthy in their conversation is the place of a “Communion Service” when no Daily Mass is offered. Bishop Coyne points out importance of BOTH sacrifice and communion when attempting to participate in the Most Holy Eucharist. For this reason, Father Meyers reports that when Daily Mass is not able to be offered in any of the parishes, there is no Communion Service in that parish on that day. Father Meyer contends that while some might see this as a disadvantage, he views it as a positive to foster vocations to the priesthood. Bishop Coyne and Fr. Meyer talk about how Mass schedules are not the only concern in multiple parish settings. Baptism, RCIA, funerals, weddings: these are all vital aspects of parish life that require flexibility on everyone’s part to build up the Body of Christ, the Church.
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As a member of a church in Indianapolis that will, in a month, begin sharing a Priest with another small church nearby, I really appreciate these two podcasts. Unfortunately, our Priest of many years passed away a little over a year ago. During the year after his passing, we had a wonderful Sacramental Priest and many visiting Priests and missionaries. What a wonderful learning experience! Now that it is time for our Sacramental Priest to move on, we will begin sharing a Priest. I like to look at positives in every situation. First, our new Priest who, by the way, was the Administrator of our church the past year, is a wonderful man. I've known him for many years and love when he does Mass. You can tell that he loves being a Priest and would like to do nothing else. He's also known to be very good at bringing new people to church. Something that we sorely need right now, not just in our church but in the Church as a whole. Another positive aspect of sharing a Priest is the feeling of being a part of two churches. We get to share the knowledge and experience of many people and that can only be a good thing. Now, of course, I'm sure there will be drawbacks to sharing a Priest but we need to be patient and try to look at the good things that will come out of this. Personally, I'm very excited about this new journey that our church will starting.
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