catholicPittsburgh.org

John Houk

Many dioceses, including our own here in Pittsburgh, are finding it necessary to provide for the pastoral care of parishes with fewer priests. This situation was recognized, deliberated on and a new code in canon law was written in 1983. Canon 517.2 reads as follows: “If, because of a lack of priests, the diocesan bishop has decided that participation in the pastoral care of a parish is to be entrusted to a deacon, to another person who is not a priest, or to a community of persons, he is to appoint some priest who, provided with the powers and faculties of a pastor, is to direct the pastoral care.”

This canon is footnoted in the Paulist Press Commentary on the Code of Canon Law as follows: “Canon 519 legislates that a pastor carries out his functions with the cooperation of other presbyters and deacons and the assistance of the laity. A variety of such cooperating/ assisting roles in fact exist throughout the Church. (Examples locally include parish staff and Pastoral Associates) However, c. 517.2 is not about those arrangements, rather it concerns the situation where there is no pastor and the diocesan bishop decides that due to a lack of priests, participation in the exercise of pastoral care is entrusted to person(s) who are not priests, under the direction of a priest with a pastor’s powers and faculties.”

Canon law provides no title for persons acting in this capacity. U.S. bishops who have placed people in these positions have given them titles which include Pastoral Administrator (not to be confused with Parish Administrator, a person who often is responsible for parish finances), Pastoral Director and Parish Life Coordinator. A survey conducted in 2003 indicated over 600 parishes in over 100 dioceses were being served by Parish Life Coordinators in the U.S. Some of these people have been in place for over 20 years.

Will we see Parish Life Coordinators assigned to parishes here in Pittsburgh? Canon law provides for this possibility if our bishop so decides. Details of where Parish Life Coordinators ore in place can be found on www.emergingmodels.org.