Parish Priests Are the Cure to the Crisis

Most of the faithful are familiar with both sides of the current Catholic coin: rampant unbelief and apostasy on one side and a small but powerful movement toward orthodoxy and tradition on the other. Many young priests have begun the hard work of improving catechesis and liturgy, emphasizing Confession, and building devotion to the Eucharist and the Blessed Virgin Mary. In many of their parishes, the exodus appears to have stopped. Parishioner numbers are beginning to stabilize and, in some select cases, even grow.

This a good sign, but even in these parishes there tends to be a lukewarmness. Though they call themselves Catholic and even attend Mass each Sunday, many parishioners refuse to fully embrace the faith. It takes a backseat to the things of the world. Far too many of the Catholics in the pews each Sunday are not in state of grace and are at risk of eternal woe. Why is it so difficult in today’s culture to get Mass-attending Catholics to fully embrace the faith?

This vital question holds one of the keys to stopping the exodus out of the Church and moving beyond its current crisis. If parishes are giving better catechesis and liturgy, emphasizing Confession, and building devotion to the Eucharist and the Blessed Virgin Mary, shouldn’t they be seeing more fruit? Shouldn’t these parishes be filled with fervent souls? So why aren’t they?

The hearts of many parishioners are hardened. Catholics, and many parishes, have succumbed to our modern-day culture and, in particular, its view of happiness, religion, and freedom. Although these ways of thinking are at odds with the Catholic faith, the Church is mostly silent about these fundamental dangers of the modern mindset. 

In order for these Mass-going Catholics to embrace their faith and all that is being offered them, their mindset must change. While preaching against the culture and its worldview is never easy, these topics are necessary, and because of their relevance to everyday life, they are a great opportunity for priests to grab parishioners’ attention and lead them toward fully embracing and living their Catholic faith.

Out of a deep love for our Lord we must not only stop the physical exodus of Catholics from the Church, but we must also help those who remain fully embrace the faith to become true friends of Christ. This starts with parish priests. They have been ordained by God through His Church for this very task of leading the souls in their parishes to heaven. They are called to be the saints to lead us out of this crisis. But how?

To change the thinking of Catholics in the pews, they must change the culture of the parish, so let’s first understand culture’s components. Culture is made up of three elements: what we think (mentality), what we do (habits), and what we’re surrounded by (environment). These elements directly relate to the transcendentals of truth, goodness and beauty. The more a parish’s mentality is based in truth, its habits in goodness, and its environment in beauty, the more authentically Catholic its culture is, which brings its people closer to God.

“Faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ” (Rom. 10:17). The first step to shifting the mentality of a parish is to preach Christ and the faith with boldness and confidence. Any sense of compromise diminishes the priest’s authority, along with the authority of the Church. It must be clear to parishioners that the priest teaches truths handed down from God through His Church. These teachings are not just one set of beliefs among many. Preaching in this way fights against relativism and the false idea of freedom, that one can do as he pleases, creating his own patchwork of truth and morals. 

With the poor level of catechesis over the last half century, parishioners are ignorant about many elements of the faith. Through prayer and personal contact within the parish, priests should determine what topics must be taught in order to fight this ignorance. In many parishes, parishioners have lost interest in learning their faith, so a pastor might consider beginning with elements that will inspire them and pique their interest, drawing them further in and building a trust between the priest and his people. While sermons are the most obvious place for this to occur, many priests use podcasts, Facebook Live, bulletin inserts and regular parish talks to connect with parishioners and deepen their knowledge of the faith.

Preaching isn’t the only way to change a parish’s mentality. According to Aristotle, we learn moral virtue primarily through habit and practice rather than through reasoning and instruction. Habits, the second element that makes up the culture, are also a primary tool for changing parish mentality. A habit as simple as the Morning Offering combats the idea that religion is something to make life better, a self-help tool. By offering themselves and their day to God each morning, parishioners can connect themselves to the priest’s offering at Mass. In time this changes the way they look at the faith. Their faith begins to become an offering to God.

How can parish priests instill habits like the Morning Offering in their parishioners? Parishes are diverse, and the priest can’t reach everyone. Who should the priest focus his time and efforts on? According to St. John Paul II: the future of the world and of the Church passes through the family. The priest should focus his efforts on families, but even this is difficult. In today’s world, getting whole families together and then having material that works for children, mothers and fathers is nearly impossible.

So, how do priests most effectively reach families? Through fathers. 

God placed fathers as the head of the family, and we must return to His eternal wisdom and restore fathers as leaders of the faith in the family. 

Priests must pour themselves into the fathers of their parish, forming them in the faith, building up Catholic habits, and equipping them to lead their families in the Catholic faith. Not every father in the parish will respond to this outreach of the priest, but those who do, along with their families become a core group through whom the priest can build an authentic Catholic community and culture. As the interior lives of these families grow, the graces and fervor will overflow into works of charity, helping to evangelize and minister to the rest of the parish.

This newly formed community also gives priests a place to send converts, new parishioners or those interested in learning and growing in the faith. These are the families that should be mentoring couples to be married and running your baptismal preparation programs. This puts them in natural situations to evangelize and invite others into authentic Catholicism and community.

Last but certainly not least, “Beauty moves, draws, convinces the observer or the listener that it is valuable, true, good. Its deep mystery from within evokes wonder through its visible form,” as Fr. Thomas Dubay said. The church and the Mass should be the most beautiful experience of the week for parishioners. The priest should beautify the church as best he can, filling the Mass with incense, bells, quiet reverence, and sacred music. He must spare no effort to create beauty and awe, showing the importance of the event and the One being worshipped.

Like most things in the Church today, the life of the diocesan priest needs a restoration. Many diocesan priests are busy, too busy. They may have become too much of an office worker or may have been asked to run multiple parishes. The secular needs of a parish have grown since the days of St John Vianney. For a priest to lead his parish out of the crisis, he will need to give himself continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word (Acts 6:4). The apostles appointed deacons to allow them to do so. Priests today should look to appoint trusted laymen to run the office and religious education, allowing themselves to prioritize their days with the sacraments, prayer, and true priestly ministry.

The bells are ringing as you walk into the church on Sunday morning. Your eyes are drawn first to the tabernacle. Gold and beautiful, it sits in a high altar arrayed with statues of saints. As you look left and right, altars honor the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph. Between you and all of this transcendent beauty is an altar rail—the place where parishioners kneel before their God to humbly receive Him. You are clearly in God’s house—a house of beauty and awe, reverence and piety, joy and peace.

The Mass is a beautiful and reverent worship of the Triune God. The sacred music lifts one out of this world into Heaven. It’s an atmosphere where prayer and contemplation come naturally. Prayers rise with incense, and the sound of bells marks the consecration.

At the conclusion of Mass, the congregation kneels down to give thanks to God. Slowly and reverently, they exit the beautiful Church. Outside, kids play, and families converse. Peace, joy, happiness abound. The cares and worries of the world are for another day.

Men are husbands and fathers who love the faith, live it with courage and stand at the head of their families, leading them to Heaven. Women are proud to be wives and mothers who dedicate themselves to raising happy, faithful children and creating a warm and peaceful home. Religious art abounds in their home, where Our Lord and His Mother are always honored. The Baltimore Catechism is not taboo, but an instrumental tool for passing on the faith, and prayer is woven throughout the day.

Generosity flows naturally from the parish’s love of God. An overflow of grace from the interior lives of parishioners builds Christ-centered apostolates to generously address the needs of the community. Those being helped can genuinely see Christ in those who help them.

A missionary spirit characterizes the parish. The love of Christ and the Catholic faith is carried out to the workplace and the neighborhoods. The joy and peace in the lives of parishioners is beautiful and attractive, causing many to inquire about the faith. On Easter, many are brought into the Church.

While this dream may seem too far away or even ridiculous to entertain, it’s essential to know what we are working towards. Too often, priests begin to compromise and accept the status quo. Knowing where one is going and trusting in God to lead is the first step, and thinking this goal impossible would be to limit God. Instead, let us each aspire to be one of the saints St. Louis de Montfort predicts: “Almighty God and His holy Mother are to raise up great saints who will surpass in holiness most other saints as much as the cedars of Lebanon tower above little shrubs.”