Our parish priest tells us that relieving priests are more difficult to find.

These are all striking moments in church life.

Yet the biggest shock has been to learn of the seemingly inevitable decline of the National Council of Priests (NCP).

Clergy central to Church

In any likely version of a future Church the clergy will play a central role.

They will do this either as the traditional church's clerical workforce in a largely unchanged hierarchical church or as equal partners with lay Catholics and religious in a newly reformed and co-responsible synodal church.

Pope Francis certainly recognises this fact and often gives the impression, when he condemns clericalism, that he frets about whether the modern church's male priesthood is fit for the task and committed to his synodal agenda.

As part of the consultation for the second assembly of the Synod of Bishops he called 300 parish priests from around the world to Rome to learn more about their views.

Within Australia church lay reformers have always been conscious of the role of parish priests as reform leaders and allies or stumbling blocks and adversaries.

Reform couldn't have proceeded without many priests and former priests playing their part.

Where parish priests were indifferent or opposed to reform the going was very tough indeed because of their role as gatekeepers.

This was the case in mundane matters such as communication with parishioners through access to parish newsletters and church noticeboards and in more serious matters such as the role of priests as spiritual and liturgical guides.

Clearly the priesthood in the church in Australia has been undergoing radical change.

Attention often focuses on the quantitative decline in the numbers of vocations to the priesthood and on the dramatic upsurge in the recruitment of foreign-born priests.

Attention also focuses on the character and values of younger priests coming up the traditional route through Australian seminaries who often hold different values to their predecessors.

This has led to frequent dissonance when a new priest takes over an established parish and overturns established practices. Parishioners are often outraged at the abrupt return by more conservative young priests to the old pre-Vatican II ways.

Polarisation and cultural conflict within the church has certainly contributed to parishioners ‘shopping around' for a ‘compatible' parish priest. Generational change among clergy is one important part of this story.

Such generational change is not new; it is inevitable.

Changing times

Many older Catholics grew up with Irish-born parish priests and have seen them disappear. But as the church in Australia fights for its very survival there is something new about this more recent cultural change.

The current dilemma of the National Council of Priests (NCP) is a striking example of the impact of such cultural and generational change.

It is sketched in the current issue of The Swag, the newsletter of the NCP, by its chairman, Rev John Conway, committee member Rev Bill Burt SVD, and editor, Rev Peter Matheson.

The NCP, an Australia-wide organisation of Catholic priests and Associate Members (Lay, Religious and Seminarians), was founded in 1970 ‘in the spirit of Vatican II'.

It is ‘committed to the fraternity and further education of clergy and to representing clergy in the public forum'. Its national conventions, the next one is planned for March 2025, have served as important gatherings open to issues of church reform.

Its members and friends have included some bishops, although it has also been disdained by some others. In the current edition of The Swag the main feature article is written by the late Emeritus Bishop Peter Ingham.

The spirit of Vatican II was and is central to NCP.

As Peter Matheson points out, its motto, ‘Sign of Unity. Instrument of Peace', is taken from the first paragraph of Vatican II's The Dogmatic Constitution of the Church (Lumen Gentium).

At its peak, perhaps about 1800 members, the NCP attracted large number of priests to its ranks. But now, in the words of its chairman Conway, it is ‘floundering' and diminished.

Its future is uncertain. Bill Burt describes the current membership as in a ‘dire state'.

Of the current c.3,000 priests in Australia, c.780, only about a quarter, are NCP members and their average age is about 80 years old. As Burt says, ‘By far the majority of these are senior citizens, mainly from Anglo-Irish/Caucasian backgrounds.'

Clearly, the trajectory of the ageing membership is heading downwards.

Examining the membership, Burt concludes, ‘Very few priests from other ethnicities are current NCP members and almost no younger clergy from overseas in recent years have indicated any interest in joining the NCP.

"Quite frankly, we do not represent the body of active Catholic clergy today'.

This decline may not be irreversible, even though it looks likely. The NCP executive and The Swag team are trying to attract those who are presently choosing not to join.

Why the decline?

There are several possible contributing factors to this decline, most of which the NCP leadership has considered. NCP is not alone in its decline.

Interestingly, the possible explanations mirror those found in the discussion of the future of other declining organisations.

Some of these organisations are mainstream like trade unions, and others within the church like religious orders and certain lay organisations, which have also failed so far to find solutions.

The most disappointing explanation would be that it signifies an active rejection of the Vatican II ethos represented by the NCP. If that is the case it endangers the success of synodality, an idea which draws heavily on Vatican II.

Alternatively, it could reflect the individualism of younger priests who see no attraction in the idea of collective effort and networking.

Perhaps they prefer to ‘bowl alone', the term of the American social scientist Robert Putnam, like an increasing number of the wider community.

It could be that the NCP itself has failed to reach out effectively to newcomers.

It could be that new immigrant priests find their support networks within their own ethnic communities or that new religious order priests increasingly find no need for networks other than their own order.

Perhaps NCP membership is actively discouraged by church leaders during seminary priestly formation, itself a subject of synodal discussion.

There is probably some truth in all these explanations.

The NCP leadership is seeking feedback.

Hopefully remedies will be found to enable some revitalisation. If not, it will pass away and the church in Australia will have lost something extremely valuable.

Church reform will become less likely without this Vatican II-inspired generation of priests.

• First published in Eureka Street
• John Warhurst is an Emeritus Professor of Political Science at the Australian National University.

Despite their struggles, many congregations are optimistic about the future. Clergy dissatisfaction, on the other hand, remains on the rise.

Those are among the findings of the latest report from the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, part of a five-year study of the impact of the pandemic on America's churches.

This latest report drew from surveys for 4,809 congregations from 58 denominational groups, including an oversampling of 20 denominations, as part of the Exploring the Pandemic Impact on Congregations study. The surveys were fielded from January to May of 2023.

"It is apparent that congregational dynamics are still in a state of flux," said Scott Thumma, director of the study.

"Churches, and especially clergy, continue in a recovery phase. Even though aspects of church life are rebounding, the destiny of many faith communities is still uncertain."

The median attendance at local congregations stood at 60 people as of spring 2023, down slightly from 65 in the spring of 2020, according to the report — a decline of 9%.

About a third (30%) of churches said they'd experienced significant decline, while a quarter (24%) experienced some decline.

Twelve percent stayed the same, while 11% said they'd experienced some growth.

One in 4 congregations (22%) had experienced significant growth.

That pattern — half of churches reporting decline while a third reported growth — is similar to the pattern at the beginning of the pandemic, according to the report.

Researchers also found that 16% of worship attendees were new people in 2023, up from 5% in 2020.

A number of people also continue to attend services online — an average of about 25 people, according to the congregations that track their online attendance. About half of congregations do so, with a median attendance of 75 overall, including online and in-person.

"Congregations remain optimistic about the future, but it is also apparent they are continuing to wrestle with the troubling conditions that were in existence long before COVID-19 arrived," the report's researchers wrote.

Giving at congregations went up by about 42% over the past three years, from a median of $120,000 in 2020 to $170,000 in 2023.

"Even adjusting for inflation, this still represents a remarkable increase of over 25% since 2020," according to the report.

Online giving appears to have played a role in boosting donations. Congregations that offer online giving reported higher per capita giving, ranging from $2,052 at congregations where online giving is used a little to $2,428 where online giving is used a lot.

Congregations that do not offer online giving options reported per capita giving of $1,809.

The report noted that only 31% of churches reported using online giving in 2015, whereas now 67% do so, and nearly half (48%) use this method "a lot."

Researchers suspect that capital campaigns and other fundraising projects that were postponed in 2020 may have been started in 2023, boosting the giving.

Despite the boost from online donors, the return to in-person worship appears to play a role in increased giving.

In congregations where there are more virtual worshippers than in-person worshippers, the median per capita giving was $1,053.

In congregations where most of the attendees are in person and few are virtual, giving was $2,479 per capita.

"Whatever the reasons for the rise, it will be interesting to watch this trend in future surveys," researchers wrote. "This is especially true since the growth in income did not translate into a significantly more positive assessment of the congregation's financial health compared to their self-perception of five years earlier."

Giving to religious groups — including congregations and other faith-based charities — grew by 5.2% in 2022, according to the Giving USA report.

Those donations made up about a quarter (27%) of all giving to charity — and religion was the only sector in the Giving USA report where giving went up.

While online worship persists, other forms of activities — such as youth programs, adult education and prayer groups — that were held online during the pandemic are now mostly in person.

"Half of churches are not holding any small groups or Bible studies online, 40% do not use online platforms for their administrative and committee meetings, and 40% have no e-newsletter," according to the report.

In other findings, volunteerism is bouncing back, with congregations reporting that a third (35%) of their members volunteer regularly, up from 15% in 2021 and 20% in 2022.

That number, however, does not match the 45% who volunteered in 2020.

Conflict at congregations has also declined, with 7% reporting that conflict was so serious that clergy left, 9% saying people withheld funds due to conflict and 30% saying people left due to serious conflict. In 2020, 12% of congregations reported that clergy left due to conflict, 13% said people withheld funds due to conflict, and 35% said people left.

Thirty-nine percent said there was no serious conflict in 2023, up from 36% in 2020, while 32% said there was conflict but it was not serious, up from 28% in 2020.

Almost half of congregations (45%) said they were very positive about the future, while a third (36%) were somewhat positive. Nine percent were somewhat negative and only 2% said they were very negative.

However, the percentage of clergy who have thought about leaving both their church and the ministry altogether has risen since 2020.

In 2021, most clergy in the survey (79%) said they had never thought about leaving their current church, while 13% said they thought often about leaving.

In 2023, the number who never thought about leaving had dropped to 62%, while 29% said they thought about it often.

As for leaving the ministry altogether, two-thirds of clergy (62%) said in 2021 that they had never thought about doing so, while 27% said they thought about it often.

In 2023, 49% said they never thought about leaving, while a third (34%) have thought about it often.

Congregations also have less enthusiasm for change, three years after the start of the pandemic.

In the summer of 2021, 86% of congregations said they were willing to embrace change in order to meet their challenges — including 47% who strongly agreed that they were willing to change.

In 2023, two-thirds (66%) were willing to change — with only 20% strongly agreeing.

Researchers said congregations appear to be hopeful that they can face the challenges ahead of them. But those challenges are significant.

"Amid these positive signs remain some structural and organizational challenges that indicate all is not entirely rosy. Even given the rebounding attendance and level of optimism, the broad pattern of considerable membership decline remains ever-present."

• Bob Smietana is a veteran religion writer and national reporter for Religion News Service.
• First published in RNS. Republished with permission.

The report, "Beyond Bad Apples: Understanding Clericalism as a Structural Problem & Cultivating Strategies for Change," released Monday (Aug. 15), explores the links between clericalism — clergy's focus on its authority — and clergy-perpetrated sexual abuse.

The study's authors, Julie Hanlon Rubio and Paul J. Schutz, both professors at Santa Clara University, a Jesuit institution in Northern California, initially intended to survey 600 respondents, drawn proportionally from lay, religious (those who take vows but are not ordained to the priesthood) and priests, but were turned away by five of the six dioceses and diocesan seminaries they approached.

The authors admit that this "likely means that our respondents are biased towards an agreement with our theory of clericalism" and that "our data leans in one direction."

Nearly half (48.4%) of the 300 who participated were lay Catholics, 22% were nuns, 16% were priests and 6% were men in formation for the priesthood. More than two-thirds of their responses from priests came from those educated in Jesuit institutions.

The report was funded by a grant from Fordham University as part of a project dubbed "Taking Responsibility: Jesuit Educational Institutions Confront the Causes and Legacy of Sexual Abuse."

Rubio and Schutz wanted to move away from asking, "Is he a good priest or a bad priest?" and ask instead, "What are the underlying reasons that this priest is acting in this way?"

Existing studies, said the authors, "have focused on individuals who engage in abuse due to personal weakness, psychosexual vulnerabilities, the influence of broader historical movements, or poor theology and training."

Schutz told Religion News Service that their aim was to understand how "structural clericalism operates in the church," comparing clericalism to the way structural racism shapes the lives of people of color.

Rubio said, "When you blame ‘bad apples,' then everybody else is sort of innocent, as long as we go after the bad apples. But when you say there's a problem with the structure, that's a much bigger problem, and we're all implicated."

The authors said their data shows that sex, gender and power are all components of structural clericalism, which in turn keeps priests above and apart from the rest of the church and potentially enables abuse.

Nearly half (49%) of priest respondents and 73% of those in formation said that they were told repression or sublimation were strategies for dealing with their sexuality (how one lives as a sexual person), according to the report. This number increases to 83% among non-Jesuit-educated priests.

The report also noted that 70% of those in formation and 51% of priests said it was difficult to talk about their sexuality. More than 75% of all respondents said the church would be a healthier institution if priests spoke openly about their own sexuality.

Half of the priests and those in formation said their formation program gave them the tools they needed for living a celibate life without denying their sexuality.

Of this 50%, all were Jesuit-educated; none were diocesan priests or students in diocesan seminaries.

Large majorities in the study rejected "simple correlations between homosexuality or celibacy and (clergy perpetrated sex abuse)." Only 11 respondents named homosexuality and only four named celibacy as a factor in clergy-perpetrated sex abuse, according to the report.

Among the survey's participants, 40% of priests and men in formation for priesthood identified as homosexual or bisexual, the report found. Officially, the priesthood is limited to heterosexual men.

"The concentration of gay men in the priesthood cannot be overlooked because most priests are not able to be open about their sexual orientation, and some may consciously or unconsciously seek out priesthood as a way of avoiding or repressing their sexuality, making healthy celibacy extraordinarily difficult," the report read.

When pertaining to gender, fewer than half (48%) of participants in the study named patriarchy as a significant factor in clergy sex abuse.

"Very few" participants discussed the role of gender when asked about the relationship among gender, sexuality and sexual abuse in the church, according to the report.

Just over 50% of Jesuit-educated respondents and about 40% of non-Jesuit-educated respondents said that men and women participated equally in their academic classes and were shown equal respect.

About two-thirds at Jesuit schools and a little fewer than 50% at non-Jesuit schools reported equal respect for female professors.

Fewer than 30% said they had encountered gender or sexuality studies in an academic setting.

Clericalism was identified as a looming problem in the report.

Clergy, lay and religious participants discussed "various versions of authoritarian management, all of which are linked by an excessive exercise of positional power."

Others described numerous "disorganized" management styles, with one lay respondent describing her priest's management style as "benign neglect tending toward chaos and toxicity."

Lay people and religious see their priests differently than the priests in the report see themselves.

When asked if they welcome constructive criticism about preaching, 80% of priests and 87% of deacons said they did. However, only 9% of the laypeople and the nuns in the report agreed that clergy are receptive to criticism, while 52% disagreed.

"Lay people are conditioned by structural clericalism to believe that they can't ask the question, they can't approach the father with their concern about the homily, or they can't bring this administrative or budgetary concern before the priest because, you know, he's in charge," Schutz said.

"We've all been conditioned over the course of our lives to see the priest in that way."

Thomas G. Plante, a professor of psychology and religious studies at Santa Clara University, described the report as an "ambitious project," but said that, given the limitations of the people who participated, it's important "not to over generalize."

Data shows that allegations of clerical sex abuse of minors have declined, while "clericalism hasn't changed as much in the 21st century," said Plante, who provided early consultation for the study.

Sex abuse of children and teens, he said, is a "common phenomenon regardless of where men are working."

"When we look at anyone who has power and control … whether they be clerics, school teachers or tutors, you're going to find a fair amount of child sex abuse," he said.

"We have to work hard to minimize that."

Rubio and Schutz hope the report will "contribute to a healthier future for our Church," they wrote.

They take what they call an "anti-clericalism" stance — not anti-priest. "On analogy with anti-racism, anti-clericalism is a moral stance that can be embraced by anyone with a critical awareness of a structural problem," their report said.

Among their recommendations, the authors said the church should provide spaces for open discussions of sex and sexuality. Including women in seminary classrooms and on seminary faculties and the study of feminist perspectives on the Catholic faith may also be "necessary to disrupt environments of male dominance and the perpetuation of male power."

Lay people and religious should also be able to contribute their experience to church life.

"Leveling the playing field in ecclesial life," the report said, "is a part of constructing safer environments where sexual abuse will be less likely to occur."

• Alejandra Molina is a National Reporter covering Latinos and religion in the West Coast. She is based in Los Angeles.
• First published in RNS. Republished with permission.

Americans no longer hold clergy in such high regard, according to a recent poll, and even regular churchgoers are seeking counsel elsewhere.

A NORC/AP poll of 1,137 adults released this month shows that doctors, teachers, members of the military — even scientists — are viewed more positively than clergy.

The less frequently people attend church, the more negative their views.

Among those who attend less than once a month, only 42% said they had a positive view of clergy members — a rate comparable to that of lawyers, who rank near the bottom of the list of professions.

While frequent church attenders still hold clergy in high regard — about 75% viewed them positively — they give them only passing grades on a number of personal attributes.

Only 52% of monthly churchgoers consider clergy trustworthy (that number drops to 23% among those who attend less than once a month) and 57% said they were honest and intelligent (compared with 27% and 30% among infrequent attenders).

"If you buy into the religious worldview, then the religious leader looks completely different than if you don't buy into the religious worldview," said Scott Thumma, professor of the sociology of religion at Hartford Seminary.

"The perception from the outside is pretty bleak."

The survey confirms previous studies.

A 2018 Gallup survey of the public's views of the honesty and ethical standards of a variety of occupations found that only 37% of Americans viewed clergy "very highly" (with 43% having an "average" view of clergy).

It was the lowest Gallup recorded since it began examining occupations in 1977.

Historians say public attitudes about clergy have been waning since the 1970s, in tandem with the loss of trust in institutions after the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal.

The rise of the religious right and evangelical involvement in politics, beginning in 1979 with the creation of the Moral Majority, also played a role.

"What that did was create a certain polarization of views of the clergy," said E. Brooks Holifield, professor emeritus of American church history at Emory University's Candler School of Theology.

"The televangelist scandals contributed to that. The sexual abuse among Catholics. All that created suspicion of the clergy."

Perhaps as troubling, the NORC/AP poll, conducted May 17-20, showed that even monthly churchgoers don't want clergy influence in their lives on a number of issues.

Americans across the board said they didn't want clergy input when it came to family planning, child rearing, sex, careers, financial decision-making, medical decision-making or voting.

Clergy, the poll suggests, are growing irrelevant.

Asked more generally, "When making important decisions, how often have you consulted a clergy member or religious leader?," 13% of monthly churchgoers said they did so "often," and 31% said "sometimes."

By contrast, 56% said "rarely" or "never."

Among less-frequent churchgoers, 88% said "rarely" or "never." (Two areas where clergy are still sought out by frequent attenders: marriage and divorce, and advice on charitable giving.)

One reason may be the growing educational ranks of people in the pews.

"There was a time when the clergyperson was the most educated person in the community," said Mark Chaves, professor of sociology, religion and divinity at Duke University.

"They had access to resources and knowledge. With increasing education in the general population, the role of clergy as experts might be decreasing."

Society, too, has become more specialized. People will seek out professional therapists — a psychologist or a psychiatrist — rather than going to their pastor.

They'll seek out a financial planner if they're they're in debt or need investment advice.

"There are people who are smarter, more competent, more equipped in certain fields, and that's where we go for those sorts of answers," said Kurt N. Fredrickson, associate professor of pastoral ministry at Fuller Theological Seminary.

Clergy, Fredrickson said, must recognize that churches today are often seen as fire stations — places to go when all else falls apart.

"I help younger pastors, pre-service, flip the power structure upside down; rather than seeing pastors as the top of the triangle I want to help pastors become servant leaders."

While a pastor may not be the person to turn to for medical or financial advice, he or she may "walk alongside" the churchgoer who needs help and help point that person toward transcendent values, Fredrickson said.

To achieve that goal, he mentors pastors to have "humble convictions" and to be of good character.

The poll also showed that the majority of frequent and less-frequent churchgoers approve of women clergy and divorced clergy.

Opinions on gay men as clergy were mixed.

Only 40% of monthly churchgoers said they would welcome a gay man as their clergyperson, but 69% of less-than-monthly attenders said they would welcome such a person.

The NORC/AP poll has a margin of sampling error for all respondents of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.

• Yonat Shimron is an RNS National Reporter and Senior Editor. Republished with permission.
• Image: Catholic Philly.com

Anxiety about the quality of those who aspire to become clergy is rooted in the series of child sex abuse scandals that have emerged from Anglicanism's mother church over the past 20 years.

In testimony given last March to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse — the public body set up to investigate abuse in many organizations, including churches — Bishop of Chichester Martin Warner said his diocese could use psychological testing of ordinands to assess whether they are suitable.

He said the testing is "something we will be starting later this year."

Last week, Julian Hubbard, director of the Church of England's Ministry Division, said in a statement, "This has been given added focus by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse and the requirement to provide greater assurance on the effectiveness of the selection process. So we are examining its potential as a means to identify candidates who might pose a risk to others."

"But this is not only about safeguarding," Hubbard added.

"It is vital to use all means available to find people with the right skills and aptitudes for this unique, but very challenging, calling."

The Church of England currently uses a variety of assessment methods for prospective ordinands, including lengthy interviews, written exercises, questionnaires, group discussions and detailed references.

But Leslie Francis, a canon professor of religions and education at Warwick University and an expert on psychological profiling of clergy, said more intensive testing can help spot pathologies such as narcissism.

"Both introversion and extroversion can reflect the divine image," said Francis, "but it is also very wise for the church to consider pathologies."

In the book "Let Us Prey: The Plague of Narcissist Pastors and What We Can Do about It," researchers R. Glenn Ball and Darrell Puls estimate, based on their 2015 study, that about a third of ministers in one mainline Protestant denomination in Canada showed signs of a narcissistic personality.

Narcissists often come to apprehend God as a rival, not a loving presence, and eventually may see themselves as God. Continue reading

• Image: RNS

The call came a day after Pope Francis acknowledged "grave mistakes" in handling a sexual abuse crisis and summoned Church leaders to Rome.

At a meeting of Church leadership on Chile's central coast, Santiago Silva, the president of the Episcopal Conference, said change was inevitable.

"It's possible that the pope will ask some (bishops) to leave their diocese ... there must be a drastic solution, strong and decisive, that is for certain," Silva said. Read more

"It really felt like every step you take could be your last," she said, later adding: "With each step, I just kept holding on to the call to love."

Talk of love was hardly the dominant narrative in Charlottesville on Saturday, when white supremacists and Nazi sympathizers organized a "Unite the Right" rally to oppose the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue in the heart of city.

Instead, media coverage has largely focused on the hateful vitriol spouted by white supremacists, as well as their violent clashes with anti-fascist protesters (often called "Antifa").

The street fights—which witnesses say occurred without adequate police intervention—left several hospitalized, and the whole event culminated in tragedy: An Ohio man who authorities say came to support the white supremacists has been charged with mowing down a group of counter-protesters with a car, wounding 19 and killing one woman.

But among the many untold stories of the harrowing day is the account of hundreds of religious leaders like Harper who descended on Charlottesville to resist white supremacy.

While images of prayerful resistance are often less eye-catching than bloody fists, spiritual protesters were still a crucial part of both the counter-protests and relief efforts.

Many stood arm-in-arm while staring down white supremacists—and plan to do it again.

Trapped in a church
The work of faith groups in Charlottesville began weeks ago. Rev. Seth Wispelwey, a United Church of Christ (UCC) minister based in the city, said local clergy started mobilizing earlier this year after the college town endured two other demonstrations by white supremacists.

The result was Congregate CVille—a group formed only five weeks ago—that called for 1,000 clergy to come and resist racism at the Unite the Right rally. Continue reading

Source and Image

• ThinkProgress article by Jack M Jenkins, Senior Religion Reporter for ThinkProgress.

Tim Lewis is the PR Manager for Brains, the company which owns the City Arms Pub in Cardiff, Wales.

He said that re-naming one of the seminarians favourite beers was a small thank you for the group's good humour in being mistaken as a bachelor party and nearly kicked out of City Arms Pub. Continue reading

The bartender says "Sorry gents, we don't do fancy dress or stag dos".

Aghast, the seminarians thought this must surely be a joke, but in fact he was serious.

"But we are real" they say, to no avail. They turn and leave.

Denied of their pint of Brains, they leave all sullen wondering where to go next. Continue reading - It has a happy ending

Father Brian Fletcher died at the Home of Compassion at about 2pm.

Monsignor John Broadbent died at Wellington Public Hospital at about 7.30pm.

A group for clergy sex-abuse victims made false statements "negligently and with reckless disregard for the truth" against a St. Louis priest to try to convict him on abuse charges, a federal judge has ruled. Read more

German Cardinal Reinhard Marx, a member of the Pope's council of cardinals, spoke at a conference in Dublin, Ireland.

The cardinal later told CNS, "When you see the institutions and the organisation of the Church, there must be a new relationship between laypeople and clerics."

Cardinal Marx said he had told Pope Francis on a several occasions, "We have to de-clericalise the curia and bring in more competent laymen and women and make the Church professional".

In his conference speech, the cardinal said he believes the Christian faith is "the religion of the future".

It is not a religion dealing in "magic" things, he said.

"It is instrument for a better world and that must be shown, and so it is very important that the Church has a positive view of the modern world," he said.

Cardinal Marx said the Church must provide formation to its members to deal with the complex issues in pluralist societies.

But this must be "without forgetting" their faith sources and principles.

In his speech, Cardinal Marx admitted there were episodes in history "when the Christian faith wasn't on the right side".

But he stressed that "in the future we want to be there in the development of a society which is based on values and responsible freedoms" based on the Church's social doctrine and Christian anthropology.

He said that Church teaching could help the economic world "think beyond capitalism" and challenge an outlook which assesses results only in economic terms.

After his speech, Cardinal Marx suggested the Church should not oppose civil unions.

But he said "marriage is another point".

He said that the "history of homosexuals in our society is a very bad history because we have done a lot to marginalise them, and so as Church and as society we have to say, ‘Sorry.'"

On Sunday, Pope Francis was asked about Cardinal Marx's comments about an apology to homosexual people.

The Pope said there are plenty of other groups who probably also deserve a Church apology.

Sources

• Catholic News Service
• Crux
• Image: Catholic News UK

The 147-page grand jury report came uncovered a "secret archive" of evidence stuffed into boxes and filing cabinets in a church office in the central Pennsylvania diocese of Altoona-Johnstown.

Handwritten notes, letters and documents detail children being abused by members of the church, and show that Bishop James Hogan, who died in 2005, and his successor Bishop Joseph Adamec, 80, knew of the allegations and intervened to stop predatory priests from being arrested.

Pennsylvania state attorney general Kathleen Kane said the bishops' conduct endangered thousands of children and allowed predators to abuse even more victims.

Among the 115,042 documents impounded by investigators were handwritten notes by Hogan, documents sent to Adamec, statements from victims and correspondence with offending priests.

Hogan was bishop of the diocese from 1966 to 1986, when he was succeeded by Adamec, 80, who retired in 2011.

"These predators desecrated a sacred trust and preyed upon their victims in the very places where they should have felt most safe," Kane said in a statement.

"Just as troubling is the cover-up perpetrated by clergy leaders that allowed this abuse to continue for decades."

No criminal charges are being filed in the case because some abusers have died, the statute of limitations has expired and, in some cases, victims are too traumatized to testify, she said.

Sources

AP/The Guardian
AFP/The Daily Star
Image: Reuters/The Guardian

South Korea has an estimated 360,000 priests and monks whose earnings will be re-classified as "religious income", rather than the current label of "honorarium".

A sliding scale means those earning 40 million won (US$34,500) or less a year will only be taxed on 20 per cent of their income.

At the upper end, those earning more than 150 million won will have to pay tax on 80 per cent of their income.

Public opinion polls have long favoured extending tax responsibilities to religious groups.

Some religious groups are highly secretive about their financial arrangements.

"Pastors who receive benefits and gifts outside of their monthly income and do not pay income taxes can be perceived as not doing their duties as members of the community," said Kim Ai-Hee, secretary general of the Korean Christian Alliance for Church Reform.

Catholic priests have voluntarily paid income tax since the mid-1990s, AFP reported.

But the most vocal opponents of the new tax policy are within the larger Protestant community which wields considerable political clout.

Some individual Protestant churches boast enormous congregations and considerable wealth, and are run like mini-fiefdoms with pastors passing control of the church and its business down to their children.

Last year, David Yonggi Cho, the pastor of the biggest congregation of all, at the Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul, was handed a three-year suspended jail term for embezzling millions of dollars.

But the opponents of taxation insist their stance is grounded in principle rather than self-interest.

"Taxing religious practitioners equates religious activities with commercial activities," a conservative Protestant group, the Commission of Churches in Korea, said in a statement.

A spokesman for the commission, Choi Kwi-Soo, also noted that Protestant pastors who, unlike monks and Catholic priests, generally marry and have families, would be hardest hit.

"They are different from monks or priests who can live on a relatively meagre income. That should be taken into account," Choi told AFP.

Sources

• AFP
• Image: Christian Post

Fr Thomas Doyle, OP, met four members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors last month.

The priest emphasised two main points: The need for real accountability on the part of bishops and the need for the Church to be far more committed than it is to the welfare of victims.

He told the panel that priests and bishops who have publicly supported victims "have been punished in some way by Church authorities".

"Those who continue to minister to this issue in various ways remain under suspicion" and are "criticised, slandered and devalued" by other clerics and Church leaders, he said.

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Otherwise it would risk being like a country under a dictatorship, he told 30,000 people at a rally in St Peter's Square on July 3.

"There should be a time limit to positions (in the Church), which in reality are positions of service," the Pope said.

He made it clear that his comments were not confined to the clergy.

"Let's be clear. The only one who cannot be substituted in the Church is the Holy Spirit," he said.

But in an interview with a Mexican broadcaster earlier last year, Pope Francis rejected the idea of an automatic retirement age for popes.

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The Association of US Catholic Priests, which represents about 1000 mostly Vatican II-era priests, wrote to the bishops last month.

According to an article in the National Catholic Reporter, the motivation for the request came from concern for "the pastoral care of souls".

The association stated that married priests are needed to "serve the pastoral needs of people".

Members of the association have also been encouraged to discuss the issue with their own individual bishops, where appropriate.

Among factors cited for the request is inclusion by the Roman Catholic Church of ordained married clergy from other denominations.

Falling numbers of priests, increased workloads for current priests and parish closures are among other reasons cited.

The association referred to an encounter between Pope Francis and a bishop from a remote diocese in Brazil last year, in which Francis was reportedly open-minded about solutions for priest shortages.

Bishop Erwin Kräutler reportedly confirmed that he and the Pope discussed the ordination of viri probati ("proven married men") into the priesthood.

"It was up to the bishops to make suggestions," the Pope is reported to have told him.

A bishop should not act alone, the Pope told Bishop Kräutler.

He indicated that "regional and national bishops' conferences should seek and find consensus on reform and we should then bring up our suggestions for reform in Rome", Bishop Kräutler said.

In their letter, the US priests' association asked their bishops to "accept the offer of Pope Francis to consider the possibility of ordaining married viri probati as priests".

They requested the bishops begin a broad consultation process that would seek input from diocesan staffs, parish priests, deacons and the laity.

As of February 3, no reply had been received from the US bishops.

An association spokesman, Fr Bob Bonnot, said the association is not asking the bishops to respond to them, but to take up the issue among themselves.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• The Tablet
• Image: Southern Cross

Msgr Paul Farmer, chairman of the Council of Priests, said the celebration of their brother priests' jubilees is a significant day that no priest dare miss. Continue reading

Well here is something that takes you beyond the black sock and handkerchiefs... a set of clerical pyjamas.

They come with a black top which has a clerical collar.

You have a variety of colours and patterns to choose from for pants.

If you priest friend/relie comes from the USA you can even choose pants with a republican or a democrat theme, depending on his political preference.

And all this available for purchase online for less that NZ$50.00. A real bargain. Have a look

And wait there's more. Try this one