Dr Paul Collins is one of the prime movers behind the petition to the Australian Catholic Bishops asking them to consider a number of proposals that might help address the shortage of priests in Australia. In this very candid and honest commentary Dr Collins argues that we are very fortunate in Australia in presently having some excellent, pastorally-minded bishops who are concerned at the crisis facing the Church in this country in being able to provide for the sacramental needs of the Australian Catholic community. In fact, he argues, the moderate, pastorally-minded bishops form a broad and decisive majority in the college of Australian bishops. He explains how the petition is seeking to elicit moral support from within the broad lay community in support of the bishops as they endeavour to address the significant challenges facing the Church in being able to provide ready access to the sacramental life of the Church in the future…

The Church in Australia is in a fortunate position...

In a way Australian Catholicism is very lucky. Fortunately we still have a majority of bishops whose orientation is essentially pastoral and whose primary care is for people and their dioceses.

Last year in OnLine Catholics (Issue 112, 7 July 2006) Father Eric Hodgens, then Parish Priest of Melbourne's North Balwyn, analyzed the Bishops' Conference and he divided it into three loose groupings. I'd call these groups 'the boots and all brigade', the 'cautious', and the 'pastoralists'. Hodgens describes the first group as 'hard right wing and fundamentalist'. However, there are very few of them, probably no more than six. The cautious 'support the Roman line for ideological or opportunistic reasons'. My count would be that there are between seven and nine of these, many in powerful positions.

The rest fit into the pastoral category. That's why I said we are lucky in Australia. There are forty-three active bishops. This means that at least twenty-seven fit into the more open, pastoral category. Hodgens argued in July 2006 'Now is the time for them [the pastorally-oriented bishops] to caucus, get a leader and act — redeem the situation. And they must do it urgently ... Their successors will simply not have the nous. Now is our last chance.' He is right.

Why Frank Purcell and I have organised this petition…

Taking our cue from Hodgens, Frank Purcell and I decided the time had come to try to find a way to support the pastoral bishops, while at the same time highlight that a bishop's primary responsibility is to his diocese. Only secondarily is he responsible for the universal church through his membership of the college of bishops.

We were also aware that the time was right because the papal nuncio (or ambassador) in Canberra was sympathetic to the majority of the bishops. Since the late-1970s we have had a series of unimpressive Italians as nuncio, but the present incumbent, the American Archbishop Ambrose de Paoli, is a competent and experienced man who is widely respected because he has shown that he understands the Australian situation and is more sympathetic to a caring, pastoral approach than that shown by his predecessors.

At the same time we were concerned about the acute shortage of priests that was becoming more and more apparent in Australia. Again Eric Hodgens had diagnosed the situation. He shows that 'the heyday for [priestly] recruitment was the mid-1950s. For every 100,000 Catholics 5.5 to 6.3 students [entered the seminary]. This was more than a 25% increase on pre-war recruitment levels.' The retention rate of students — that is, how many went on to ordination — was between 33% and 40% at the start of the 1960s.

Since the late-fifties recruitment has steadily dropped. 'This continued for 35 years and settled in the mid nineties. The final rate was only 10% of what it was at the peak.' Only about a third of those recruited proceed to ordination. At present the church is ordaining about 0.15 to 0.25 priests per 100,000 Catholics each year. There is no sign of an increase despite claims of slightly bigger numbers in the Sydney, Perth, Melbourne and the Neo-Catechuminate seminaries [Ref: 'An Alternative to the Priest', Online Catholics, 28, 1/12/04].

Hodgens points out that the age of ordination has risen and that priests will have shorter periods of service. Until the mid-nineties men were usually ordained around the age of twenty-seven giving about thirty-eight years of service to the church. The average age of ordination now is thirty-five, giving around thirty years of service. 'At this rate, even if they all stay priests, the long term result will be one priest for every 13,000 [Catholics] in Victoria and Queensland and one for every 22,000 in NSW'. In other words about 7.5 priests per 100,000 Catholics. Hodgens says 'That means that Melbourne with its one million plus Catholics and 220 parishes will have only 75 priests'.

The result of this will be that more and more people, especially in rural areas, will be deprived of the Eucharist. This is an intolerable, even heretical, situation in an essentially sacramental church like ours. So the petition calls for an acknowledgment that there is a major crisis in ministry in Australia, that there is no barrier to the ordination of married men, that we have a wide-ranging discussion on the ministry and ordination of women, that inactive priests return to the ministry and that the bishops begin a program to select, train and ordain married men.

How you can assist…

I am pleased to report that more and more people are becoming aware of the petition and supporting it. So far this week we have had a massive increase in the number of signatures now that hard copy petition lists are being returned to us. The total of signatures collected so far is now past the 1,600 mark and at the current rate we expect it will be past the 2,000 mark early next week. The numbers so far include more than forty diocesan and religious priests, almost all of them in senior positions. We still need a lot more signatures though. We are going to let the petition run until the beginning of November and intend to present it to the bishops' prior to their plenary meeting which will be held in late-November.

What else do we need? We need you to get the petition out there into the parishes and Catholic schools. If you click the banner at the bottom of this article you will be taken to a page where you can read the petition, find the link where you can sign online, or print out hard copies for collection of signatures in parishes and schools or from people who do not have internet access.

We also need a little bit of financial help as we'd like to run some advertisements in other media to bring the petition to the attention of the wider Catholic community. If you are able to help, please send your donation to Anne O'Brien, PO Box 781 Moonee Ponds, Vic. 3039. Anne is acting as our treasurer. Alternatively, Brian Coyne, through his business, Vias Tuas Communications, publishers of Catholica Australia have kindly set up a facility where you can donate online using Mastercard, VisaCard or a PayPal account and all funds donated in this way will be passed to our committee. Click the Donate button below to make a donation using the secure online facility. All donations no matter how small will be gratefully received.

But above all please spread the word about the petition. This is a unique opportunity to show your support for the pastoral leaders of the Church in Australia who themselves on significant occasions have endeavoured to speak up in courageous ways for the Australian Catholic community and our spiritual and sacramental needs.

DISCLAIMER: Catholica is providing pro bono promotional support to the organisers of the Petition to the Australian Catholic Bishops.

Paul Collins

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