Professionalism Has Accelerated the Decline of The Catholic Church in the USA

[Michie]

For several years I was part of a group of Catholic leaders who helped shape and lead a week-long ministry formation program every summer. We had funding from a large Catholic foundation and were officially a project of the US Bishops (USCCB). At the end of the week, we gave each participant a certificate stating they completed the formation program and then we encouraged them to go even further to become certified in their area of ministry. This meant they had to meet certain further standards, interviews, etc. before they got another certification.

This is not uncommon. There are certifications for catechists, RCIA (now OCIA), youth ministry, DREs, campus ministry, and more. You can go to conferences, get advanced degrees, get certifications, get online professional formation, etc. I have personally been certified in campus ministry, have a Masters degree in Theological Studies, have completed coursework for specialization in Theology of the Body, gotten continuing education in fundraising, and been to several other professional formation seminars through the past few decades. Much of this was helpful for me as someone working in pastoral ministry. Yet I believe all of these degrees, certifications, and associations we have are symptoms of a problem with the Church, not a solution to our issues. Please bear with me as I attempt an explanation.

CERTIFIED?

Continued below.

Professionalism Has Accelerated the Decline of The Catholic Church in the USA

For several years I was part of a group of Catholic leaders who helped shape and lead a week-long campus ministry formation program every summer. We had funding from a large Catholic foundation and were officially a project of the US Bishops (USCCB). At the end of the week, we gave each...

catholicmissionarydisciples.com

 

[Pioneer3mm]

For several years I was part of a group of Catholic leaders who helped shape and lead a week-long ministry formation program every summer. We had funding from a large Catholic foundation and were officially a project of the US Bishops (USCCB). At the end of the week, we gave each participant a certificate stating they completed the formation program and then we encouraged them to go even further to become certified in their area of ministry. This meant they had to meet certain further standards, interviews, etc. before they got another certification.

This is not uncommon. There are certifications for catechists, RCIA (now OCIA), youth ministry, DREs, campus ministry, and more. You can go to conferences, get advanced degrees, get certifications, get online professional formation, etc. I have personally been certified in campus ministry, have a Masters degree in Theological Studies, have completed coursework for specialization in Theology of the Body, gotten continuing education in fundraising, and been to several other professional formation seminars through the past few decades. Much of this was helpful for me as someone working in pastoral ministry. Yet I believe all of these degrees, certifications, and associations we have are symptoms of a problem with the Church, not a solution to our issues. Please bear with me as I attempt an explanation.

CERTIFIED?

Continued below.

Professionalism Has Accelerated the Decline of The Catholic Church in the USA

For several years I was part of a group of Catholic leaders who helped shape and lead a week-long campus ministry formation program every summer. We had funding from a large Catholic foundation and were officially a project of the US Bishops (USCCB). At the end of the week, we gave each...

catholicmissionarydisciples.com

Interesting & informative article..
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This issue/problem..Is not just for Catholic Church.

 

[Wolseley]

This is something that has irritated me for a long time---"church by committee".
I see it in my own diocese all the time: they'll have some huge thing with some snappy title like "Spring Evangelization Drive '23" or something, and it will consist of several dozen highly-educated people in business suits who run some committee or office and are employed by the diocese to (basically) push papers around, and a few clergy here and there, totally outnumbered by the office-holding laypeople.

They will set this thing up in some 5-star hotel for a week or so, with daily series of meetings and "workshops" (I despise the misuse of that word) where they'll watch PowerPoint presentations and shuffle handouts with flow charts around, and gas about plans of implementation for things that the diocese needs, eat catered meals, and at the end of the whole works, they all go back to their offices and highly paid positions with a self-satisfied glow at all the wonderful things they've accomplished.

Now, how does all that work down to the Average Joe on the street, the unevangelized, the homeless, the poor, the shut-ins, etc.?

It doesn't. The Common Scum doesn't attend "workshops" in 5-star hotels, and they wouldn't know how to read a flow chart if they were given one. The diocesan commissioners pat each other on the back and mouth pious platitudes at each other, and the crippled veterans still rummage through dumpsters in back of the local Burger King, the prostitutes still walk through the alleys at night, and the gangsters still keep selling dope to schoolkids who play basketball in the street because the local parish doesn't have enough money to open an activity center for them in the church.

I don't have a solution. All I know is, when Paul and Barnabas were travelling around from city to city, they definitely did not engage the populace through conferences and "workshops" with flip charts and lists of statistics. When Patrick and Columba were sailing around those little islands between Britannia and Hibernia (Britian and Ireland) in leaky boats with leather hulls, they didn't use the 5th-century equivalent of PowerPoint presentations, either.

I guess what it boils down to is, it's all very well and nice to have a week-long gabfest where a lot of high-falutin' ideas are blown around, but the bottom line is, if you want to make converts and actually build the Faith, you're gonna have to come down out of your 5-star hotels and glass-fronted offices and actually get your hands dirty. (shrug)

 

[chevyontheriver]

This is something that has irritated me for a long time---"church by committee".
I see it in my own diocese all the time: they'll have some huge thing with some snappy title like "Spring Evangelization Drive '23" or something, and it will consist of several dozen highly-educated people in business suits who run some committee or office and are employed by the diocese to (basically) push papers around, and a few clergy here and there, totally outnumbered by the office-holding laypeople.

They will set this thing up in some 5-star hotel for a week or so, with daily series of meetings and "workshops" (I despise the misuse of that word) where they'll watch PowerPoint presentations and shuffle handouts with flow charts around, and gas about plans of implementation for things that the diocese needs, eat catered meals, and at the end of the whole works, they all go back to their offices and highly paid positions with a self-satisfied glow at all the wonderful things they've accomplished.

Now, how does all that work down to the Average Joe on the street, the unevangelized, the homeless, the poor, the shut-ins, etc.?

It doesn't. The Common Scum doesn't attend "workshops" in 5-star hotels, and they wouldn't know how to read a flow chart if they were given one. The diocesan commissioners pat each other on the back and mouth pious platitudes at each other, and the crippled veterans still rummage through dumpsters in back of the local Burger King, the prostitutes still walk through the alleys at night, and the gangsters still keep selling dope to schoolkids who play basketball in the street because the local parish doesn't have enough money to open an activity center for them in the church.

I don't have a solution. All I know is, when Paul and Barnabas were travelling around from city to city, they definitely did not engage the populace through conferences and "workshops" with flip charts and lists of statistics. When Patrick and Columba were sailing around those little islands between Britannia and Hibernia (Britian and Ireland) in leaky boats with leather hulls, they didn't use the 5th-century equivalent of PowerPoint presentations, either.

I guess what it boils down to is, it's all very well and nice to have a week-long gabfest where a lot of high-falutin' ideas are blown around, but the bottom line is, if you want to make converts and actually build the Faith, you're gonna have to come down out of your 5-star hotels and glass-fronted offices and actually get your hands dirty. (shrug)

It's clericalism of the worst sort. That is clericalizing some of the laity so the unclericalized laity are without a voice.