What will the parish of the future look like? I don’t know. To be honest, I don’t think anyone has the answer to that question.
In the Catholicism of yesteryear, the parish was more in the center of people’s lives due to ethnic and cultural origins. Many people came to the parish. They came to receive the sacraments, for spiritual guidance from their clergy and for community activities. However, we must mention the elephant in the room – many people do not operate in this way anymore.
We no longer have the luxury of being a “destination” where most of the social, spiritual and even physical needs of the individual and the family can be met. Too many other options exist, and the priority of faith and parish life has been displaced by other priorities.
So, the pressing question is: How is a parish to be healthy and viable in this century amid the marketplace of options?
The pandemic has taught us that change comes fast – and parishes experienced this seismic shift. During those initial and horrible months of COVID-19, we saw parishes reach out to their parishioners through various communication means, sharing the Gospel during a crisis. Whether it was through phone calls to parishioners, livestreaming Masses and ministries or sharing resources on social media, we found new and innovative ways to “go out” into our community because our community could not come to us.
Now with realistic hope, parishioners are tasked with taking what we learned from those months of restriction and isolation and continuing this ministry of going out into the community. The parish begins now, more than ever, to invite and bring people to a healthy and holy community.
Being at Columbus Our Lady of Peace Parish in the heart of the Clintonville area, we are blessed to be a neighborhood parish, and we are striving to be engaged in our neighborhood.
We want non-Catholics and non-practicing Catholics to know about Our Lady of Peace. We want them to know that we are active in and genuinely care about this neighborhood. More important, we want people to know that we are driven by the love of God and neighbor.
Whenever I walk along N. High Street near the church, I am reminded of these words of Pope Francis from his 2015 visit to the United States: “God is living in our cities. The Church is living in our cities, and she wants to be like yeast in the dough. She wants to relate to everyone, to stand at everyone’s side, as she proclaims the marvels of the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Eternal Father, the Prince of Peace.”
Here, we see the Holy Father speak of the churches truly being incarnational. The parish is involved and has something (the Gospel!) to say in the wider community. In other words, a parish is like John the Baptist crying out in its own area, not being afraid to teach, preach and sanctify society.
I am convinced that the parish of the future does not need to re-invent the wheel regarding evangelization and ministry. In our attempt to “fix” our current situation and innovate a new future, our tendency is to create programs, take polls or resort to advertising the Gospel like we are in an episode of Mad Men. And all these models tend to rely on the personality of the priest. This is not a feasible or sustainable plan. More significant, it’s not who we are.
The parish of today and of the future – just like the parish of the past – must rely solely on the Word of God and the Eucharist. It is tempting for us priests to lose that focus as the temporal needs of the parish (such as maintaining buildings, juggling finances and managing personnel) can swallow one in an abyss. The moment we priests and laity lose that focus on the Word and the Eucharist, we lose our identity and hope in Christ.
The challenges of parish life can seem daunting, and we might be tempted to go into defeatism mode. But here we are. God has tasked the laity, religious and clergy to build and encourage authentic and healthy parishes.
We can take these words from Lumen Gentium to heart in parish life: “All the faithful of Christ are invited to strive for the holiness and perfection of their own proper state. Indeed, they have an obligation to so strive. Let all then have care that they guide aright their own deepest sentiments of soul. Let neither the use of the things of this world nor attachment to riches, which is against the spirit of evangelical poverty, hinder them in their quest for perfect love” (No. 42).
The parish actively strives to bring awareness of the gifts and talents within the community. But if these talents are not shaped by, given for and rooted in the Word and the Eucharist, they will do little to contribute to the spiritual health of the parish.
As a pastor, for me the moments of hope come when a parishioner tries a new ministry outside his or her comfort level. Hope for me is when a school student wants to receive the sacraments of the Church because of what he or she has learned in the classroom. Another sign of hope for me is seeing sustainable and holy liturgical ministries take off again in the parish and to see the altar servers excited to serve again. It is the small things that can begin a quiet revolution in a parish.
We must allow ourselves to notice the signs of hope and build on them. The Word and Eucharist are alive and dwelling in our parishes, and we have learned new ways to embrace and share this reality. We cannot afford to squander this moment.
Father Sean Dooley is pastor of Columbus Our Lady of Peace Church.