Looking for a shepherd
Fr. Eric, a good friend and model of the kind of shepherd St. Gerard needs.
One question on a lot of people’s minds is who will be the next pastor for St. Gerard’s? If the Bishop has a plan, no one seems to know what it is. The options that I’ve heard for finding another priest come down to:
- Bringing in another priest from outside the Diocese. Fr. George is a Basilian, not a diocesan priest, on loan to the Diocese. It’s possible that another Basilian or a priest from another order could be assigned to St. Gerard’s. A number of priests currently in the diocese have originated from other continents, Africa in particular.The challenge here is time. Finding an available priest elsewhere takes time, and I would imagine there aren’t so many to come by.
- Merging St. Gerard’s with another parish, or at minimum share a pastor. With fewer priests to go around, maybe St. Gerard’s will have to share a pastor, or even close. The sad truth is just a few weeks ago, St. Gerard’s and St. Jerome’s had shared masses at *one* parish that weren’t even filled to capacity. This disappoints me, considering these two parishes are two of the largest in town. I can’t see this happening except maybe in the short term. Given the recent experience with St. Jerome’s, we might end up going to St. Jerome’s for masses while a longer term plan is worked on. That wouldn’t be so bad, in my opinion. At least that way a decision wouldn’t be rushed, and hopefully increases the odds of a better outcome. Going this route makes the option of finding a priest from outside the Diocese more plausible.
- Re-assigning a pastor from another parish in the Diocese. There are parishes struggling with attendance, and whose future are in doubt. The St. Gerard crisis provides Bishop Plouffe with an opportunity to make the tough step of closing down a parish, or at least to cut down on pastoral services to a parish. Solve two problems instead of one? The priest is someone well known to the Bishop and potentially to many parishioners of St. Gerard. If the Bishop has to close down a parish in the next few years anyways, this gives him a viable excuse. This option requires guts. The question is whether the Bishop has the stomach to deal with the emotional trauma of a parish closing on top of everything else.
More importantly though, is what style of priest does our parish family need right now? I would like to see someone who is a facilitator, who gives people real responsibility, and who is willing to deal with issues openly. What are your thoughts? I’ll compile responses shared both in comments and sent to me personally with both the Bishop and with whatever parish committee gets formed to deal with the transition. Ok, I’ll share them with the Bishop at least. 
