Could someone tell me how long a priest's assignment to a parish is? (*without a 'promotion' to a higher status, some other title or retirement)...is there a length of time a priest can serve one parish?? It seems that after about 7 yrs, they are off to a new church and a different priest takes over in the old one.......it can be very unsettling to the congregation and feelings of abandonment come up if there seems to be no obvious reason for the transfers.

-- Ima Catholic (stillnot@home.net), July 11, 2004

Answers

I think I read somewhere that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops recommends appointing Pastors for a 6 year term, with the option of renewing them for another 6 years. There are exceptions to this, though. I have seen some Pastors stay at a church for 30 years.

-- James (stinkcat_14@hotmail.com), July 11, 2004.

Why? why do they limit assignments if there is a steady patronage and the congregation likes him and the church is doing well?

-- Ima Catholic (stillnot@home.net), July 11, 2004.

Ima,

Its probably better for a priest. Think about it for a second in a different way? You guys are mad because you can't keep the same priest.

You have no right to complain about this. Maybe our Lord is sending this priest to another parish? Who do you think you are?

The holy Mass is the same. Feel blessed you have a Catholic priest instead of demanding which one you think you deserve?

-- - (David@excite.com), July 11, 2004.

It is good for the priest to go move out every few years. I know if he is a very good priest, there is sense of loss. But, then God is in control, He knows that what is best for the priest and He knows what is best for you as a lay person. It is a good safeguard for the priest so that he avoid unnecessary worldly bonds that could bog down his spiritual life and responsibilities as a pastor. It is good for you if he was good spiritual priest. God has used the priest in giving you a period of comfort and solace. If new priest is not so helpful, then it is a time of weaning, which God wants you through, which help make a more fruitful christian.

-- Leslie John (lesliemon@hotmail.com), July 12, 2004.

I think one of the strengths of Catholicism is that our churches are not overly dependent on personality. For example, if I go to a Baptist church, there is a good chance that I will only hear one person preach over 90% of the time and that Pastor may stay in the same church for 30 years. I have seen Baptist churches torn apart when the pastor engages in scandalous behavior, such as having an affair.

We have a good pastor at my church, but I realize that the diocese one day is going to transfer him, and our church will be just fine. Sure, I will miss him, but I don't want my spiritual experience to be limited to one person.

-- James (stinkcat_14@hotmail.com), July 12, 2004.

You have no right to complain about this. Maybe our Lord is sending this priest to another parish? Who do you think you are?

Ima is merely asking a question. There is no reason to pull out the "who do you think you are" card. Lighten up for crying out loud! There are good reasons to move priests as everyone has mentioned here, and the reasons may not be obvious to the affected parish. A priest may retire from another parish, causing the bishop to do some shuffling. It may leave him shorthanded. There can be a number of good reasons.

But there are two sides to the coin, especially in rural communities and small churches, where a good priest can make such a difference. Right or wrong, and like it or not, Good priests attract parishioners which makes for a more vibrant parish. If my small town had St. John Vianney as a priest today, chances are he and his talents would be transferred to a larger parish as soon as the diocese became fully aware of his gifts. Small towns get the short end of the stick quite often. That's just the way it is. It can be frustrating, but we suck it up and offer it up.

-- Brian Crane (brian.crane@cranemills.com), July 12, 2004.

Well, I have known people who switch parishes when their priests do.... I know, that sounds weird, but it is all one Church, which, not to change the subject but just to mention this, why do you *have* to be registered at a particular parish to for example be married there or have children baptized there? Why isn't it all in a database somewhere?

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), July 12, 2004.

Because a parish priest is responsible for the care of every soul in his parish. GT, your argument taken to its logical extreme is, why belong to a particular diocese? Why not just have the Pope directly responsible for 1.1 billion Catholics, assisted by a roving army of unattached priests? And frankly the idea of a database scares me. Imagine what some people would do if they got their hands on the names and addresses of every catholic in the country, or eventually, the world.

-- Steve (55555@aol.com), July 13, 2004.

GT, Always good to read your posts.

Parishes are responsible for a particular geographic area. Technically, if one lives within that area, that is their home parish. Of course, we can attend mass where we want.

As far as records, your parish of record is the parish where you are baptized. All your records (confirmation, marriage, declarations of nullity, etc.) go to that church (if it still exists or the archdiocese if it doesn't) for record filing. These records are a great source of information for family trees. Just a side bar.

God bless,

-- john placette (jplacette@catholic.org), July 13, 2004.