Imagine that you have proposed to your fiancé and are excited about setting a wedding date sometime in December when she will have completed her degree. You call your parish church to find that all wedding slots are booked for December, indeed until March 2009 - unless you want to share the altar with another couple in a combined service and the other couple is willing.
Far-fetched you think?
It is a weekday, and after much searching and prayer you decide to go to confession. You call around the county, to find sadly that the next time confessions are scheduled is three weeks away.
Far-fetched you think?
You are new to the area, it is Saturday and you want to plan attending Mass tomorrow. You discover that there will be only two Masses in town, one tonight and one tomorrow morning, each held at the public civic center, the only location able to handle the crowds.
Far-fetched you think?
Your mother has just died. There are no priests available for her funeral Mass. You can have the assistance of a deacon who will provide a Scripture service and burial. A community-wide common memorial Mass is held quarterly, and Mom will be remembered at that time.
Far-fetched you think?
Daily Mass? That is available only at the Cathedral. All other parishes are lucky to have a weekday Mass once every other week.
Imagine that your county is served by one priest, a man in his 70s who also works at the Pastoral Center in Springfield two days a week, heading the Tribunal. (He is assisted, at times, by one retired priest in failing health.) If you want an appointment to talk over a spiritual concern, the wait is eight weeks. His availability is very limited.
Does all of this sound far-fetched? Not at all. It is on the doorstep!
One of the larger towns in our diocese, Decatur, was once served by 12 priests. Now, only five men are active there, and that will drop to four this summer.
Within five years, a third of the remaining priests of the diocese will have retired, and an indeterminate number will have died. Only a hand-full of men are in preparation for the priesthood.
Recently I was told of a parish of 1,800 families in another diocese, served by but one elderly priest. People from that congregation complained angrily to their bishop because their pastor "slept all the time." Well, it turned out that kindly old priest of 85 took a nap every afternoon to garner the strength to work into the evening.
Most Catholics are out of touch with the seriousness of the situation today. The scenarios described above are not far distant.
What are you doing for vocations?
"The harvest is great, but the laborers are few. Pray the harvest master to send laborers into the vineyard." (Luke 10:2)
Father Donald Blickhan is parochial vicar at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Decatur.