What will the future of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles look like in 10 to 25 years with a pronounced shortage of priests? Earlier this year, every parish in the archdiocese spent time considering that issue in the context of their own parish reality --- in other words, imagining how they will sustain vibrant and vital parish communities if they cannot have a resident pastor.

The challenge is very real. The median age of active priests in the archdiocese is 61 years old, meaning half of the priests are older. Despite exhaustive efforts to invite young Catholic men to consider the priesthood as a vocation, the rate of new ordinations is not keeping up with the rate of retirement and deaths of older priests as well as the continuing population growth in Southern California.

"Even Scripture calls us to be able to read the signs of the times," said Jesuit Father Luis Quilhuis, pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Santa Barbara. "We're not getting the vocations. The times challenge us to be creative as to how to continue to serve the needs of the people of God, and how the laity can continue to play a role in it."

In the face of these new realities, some parishes are thinking about twinning with another church and sharing one priest pastor. Others are considering clustering and pooling the resources of several parishes. For some, the preferred option is having a parish life director to manage the administrative responsibilities while a sacramental priest minister is available to say Mass and focus on pastoral ministry. A few might convert their parishes into another use like a cultural center or chapel. No one wants to close.

Next week, ministers representing the five regions of the archdiocese and archdiocesan leadership will meet with Cardinal Roger Mahony to assess the results of the archdiocesan-wide parish viability study and to discern how parishes will be staffed in the future.

The effort to gather this information has involved broad collaboration at all levels. The study is a concrete response to the 2003 Synod, specifically the second of six pastoral initiatives entitled "Structures for Participation and Accountability."

Thousands of parishioners met in their respective churches to complete a lengthy questionnaire originally designed for the Diocese of Pittsburgh and modified by Our Lady of the Angels Region Auxiliary Bishop Edward Clark. Meanwhile, San Fernando Region Auxiliary Bishop Gerald Wilkerson is directing a task force on alternative parish staffing to design concrete scenarios which pioneering parishes can implement. And the deacons assisting the auxiliary bishops in their regional office are working on a long-term plan to meet the future pastoral and sacramental needs of Catholics in this archdiocese.

"The voices of thousands of people have been heard on this," said St. Joseph of Carondelet Sister Carol Quinlivan. "We're visioning together." Sister Quinlivan directs the Office of Parish Life which encompasses the whole of parish lay leadership, including pastoral councils, business administrators, pastoral associates and parish life directors.

"Lay people see how dedicated and overworked priests are," she said. "They are supportive of anything that could relieve priests to be more available to people's pastoral needs."

Regional challenges
This week, "Serving Shoulder to Shoulder," a document on Parish Life Directors in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, was issued to provide a fuller explanation of this leadership ministry that is one solution (already implemented in some parishes) to the shortage of available priests to serve as pastors (see pages 14-15). The Parish Life Director (PLD) is among several different models of parish leadership being discerned to meet the unique needs of different regions and to create a more participatory, flexible and collaborative approach to ministry among lay, religious and clergy.

In some areas of the archdiocese (notably in the San Gabriel and OLA regions), parishes were originally established a mile apart so that people could walk to church --- a logical approach in an era when priests were plentiful. But today, does it make sense to staff three parishes within three miles of each other with their own priest when the priest shortage is acute?

"People need to understand the resources we don't have," said Deacon Gus Sebenius, assistant to San Gabriel Region Auxiliary Bishop Gabino Zavala. "This is a real education process."

The Santa Barbara Region, the most rural of the five, is 150 miles wide. "Distance is what marks this region," said Bill Smith, assistant to Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry and currently in diaconate formation. For many of those parishes a parish life director "allows parishes to remain autonomous," he said.

The San Pedro Region has a diverse set of parishes with unequal means. Some parishes serve the very poor while others the very wealthy. "There's a great need for parishes with multiple resources to discover ways in which they can share their resources with parishes that don't have those same resources available to them," said Deacon Bob Miller, assistant to Auxiliary Bishop Alexander Salazar. At the same time, poor parishes can often contribute their strong public spirituality and joy in living out their faith, he said.

Population growth distinguishes the San Fernando Region. Five new churches are being built to meet the need --- in Palmdale, Lancaster, Quail Lake and two in Santa Clarita. However, vocations in the region are not keeping pace. The region will be looking to define more clearly the changing roles of priests and lay leaders.

"Lay leadership of our parishes is growing every year," said Deacon Richard Medina, assistant to Bishop Wilkerson. "Through our baptism we're all called to be prophets."

Our Lady of the Angels Region comprises the most compact area with the most number of churches. Twinning or clustering will be a viable option for many, although in the viability study nearly a third of the region's parishes said their preference is for a parish life director.

Parish cooperation
Among the pioneering churches modeling the sharing of resources are Our Lady of Guadalupe, Holy Cross and Our Lady of Sorrows in Santa Barbara. Unlike many parishes in the region, these three are geographically close.

Serving a large Hispanic population, Our Lady of Sorrows, the largest of the three, sponsors the Spanish Bible Study and the annual Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebration. The three parishes organize a joint Quinceañera program in which Our Lady of Sorrows provides the catechetical instruction and Holy Cross organizes the youth retreat.

Indeed, cooperative problem-solving is becoming the norm. It used to take Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, which seats only 225 people, nine consecutive Saturdays to celebrate all the First Communions with enormous "wear and tear on the staff," said Father Quilhuis. Our Lady of Sorrows has now loaned its church and the First Communion Masses are completed in two Saturdays.

"What allowed us to collaborate is that we basically saw the necessity," said Father Quilhuis. Bishop Curry was also instrumental in encouraging the parishes to share their resources, he added.

PLDs and priest ministers
At the same time four parishes in the archdiocese are trying the model of having parish life directors and sacramental priest ministers: Immaculate Conception in New Cuyama, St. Stephen in Monterey Park, and St. Agatha and St. Eugene in Los Angeles.

"Some parishes say they could operate really well with a parish life director. They have the leadership and the people in place," said Medina. "Others can't see themselves operating without a priest. They have never been asked to think of themselves in that way." For those parishes, twinning with another parish offers them a way to keep a priest pastor.

"The important piece is that people have started to acknowledge that this is starting to take place in some shape or form," added Medina. "Some feel anger, confusion, or misunderstanding. For others it's very clear where we're heading."

Despite the uncertainty of the times, Sister Quinlivan said many are recognizing a new opportunity to guide the archdiocese towards its best future.

"There's excitement about what we can do together as church," said Sister Quinlivan. "We're owning the vision and not just expecting things to happen. This is real renewal, and people in the pews are engaged."