Towards an Understanding of the Place of Professional Lay Parish Ministers in the Structure of Ecclesial Ministry
In the United States, parish communities are becoming more dependent on laypersons to provide the pastoral care once provided by priests. Pastors, responsible under canon law for the care of souls of those entrusted to them, now rely more and more on lay men and women to assist them in carrying out...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Electronic Book |
| Language: | English |
| Subito Delivery Service: | Order now. |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2020
|
| In: | Year: 2020 |
| IxTheo Classification: | SB Catholic Church law |
| Further subjects: | B
Canon Law
B Parochial vicar B Academic theses B droit canonique B Thèses et écrits académiques B dissertations B Thesis B Academic Dissertation B Lay Ministry |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | In the United States, parish communities are becoming more dependent on laypersons to provide the pastoral care once provided by priests. Pastors, responsible under canon law for the care of souls of those entrusted to them, now rely more and more on lay men and women to assist them in carrying out their responsibilities. In many cases these lay ecclesial parish ministers take on responsibilities once given by the pastor to parochial vicars, those priests assigned to the parish by the diocesan bishop to assist the pastor in providing pastoral care to the parish community. Universal law has a great deal to say about the office of parochial vicar and the formation of priest candidates, as does particular law in the United States, but little about those laypersons who dedicate themselves to service to the Church by providing pastoral care within a parish community. This dissertation examines the history of the office of parochial vicar and the development of formation requirements for priests to determine how this history might suggest ways to incorporate lay ecclesial ministry into universal and/or particular law. This dissertation first observes how the parish has become the usual place where faithful experience the pastoral care of the Church and also how leadership responsibility for providing this care changed over time. Second, this dissertation reviews how the office of parochial vicar developed. This trajectory provides a helpful benchmark for understanding the way parochial ministries develop. Third, the dissertation reviews the involvement of lay persons in the Catholic Church in the United States from pre-colonial times to the present, and presents in some detail the growth of lay ministry in the United States after the Second Vatican Council. Fourth, this study examines the development of the directives and national programs which guide the formation, education and oversight of priests and deacons in the United States, and presents the law on incardination. Fifth, the study looks at existing guidelines which address the formation of lay ecclesial ministers, and also those canons which speak to the employment of lay persons by the Church. The pattern of development of lay ministry in the United States follows closely that of the development of assistant priests (referred to in present-day canon law as parochial vicars) in the early Church. The pastor, or in some cases perhaps the diocesan curia, determines what if any formation is required for pastoral care in a specific circumstance. Unlike the mandatory norms for the formation for priestly and diaconal ministry, there are only guidelines for the formation of lay ministers. To ensure adequate pastoral care in parish communities throughout the country, the bishops of the United States should devote time and attention to the formation and retention of lay ecclesial ministers in parish communities |
|---|---|
| Item Description: | Beal, John Includes bibliographical references (pages 222-243) Text (electronic thesis) in PDF format |
| Physical Description: | 1 Online-Ressource (252 pages) |
| Format: | Mode of access: World Wide Web. |
| Persistent identifiers: | HDL: 1961/cuislandora:214708 |
