U.S. Groups Lobby Synod to Discuss Priest Shortage,
Mandatory Celibacy, Women Deacons
Laity and Priests Deliver 35,000 signatures  to  Five U.S. Bishop Delegates,
Surveys of 15,000 priests  in 55 U.S. Dioceses Support Discussion
National Week of Prayer Begins October 4, Feast of St. Francis of Assisi


“The Mass means everything to Catholics, we just hope it means everything to our bishops too,” said Sr. Christine Schenk of FutureChurch. “Finding solutions to the worldwide priest shortage should be the top priority of the Synod on the Eucharist.”

FutureChurch, in partnership with Call To Action conducted a three-year campaign to get the priest shortage on the agenda of Eleventh General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops to be held in Rome October 2-23.

The groups surveyed over 15,000 priests in 55 U.S. dioceses and found 67% believe mandatory celibacy should be discussed. (Results available at www.futurechurch.org).  They collected 35,000 signatures on a petition asking the synod to discuss mandatory celibacy and female deacons as possible solutions to the priest shortage.  On the October 4th feast of St. Francis of Assisi, they will launch a National Week of Prayer for the Synod.  

Catholics are also being asked to contact U.S. Synod delegates and the Pope directly via e-mail addresses listed on the FutureChurch website.

Lay Leaders Deliver Petitions, Priest Survey To Bishop Delegates to Synod from U.S. Dioceses
During the last two weeks of September, Catholic delegations in five U.S. dioceses met with and/or delivered copies of  the petition signatures and priest survey results to U.S. Bishop delegates to the  Synod.    “We wanted each of our U.S. delegates to hear from people in their own dioceses who represent  tens of thousands of Catholics, including many priests who are worried that more parishes will close and we will lose access to the Mass if nothing is done about the priest shortage,” said Schenk.    (For a list of Bishop delegates and lay leader contacts in each of five dioceses see attached list).

Schenk will also deliver survey results and petition signatures to church officials in Rome.

National Week of Prayer Begins October 4.  Thousands have pledged to pray individually and an estimated 35 prayer services will be held  around the U.S. to pray for synod proceedings and that synod delegates will open discussion of mandatory celibacy and women deacons. (A list of sites will be posted on September 28 at www.futurechurch.org. Click on Prayer for the Synod).

“Jesus told Francis to  'go and repair my house, which you see, is falling down,'” said Schenk. “Our Church IS falling down. The priest shortage is getting worse. Over the past 24 years, according to Vatican statistics, the world's Catholics increased by  42 per cent to 1.11 billion but  priests decreased by 2% ( 8,150) to 405, 450.  It is a wonderful work of the Spirit that the Synod on the Eucharist begins just  before the Feast of St Francis of Assisi”

“The loss of access to the Mass is devastating to our Catholic people, “ said Linda Pieczynski of Call To Action. “While so many parishes are closing and clustering in the U.S. it is much worse in Honduras where there is only one priest for 45,000 Catholics. Importing priests from needier developing countries to serve wealthy nations is just plain wrong.”

According to Georgetown's Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, Africa has one priest for every 4,700 Catholics. In Central and South America there is roughly one priest for every 7,000 Catholics.  But in North America there is one priest for every 1,576 Catholics and in Europe there is one priest for every 1,386 Catholics.  Even so, some demographers predict that 10,000 U.S. parishes could have no resident priest in the foreseeable future.

“Our members, including many priests, circulated the petition in their parishes, small faith communities to family members and on the internet for the past two years,” said Emily Hoag of FutureChurch,   “Many U.S. parishes are being forced to close and that really spurred the campaign.”

Opening the diaconate to women could give us a huge new pool of ministers to preach, baptize and witness marriages,” said Pieczynski. “Women ministers are holding the Church together.  Eighty two percent of an estimated 65,000 lay ministers in the U.S. are women. Worldwide, there are only 405,000 priests but we have 783,000 nuns and over 1.5 million female lay ministers.”

The petition asks synod leaders “to place the spiritual and sacramental needs of the People of God above every other consideration and begin a wide-ranging discussion among laity, priests, pastoral ministers and bishops about the need to remove mandatory celibacy as a requirement for the priesthood and to open the diaconate to the tens of thousands of qualified women serving the Church right now.” (see attached)

Petition signers claim their right under canon law to “make their views known about matters that concern the good of the Church” (c212).  The petition pointed to the worldwide shortage of priests, the disciplinary (not dogmatic) nature of the celibacy rule and first century women deacons like Phoebe, as important reasons to open the desired discussion,”

Since 1996, FutureChurch and Call To Action have been working to educate about the danger of losing the Mass and sacraments as one consequence of doing nothing about the priest shortage. Schenk herself has given educational programs about the priest shortage in over 100 U.S. dioceses.



Call to Action is a national organization of 25,000 laity, religious and clergy with its national office in Chicago and 41 local chapters.  It advocates for reforms in the Catholic Church such as equality for women and homosexuals in the Church, optional celibacy for priests, more focus on the church's social teaching, and consultation with the Catholic people on church decision making.

FutureChurch is a coalition of parish centered Catholics who seek the full participation of all Catholics in the life of the Church. FutureChurch strives to educate fellow Catholics about the seriousness of the priest shortage, the centrality of the Eucharist (the Mass), and the systemic inequality of women in the Catholic Church. It seeks to participate in formulating and expressing the Sensus Fidelium (the Spirit inspired beliefs of the faithful) through open, prayerful and enlightened dialogue with other Catholics locally and globally.