Transforming Parish Ministry:
Gries, Patricia
MINISTRY IN MIDSTREAM TRANSFORMING PARISH MINISTRY Jay P. Dolan, R. Scott Appleby, Patricia Byrne, Debra Campbell Crossroad, $27.50, 366 pp. Patricia Gries In three marvelous and carefully...
...R. Scott Appleby's essay on the American Catholic priesthood relies on church documents, historical studies, and personal interviews with seventy-five priests who minister in a variety of settings all across the U.S...
...The most significant transformation for sisters over the past fifty years was the movement away from cloistered life and parish schools to a diversified ministry which extends well beyond parochial boundaries and territorial areas of involvement...
...a theological revolution that interpreted the world in a highly positive sense...
...Transforming Parish Ministry they became more American, they challenged church structures and authority...
...One such group, the Sister Formation Conference with Sister Mary Emil, was instrumental in encouraging and supporting technical endeavors for sisters...
...Each essay examines two major issues: the change which took place in the understanding and ministerial practice of priests, sisters, and laity, and how this change altered the relationship of each to the parish...
...and heightened awareness of historical and social patterns related to the role of women...
...Women religious began connecting with one another, forming national bodies to address issues in religious life as well as issues and concerns in ministry...
...Appleby presents the cultural, political, socioeconomic, and ecclesial milieu in which they exercised their ministry and describes their response to the demands and needs of their diocese, parish, and world...
...The lay apostolate of the 1940s and 1950s gave way to lay ministry of the 1970s and 1980s...
...Like religious sisters, they began to connect with one another in new ways...
...But Transforming Parish Ministry helps the reader to see the subtle and not so subtle changes of church ministry in the context of cultural, social, and church developments in the United States...
...Factors which greatly influenced this change were a gradual process of professionalism in teaching...
...The pioneer-priest initiated reform movements in the areas of social justice and liturgy...
...Patricia Byrne writes on changes in the ministry of religious sisters in the U.S...
...The ombudsman-priest "took it upon himself to act" but did not empower the laity of the parish...
...No longer satisfied to be Catholics who "pray, pay, and obey," Debra Campbell recounts how lay Catholics in the U.S...
...Lastly, the orchestra-leader priest is a contemporary example of a priest who "brings cohesion and direction" to the many ministries and activities of parish life...
...He takes up the complicated subjects of individualism and pluralism in American society and the integration of Vatican II theology into Catholic life...
...the dramatic cultural and ecclesiastical transformation of the 1960s...
...He writes of Mundelein and Hillenbrand, John Courtney Murray, and contemporaries like John Egan and John Tracy Ellis, men who made significant pastoral contributions which helped shape and form the American Catholic church over the last fifty years...
...He writes clearly about the national parishes of the 1930s and 1940s, how they eventually gave way as Americans moved to the suburbs, and how Catholics became more integrated into the American mainstream and middle class...
...The laity also found their identity and roles changing and expanding...
...Sisters were no longer primarily staffing schools and hospitals, but were responding to the needs of the poor and disenfranchised in a variety of capacities in urban, suburban, and rural settings...
...But until recently such involvement was not generally recognized as ministry or understood to be a responsibility of all the baptized to the Gospel...
...As As Americans and as Catholics, we will never understand who we are unless we know who we were...
...The laity have long been involved in parish life and religious movements beyond it, such as the Christian Family Movement, Marriage Encounter, and Catholic Worker houses...
...She draws on material primarily from the experience and archives of six congregations which represent a broad geographical distribution and sustained involvement in parish life...
...developed new ways of expressing their Catholicism...
...Lay men and women responded to ongoing spiritual renewal as well as to the needs of the sick, alienated, and poor by participating in RENEW groups, liturgical ministries, staffing soup kitchens, and providing pastoral care...
...Jay Dolan's wrap-up summarizes, in historical context, the major shifts and changes experienced by American Catholics over the past fifty years...
...Appleby traces the changing identity and roles of priests by describing them as ombudsmen, pioneers, and orchestra leaders...
...This transformation is well documented by Campbell...
...While membership continued in such groups as altar and rosary societies, the Knights of Columbus, and other organizations, new associations of lay men and women developed for those serving as career or volunteer lay ministers...
...Sisters have made significant contributions to the life of American Catholicism, but have been unrecognized by the church at large...
...Patricia Gries In three marvelous and carefully researched essays by R. Scott Appleby, Patricia Byrne, C.S.J., and Debra Campbell and a wrap-up chapter by Jay P. Dolan, Transforming Parish Ministry presents a historical perspective on fifty years of American Roman Catholic ministry and life, from 1930-80...
...Byrne's essay brings this reality into focus by presenting the historical facts with clarity...
...Upon first reflection one is inclined to say, "the more things change, the more they stay the same...
...during the same period...
...In studying the past we can also better understand the present and appreciate the work of our predecessors who blazed the trails that led us to this present age...
...He clarifies for the reader the reality of being Catholic and American today...
...he took his ministry beyond the parish...
...In sum, this is an informative and readable book on Roman Catholicism in the United States, both its progress and its struggles, as lived and shaped by the People of God y the People of God...
Vol. 116 • November 1989 • No. 19
