While reviewing the latest news on the NCR website, I came across an article about the Canadian Catholic Church. Though, I am the Sunday blogger from Canada, until now, I have had nothing exciting and inspiring to write to you about that emanated from the current Canadian Catholic Church.

It appears that Msgr. Roch Pagé, a canon lawyer, who is the judicial vicar for the Canadian Appeal Tribunal of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB), in Ottawa, presented a paper to the annual conference of the Canon Law Society, in Chicago, in which he challenges his audience of bishops and church officials, to contemplate a "post parish church."

Why would a canon lawyer and a Monsignor endorse a church without a parish? Indeed, why would any member of the Church, including the Pope, endorse a Roman Catholic church without parishes? After all, it is a one thousand year old tradition!

Traditions are not immune to changing times and circumstances. What has happened in the Church to have any of us, "rethink the parish concept?"

In places in North America and Europe, the number of people attending weekly Church services is shrinking and those who are in Church, on a regular basis, are ageing. There are coping strategies in place, like clustering and amalgamating parishes, and in the worse case scenarios, closing parishes.

So, as Dr. Phil McGraw would say, "How's that workin for ya?" Closing parishes is not a popular thing to do. Only last week, the Archbishop of Cleveland was apparently ordered by Pope Francis to reopen all the parishes he had closed. However, I would surmise that maintaining a church that is no longer viable, and "filling the coffers," is seen as an unnecessary drain for the parishioners and its' diocese.

Archbishop Luc Bouchard, of Trois-Riviéres, Quebec, in an open letter to his parishioners, at Easter, questioned the people, as to whether, they wanted to continue to channel their financial resources to manage real-estate or put their resources into the on-going missionary activities of the Church? The real-estate, that he was referring to, was, of course, the church building.

It is, on this point, that Archbishop Luc Bouchard sounds innovative, if not, prophetic!. He rightly states that the building is not the Church. He says, that the "Parish Community", ought to be the "Catholic Community"and that this "Catholic Community" is about being the "body of Christ", loving one another, and doing charity, but, not necessarily, needing a building to do that. (paraphrased)

Does any of what Archbishop Luc Bouchard sound familiar? In a general audience address on March 27th, of this year, Pope Francis, said, that the parish has become closed in on itself and "lamented the current situation of the parish which has nothing of "missionary" about it"....Pope Francis says that the Church ought to "open the doors", and "go out to meet others".

The Association of Catholic Priests posted an article on April 21 that was entitled: "Has the parish a future?" The article's seminal discussion emerged from the "biggest Episcopal Conference" which is Latin American and Caribbean in its constituency. In this 51st assembly, the central theme was for this year, "Community of Communities: a new parish." The bishops have this notion that the traditional parish structure does not and will not accommodate the work of the "New Evangelization" which demands a "going out" into the "peripheries" to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They refer to the traditional parish as an outdated structure that must be abandoned. They state:

Church should leave aside a pastoral approach of mere conservation for a decidedly

missionary pastoral approach. And one of those outdated structures is the parish.

The idea or even understanding, that the traditional parish cannot meet the new objectives of a new evangelization, is, however, as much as the Bishops really could articulate. The author of this article, found on the ACP website, says, that the bishops document remains clerical in its' perspective, and they never advance their thinking beyond just giving the local parishes a face lift with renovations. It seems that while they have some grasping thoughts, that the traditional parish must be transformed, they really have no clue as to how to bring that about, and I suspect, they really do not know how they are going to take the Church to the peripheries either!

In returning to Monsignor Roch Pagé, why was he prophetic in speaking about a post-parish church?

I would assume that Msgr. Pagé is very familiar with the situation outlined above with the closing of parishes and the need to address the "new evangelization". Msgr. Pagé is quoted in an article by Michael Swan, in the Catholic Register as saying that parishes are no longer places where we experience community. Parishes have become so huge, that we do not even know who is sitting next to us in Church. He outright states, that to call our parishes a community is a fake. He says,

"We fake it, I'm sorry to say. We fake that the parish is a community. Increasingly,

people do not know each other, "...It's not because we call it a community that it is

a community".

He reminds us that "Jesus didn't found a parish, and so, why would we behave as if the parish is essential?"

Yes, Msgr. Pagé, why would we think, that the parish is essential?

Connie Paré, the director of pastoral planning services, in the diocese of London Ontario, who has been involved in "amalgamating and rationalizing parishes" says that the parish is the source of revenue for Catholics, and the only way people have access to the Eucharist. She remarks:

"The parish model is the source of revenue and it's also where Eucharist is celebrated.

When proposing other models, or even investigating them, well---how do we tend to

these pieces? she asks. "Especially the Eucharist piece. Virtual doesn't work. In the

sense of a real, living, organic community, how do you maintain that and still connect

with people differently? Those are risky questions."

I am attracted to and enjoy contemplating the risky questions. Maybe you've noticed that, if you have read any of my blogs and articles. I think Msgr. Pagé was risky in proposing the idea, that we need to "rethink the concept of parishes", and I think, the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean were risky in their suggesting that the parish is an outdated structure. I think, Pope Francis was risky when he suggested that parishes had become turned in on themselves and un-missionary. I think, Archbishop Luc Bouchard was risky when he suggested that the people's financial and ministerial resources could be better applied to the Church outside the doors. (paraphrased)

Archbishop Luc Bouchard is also risky and I would say prophetic when he poses questions, such as the following: "What does the future hold? Will there still be parishes as we have known them? Will there still be priests? and my favorite: "Who will be the leaders of tomorrow?"

"Who will be the leaders of tomorrow?" Clearly, those leaders will need to be the "new evangelizers" of tomorrow and those leaders will also need to be the new ministers of tomorrow, who, with the entire people of God will transform "parish communities into Catholic communities".

I have yet to speak about the shortage of priests that contributes to the amalgamation and closing of parishes. Connie Paré says above that we need the local parish for the Eucharist, where the priest must come to provide that sacrament. It seems to me, that, we always return to this point: We need the priest to have Eucharist. Do we really?

I remind the reader once more, that Pope Francis himself has said that "Baptism is Sufficient". He said this, when speaking about a situation where missionary priests were absent from Japan for at least 200 years, and when priests returned, they found that the work of the Church had carried on just fine without them.

I think, the rethinking of the parish concept will require the rethinking of the missionary work of the church, will require the rethinking of the role of the laity, and will require the rethinking of the Eucharist.

If we are not afraid of risky questions, then, we can truly envision doing Church differently. As Pope Francis has said, "He would rather have a church that was willing to venture out and possibly incur accidents, rather, than, becoming stale and sick" (paraphrased)

If I were to offer an alternative to the traditional parish, it would be to divide a parish into zones, and in those zones, create many "cell groups" of Catholic Base Communities who would not only come together to worship, but, who would be actively proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ beyond the perimeters of their basic communities.

As Msgr. Pagé says, the local parish is only one means of being Church. Other basic communities, as far as I'm concerned would be another means. Local parishes that are able to continue to operate, and even thrive, must provide first and foremost, access to the Word of God. Otherwise, parishes become, as Pope Francis has said, just another NGO (non-governmental organization).

My suggestion to you, is that, it is not so much, the receiving of the "Host" that is critical to our faith life, but, the hearing and digesting of the Word of God. It is the Word of God, "dwelling richly in us", that is going to not only nurture and develop the faithful, so that they become mature in Christ, but, is actually, the work, of the "New Evangelization", that starts with the congregations and moves out into the world.

"The harvest is plenty, and the laborers are few", so we need to "chow down" on the Word of God, and we need to mobilize that "sleeping giant", the laity......Why? It is within the laity that will come our leaders of tomorrow.

"Tomorrow is about new Catholic communities". "Tomorrow is about a "new evangelization." "Tomorrow is about a new faithful". "Tomorrow is about a new Royal Priesthood", men and women".

Don't be afraid to ask the risky questions because Tomorrow begins Today!

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Comments welcome here