Let’s face it. Into the Deep is tough. With so many changes these past two years, it’s hard to see why we started all this reconstruction in the first place.
Though there are many reasons that I can use to prove that Into the Deep is “worth it,” I want to share with you just one perspective, specifically the benefits of Into the Deep for the new priest.
How it helps
Here’s what I always tell people. If Into the Deep were not to happen, I would become a pastor years before I was ready, placed at an assignment with multiple parishes, little staffing, little money, little community among my brother priests, and asked to manage the decline of Catholics in our diocese with dwindling resources.
I would be expected to celebrate five or six Masses per weekend, without the support of brother priests living together in community.
Additionally, this priest placement would have likely been based on the needs in the diocese, instead of really looking at my personality, gifts, and seeing where I would best be supported and succeed.
On top of this, the temptation toward burnout and discouragement would be high, and I would be stuck trying to make complicated administrative decisions instead of tending to the needs of my parishioners.
The struggle to find joy in the beautiful vocation of the priesthood would be a daily task.
Game changers
So what does it look like now, during Into the Deep? There are two game changers for incoming priests: 1) going from 100 parishes to roughly 30 parishes, and 2) setting up each one of those parishes for priests to work together.
Let’s look at the first game changer.
Before Into the Deep, the reality was that we had more priests retiring than we had new priests coming in.
Trying to fill in 100 parishes is a lot tougher than filling in 30 parishes.
This is undoubtedly a huge shift, but it means that we will see a quicker swelling of priests throughout the next few years, as we transition into having our surrounding churches work together as one parish.
Though it will take some time, the priest shortage (which will thankfully be short-lived in our beloved Diocese of Madison) will be a blip on the radar in terms of Church history, and completely worth it in the long run.
The second game changer is the new shift of priests working together.
In the past, priests had to come up with their own game plan.
Now, Into the Deep has set up our diocese for priests to work together.
Not only does this make for a healthier world of collaboration among priests, but it fulfills the desire of newer priests to live in community, which is what seminaries have been encouraging priests to do for quite some time now.
This will make for healthier communication among priests, stronger and more prudent decision making (since two heads are better than one), and help foster great friendships among our co-workers in the vineyard.
Let’s be honest. Even with these game changers, and even if your pastorate has become one parish, it still feels like managing three, four, (or nine in one particular pastorate!) separate parishes.
The truth is, we are deep in the thickets of transition. We are in that uncomfortable feeling of missing how it once was, and not yet feeling the cohesion of a one-parish, one-family mindset.
Additionally, priests are still figuring out what it means to work and live together in an effective way, certainly not without its challenges.
Moving forward
So, the only way to move forward is to believe that we are setting up our diocese for success for the future.
One way toward this success is to pave a more healthy and balanced path for incoming priests.
Currently, I am living with two priests, working with a team of four, with the intention of being consistent at my placement much longer than usual.
My goal is to learn how to be a good priest, to be present, to listen, to learn, and to love people.
There’s a real camaraderie in rallying all of our efforts and resources towards evangelization, taking all the gifts of our multiple churches and placing them to the needs of the people.
Because we have more resources and more help, I am more free to be with the people, administer the sacraments, and pour everything I can into our one parish.
I am so thankful for this love and support, and I believe this would not have been possible without Into the Deep.
I recognize some people would disagree with this perspective, and I realize I am leaving out many challenges, concerns, and different experiences, but we new priests want to collaborate, work together, have a healthy fraternity together, and place our entire diocese in the mode of mission.
We don’t want to manage decline, and Into the Deep is helping us address these things.
We thank you for what you are currently sacrificing in order for us to do this.
Let’s keep moving forward, trusting that the Holy Spirit will keep revealing the fruits of Into the Deep, so that we can all better Go Make Disciples.
Amen!
Fr. Brad Grobbel is a parochial vicar at Holy Cross Parish serving the Ashton, Cross Plains,
Martinsville, Middleton, and Pine Bluff communities.