May 29 2005
Parishes & Priests
The BBC Reports that the Catholic Church in the UK is:
"launching a recruitment campaign that will use beermats in pubs and posters on the London Underground to promote the priesthood."
The proportion of Priests to Laity in the UK is good realative to other countries. But, the trend is towards a decline:
"We still have the third or fourth best ratio of Catholic priests to Catholic population in the world… " For example, comaprision with Brazil shows there is one "…priest for every 850 Catholics in the UK, compared to one for every 20,000 in Brazil"
"Ninety-nine percent of the church is the laity, they pay for everything."
The role of women in the Catholic Church in England and Wales is not clear from thir Catholic Organisation website. The Statistics are out of date and the only reference to female engagement with the Church is by counting members of convents. An earlier report by the BBC quotes Erin Pizzey the founder of the international women’s refuge movement commenting on the Vatican letter to Bishops "On the collaboration of men and women in the Church and the World.":
"I don’t think the Catholic Church - whose own priests and bishops cannot marry - is in a position to make such statements… …"It is one of the most emotionally illiterate organisations I know, and they need to put their own house in order first."
More than 80 percent of the nearly 30,000 Catholics in lay paid parish ministry in the United States are female. They pastor priestless parishes. They serve as directors of religious education and family ministers. Seventy percent of the members of the National Association of Catholic Chaplains are women, too; they work in hospitals, hospices, universities and prisons"
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