USD Magazine, Spring 1995

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community and the work force, roles that were not con– fined solely to wife, mother or nun. Americans were going to college in droves, and as they became more educated, they began questioning institutional practices in the United States, including those of their churches. In the Catholic Church, through the theological shift defined by Vatican II, lay peo– ple suddenly had more than

lapse or a failure, because we don't live as long as the church does." The religious and the laity of the post-Vatican II church believe that the Holy Spirit - the divine entity of the Holy Trinity that leads and guides all - is behind the changes that are renewing today's church. To help them fulfill the theology of "we are the church," they explain, the

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Holy Spirit created a need in the church through a shortage of religious and, at the same time, provided the resource to fill that need through expanded roles for lay people. The new theology also enables the church to re-establish some early practices, says Father Ron Pachence, USD professor of theological and religious studies. "In the beginning of the church, there were many different ministries, and people per– formed those ministries because they had a gift," he explains. "Over the centuries, priests started taking over all the min– istries of the church, not just the ministries involved in wor– ship. Eventually, priests did everything in the parish and lay people did virtually nothing. "In a sense, the shortage of priests has been a good thing because it has compelled us to take a more critical look at what ministry is all about," Pachence asserts, "and to go back to our earlier roots where a lot more people participated in the min- eof Ua.ba During the past 30 years, lay people have not been alone in embracing new roles in the Catholic Church. Members of reli– gious communities have been transforming their positions as well. Vatican II ignited the fire of renewal by recognizing that some of the restrictions placed on the religious for hundreds of years were simply unnecessary. Of particular note, most religious communities - or orders - emerged from a cloistered life and nuns were given some lat– itude in how they presented themselves in the community. Many nuns returned to their birth names, for instance, instead istries." Clmn 9

one avenue through which they could live their faith. Devotion didn't automatically mean entering a religious community any- more. "Vatican II taught that being a priest or a religious sister or brother is not superior to being a lay person," Gillman says. "It was recognized that being a dedicated lay person - if that's what you are called to - is just as valid a way of being a fully committed Christian as being a priest or a religious." Regardless of the causes, the decline in the number of nuns and priests has been viewed by many as a crisis in the American Catholic Church. Looking strictly at the numbers, the change can draw concern. According to The Official Catholic Directory, in 1964 the church counted 180,000 nuns and 57,300 priests in the United States. By 1994, those numbers had dropped to 94,400 and 50,300, respectively. The question is inevitable: If young men and women are not becoming priests and nuns, who is going to carry on the work of the church? But the numbers don't tell the true story of what is happen– ing in the church, say many insiders. They call the decline in religious vocations a blessing in disguise, opening avenues for the lay community to participate actively in the church while also giving the religious community a reason to invite parish– ioners to share in the church's work. "The theological view behind this is that the Holy Spirit equips the church to have what it needs for its mission in any one historical period, but the particular shape and challenge of that mission may not be exactly what happened in the previous 100 years or the previous 200 years," says Patricia Plovanich, assistant professor of theological and religious studies at USD. "It changes. That will look to many people as though it's a col-

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