By Lindsey Townsend

Priest Shortage, New Expectations Place High Demands on America's Clergy

CLEVELAND, OH—For this CEO of a $2-million-a-year organization, the bonuses come not in stock options and golden parachutes but in laughs, hugs and heartfelt "thank-you's".

As pastor of St. Jude Parish in Elyria, Ohio, Father Frank Kosem's official mission is to proclaim the Gospel, provide comfort to the bereaved and dying, celebrate the Eucharist, administer last rites, and visit the sick and suffering.

That's the basic job description. But his To-Do list also includes serving a "client base" of 6,000+; long-term planning and strategy, supervising, training and leading a staff of 70; budget planning and forecasting, running a seminary internship program; building and property maintenance; nonstop fundraisers, meetings, counseling sessions; all with 16-hour days that could knock the hardiest Type A corporate executive flat on his back from exhaustion.

"While our primary role is spiritual, we must still be in touch with practical matters. But there are only 24 hours in a day. To survive, you have to learn to delegate," Father Frank says.

He's not alone in his struggle. With just one priest to assist him, the kindly 59-year old priest is just one of thousands of Catholic clergy finding himself working virtually around the clock to try to meet the never-ending demands of a growing congregation. Since 1965, the number of priests in the Cleveland diocese has dropped 40 percent, from 950 to 575 in 2002. Only 6 percent of those priests are younger than 40, and more of than a quarter of all diocesan priests are 70 or older.

While part of the problem is a lack of young priests coming up through the ranks due to diminishing seminary enrollment, another factor is the rapid expansion in recent years of many suburban Catholic parishes. Nationwide, suburban Catholic congregations are more than six times a s large as their Protestant counterparts.

Although some cities such as Pittsburgh, Chicago and Detroit addressed the issue several years ago by closing dozens of parishes, Bishop Anthony Pill decided against such radical changes in Cleveland in favor of evaluating other options. The diocese is now in the middle of the Vibrant Parish Life project, a three-year comprehensive evaluation of parishes and their staffing, to determine which services can be cutback or even eliminated.

Any decrease in services will most likely be received negatively by modern congregations who have come to expect an all-inclusive range of services from the church, everything from youth ministry to sports, education and counseling programs.

As old expectations collide with the new, Father Frank and thousands of others like him struggle to continue to deliver exceptional ministry with little or no backup support. He has become part of a vanishing generation of priests, one who grew up when clergy could still expect to work reasonable hours, be highly respected in the community, and enjoy emotional and physical support from peers.

Ordained in 1970, Father Frank was handpicked to serve as assistant to Bishop James A. Hickey in 1974 and became chancellor of the diocese in 1978. "It was a great joy to work with Bishop Hickey. We complemented each other well," he says.

Although Hickey, who later became cardinal in Washington, urged him to get an advanced degree in canon law in Rome and enter the church hierarchy, Father Frank ultimately chose a less public role. "I enjoyed those years downtown, but my heart has always been in parish life," he says.

He became pastor of St. Jude in 1984 and has never regretted the decision. "The people in the parish become your family. You're part of their ordinary life, sharing their joys and their tragedies, being present for the weddings, funerals, baptisms, celebrations...And the longer you're around, the more effective you become, because there's deep growth in those long-term relationships," he notes.

Father Frank is committed to continuing to provide the school's 500 parish school students with a first-rate Catholic education. Towards that end, St. Jude recently completed a $3 million, 24,000 square-foot addition that includes a new Family Center and Junior High wing addition. "Because of the tight economy, we ended up doing as much of the work as we could ourselves with volunteers and donated efforts," he says. "One of the biggest challenges for the Church today is stewardship: how to motivate people to share their time, their talent, and their treasure."

While Father Frank is justly proud of St. Jude's growth and ever-expanding congregation, what he cherishes most is the comfort he's able to provide by reinforcing the power, presence and healing of God. "You try to get everything done, but ultimately what people remember most is whether you were kind, pastoral, and present. Were you there for them when Grandma died? Were you present when Aunt Mary was in the hospital? That's what people remember most."


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