Catholic Diocese of Austin
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Strategic Pastoral Plan of the Austin Diocese

Priest Availability

Planning Objectives

A. Availability of Priests

  1. Define the mission of the Catholic Church in Central Texas with focus on essential quality pastoral care for all Catholics.
  2. Refine priests’ “job descriptions” to meet present and future needs and define policy and mechanisms for the assignment of priests and their retirement as we seek to optimize effective pastoral care.
  3. Define the present and future needs for permanent deacons. Refine deacons’ “job descriptions” to meet present and future needs and define policy and mechanisms for the assignment of deacons and their retirement as we seek to optimize pastoral care.
  4. Develop a plan to foster the use of parish business administrators to help pastors in parish operation.

B. Vocations

  1. Complete a realistic assessment of present and future availability of priests on a year by year basis over 25 years.
  2. Define a plan to increase vocations and the number of ordained priests available to meet diocesan needs within five years.
  3. Define a plan to meet the present and future needs for permanent deacons. This may include a retraining plan to prepare existing deacons to meet the needs of refined job descriptions.

The mission of the Austin Diocese is to continue the mission of Christ in the world today. Our focus is on Christ, the Gospel and the teachings of the Catholic Church. Our church is about forming God’s people into communities of faith who are transformed by the proclamation of the Word, who celebrate the sacraments and who live their faith daily together. The center of all that priests do is Christ in the Eucharist. We must provide pastoral care that encourages and assists people to grow in their faith.

Therefore, the Catholic Church of Central Texas must devise a plan to provide quality pastoral care as we continue the mission of Christ. We must do this within the constraints of the numbers of available priests, as well as the diversity in both geography (urban, suburban, rural and regional) and demographics (age, socioeconomic, ethnic).

The potential future challenge of priest availability is sufficiently critical that it must be viewed as the pivotal issue in the development of a viable strategy to fulfill our mission. Although it is true that good priestly ministry is being provided for the 400,000 Catholics in this diocese, the situation will become more difficult. If  current ordination trends continue, the  number of priests serving our parishes full time will decline. Meanwhile, the total Catholic population in our area is expected to rise dramatically. To continue providing pastoral care we must seek ways to help our priests in the near term — while we prayerfully and boldly seek to increase priestly vocations.

Our Planning Objectives include developing a clear definition of the essential pastoral care desired for all Catholics and revising priests’ job descriptions to meet present and future needs, including assignment and retirement policies. We must also define needs and refine job descriptions for permanent deacons, and policies for their assignment and retirement. We must also consider parish business administrators to help pastors in parish operations.

We will help our priests significantly by carefully defining those elements of ministry that can be shared with deacons, religious, and laity, and by delegating appropriate duties to them. In doing so we must be vigilant in assuring that our priests remain the shepherd of the parish community and that those duties which are delegated to others are carried out in a quality manner. To do this requires that those elements of delegated pastoral care be carefully selected and matched to local parish size and acceptance levels. It requires that deacons and others who assist priests are properly selected and trained, and that pastors are skilled in delegating.

Our present situation has challenges as the number of Catholics grows and the number of priests decreases. This results in overwhelming expectations and personal demands on priests. At this time help and support systems are inadequate, including that of the preparation and role of the deacons in pastoral ministry.

Recent experience strongly suggests that additional help is available to our pastors through the effective use of parish business administrators. Many pastors spend significant time conducting parish business which can be very effectively delegated to properly trained business administrators. Additional help for priests can come from a diocesan director of Human Resources who will help parishes with issues involving organization, liability, payroll taxes, insurance, personnel, etc.

Inviting priests from those countries that are home to large numbers of our immigrants can also provide effective assistance. Priests so invited will be selected carefully and given adequate cultural and language training to ensure their success.

The first steps include defining the elements of pastoral care and business administration, determining which elements can be delegated, and to whom they can be delegated. This will be done in a clergy convocation. In that same forum we will define the training or retraining necessary to prepare deacons and others to help our priests. We will identify the training desired by pastors to help them become more effective at delegating.

We continue to invite persons to hear the call to the ordained priesthood. The director of Vocations will analyze our future needs and set a goal of 12 new seminarians per year. Several priests will assist him in establishing discernment/formation houses in Austin and College Station, networking with other dioceses, reestablishing the “Explore” program and forming regular discernment group meetings and retreats.

We must continue to appreciate the important ministry of religious priests and invite other religious communities to consider ministry in Central Texas.