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Washington, D. C. 20005 



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Modern pastoral activity requires 

teamwork, that is, a collaboration with 

others who are entrusted with real 

responsi bi I ity. 

This activity, which must constantly 

adapt itself to new situations and meet 

a world in the process of change, re-

quires that all engaged in it, especially 

its directors, have the opportunity for 

study and renewal in some form or 

another. 

We must consult modern techniques: 

the laws of organization and structure, 
and efficiency. 

Our modern pastoral situation poses 

with particular insistence the problem 
of regular replacement of personnel. 

Cardinal Suenens 

Coresponsibility in the Church 





Charles A. Fecher 

Parish Council 

Committee Guide 

National Council of Catholic Men 



Copyright 1970 by The National Council of Catholic Men 

All rights reserved 
No portion of this book may be reproduced 

without the written consent of 
The National Council of Catholic Men 

1312 Massachusetts Avenue N.W. 

Washington, D.C. 20005 

Cover and book design by Bob Abbott 



Contents 

Read This First 7 

The Committees 13 

Administration 15 
Income and Expense 16 
Income 17 
Expenses 18 
Budget 21 
Increasing Parish Income 23 
The Annual Report 24 
Maintenance 25 
Books and Articles 27 

Parish Life 29 
The Liturgy 29 
The Parish Societies 32 
The Parish Census 33 
Ecumenical Relations 34 
Books and Articles 35 

Education 37 
The Role of the Committee 37 
The Parish School 38 
The ceo 42 
Adult Education Programs 44 
Books and Articles 44 

Family Life 47 
Marriage and the Family 48 
The Parish Council and Youth 51 
The Parish and Its Senior Citizens 52 
Books and Articles 55 

Social Action 57 
The Committee and the Community 58 
The Committee and Race Relations 61 
Books and Articles 64 

Tying Things Up 67 





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This book is a sequel to Parish Coun-
cils: A Report on Principles, Purposes, 
Structures, and Coals, published by the 
National Council of Catholic Men in 

1968. At that time the concept of Parish 
Councils was still quite new, and prob-

ably only a very small number existed 

in any really organized and effective 

state. Interest, however, was already 

high, and there seemed a genuine need 

for some kind of theoretical and prac-

tical guidebook on the subject. Parish 
Councils was an attempt to meet that 
need . It set forth what might be called 
the theology underlying the idea, drew 

upon the experiences of counci Is that 

had already been formed, and correlated 
their experiences in concrete sugges-

tions for the first steps of organization. 

This book picks up where that one 

left off. It presupposes that a Parish 

Council exists and that it is a viable, 
effective, "action " body. As such it 

will show at least two distinguishing 

characteristics: clearly defined re-

sponsibilities and the authority needed 

to meet them . 

We are aware, of course, that not 

all Parish Councils meet this descrip-

tion . Some (a minority perhaps, but a 

still too substantial minority) function 

in a purely advisory capacity. They 

study situations or problems and then 

make recommendations to the pastor, 

who is free to accept or reject them . 

The Council itself decides nothing-or 

only very little. While this is certainly 

somewhat less than the ideal , it is hoped 

that the practical suggestions con-

tained in these pages will be of help 

even in such circumstances. 

Generally speaking, both the respon-

sibility and the authority of the Council 

are set forth explicitly in a written con-

stitution and/or bylaws, along with 
such other matters as methods of elec-

tion, appointment, tenure, duties of 

the various officers and chairmen, and 

fre~uency of meetings. Here again, not 
all Councils function in just this way. 

Some, after the manner of the British 

Government, apparently manage to get 

along quite satisfactorily without any 

written charter and deal with new 

situations in an ad hoc way as they 

arise. If this works, well and good; 

but it scarcely needs be said that some 

kind of formal bylaws, however mini-
mal and flexible, are of inestimable aid 

for smooth operations. 

Perhaps the first thing to remember 

when treating of Parish Councils is that 
there is no kind of juridical or canonical 

provision for them in Church law. The 

Code of Canon Law, promulgated in 

1918, is naturally silent on the subject. 
In 1963 Pope john XXIII created a 
Commission for the Revision of Canon 

Law which was subsequently confirmed 

and expanded by Pope Paul VI. This 

comm1ss1on is still engaged upon its 

task. 

9 



Read Thi s First 

Parish Councils owe their existence 

to a recommendation put forth by the 

Fathers of the Second Vatican Council in 

the Decree on the Apostolate of the 
Laity (Ch. 5, No. 26): 

"In dioceses, as far as possible, there 

should be councils which assist the 

apostolic work of the Church either in 

the field of making the gospel known 

and men holy, or in charitable, social 

or other spheres. To this end, clergy 

and religious should appropriately co-

operate with the laity. While preserving 

the proper character and autonomy of 

each organization, these councils will 

be able to promote the mutual coordina-

tion of various lay associations and 

enterprises." This refers to the estab-

lishment of diocesan councils of the 

laity. However, in the very next para-

graph the Fathers continue: " Counci Is 

of this type should be established as 

far as possible also on the parochial, 

interparochial, and interdiocesan level 

as well as in the national or international 

sphere. " Plainly enough, this sentence 

constitutes a mandate for the formation 
of Parish Counci Is. 

The absence of any detailed legisla-

tion on the subject at present is both a 

strength and a weakness, but fortunately 

it is much more the former than the 

latter. If some kind of abstract, a priori 

structure had been created and imposed 

from above, into which every Parish 

Council had to fit willy-nilly, there is no 

doubt that the growth of many would 

have been severely impeded. Provisions 

which might have been helpful, and 

perhaps even ideal, in one diocese or 

parish could fail utterly to meet the 

needs of another. As it was, each one 

was free to develop along the lines that 

seemed most suited to his own concrete 

situation and problems. To be sure, it 

mi ght experience some rather severe 
growing pains while it did so, but- in the 

long run this was all to the good . 

10 

The weakness was twofold. In the 

first place, the fact that there was no 

law calling for Parish Councils, or mak-

ing them mandatory, meant that each 

local Church authority-bishops first, 

then pastors-was free to implement the 
"recommendations" of Vatican I I to 

whatever degree he wished , or to ignore 

them altogether. Indolence, the eternal 

human desire to hold on to the status 

quo, fear for the loss of power, and (in 

the United States, at least) the haunting 

specter of trusteeism caused delay and 

inaction in the forming of Parish Coun-

cils . There is no question that in large 

numbers of parishes the laity have been 

quite anxious to \ form a Parish Counci I 

but have been prevented from doing so 

by a pastor who stubbornly refuses to 

have anything to do with the idea. Less 

frequent, perhaps, but real enough is the 

case of the pastor who longs for and 

would genuinely welcome the assistance 

that a Parish Council could bring to him, 

but who simply cannot get his people to 

assume the rights and responsibilities of 

the apostolate. 

The second weakness arising from an 

absence of directives is perhaps only 

apparent rather than real. But it does 

pose problems. At a reasonably educated 

guess there are about 10,000 Parish 

Councils in existence in this country; 

and, while it would be an exaggeration 

to say that like snowflakes no two of 

them are identical, they do run the 

whole gamut of sizes, structures, and 

operations . Some are so small and care-

fully hand-picked that they in no sense 

represent an authentic voice of the 

parish; others are so big and unwieldy 

that they do little more than get in their 

own way. Some, once organized, gal-

loped off wildly in all directions and as 

a result accomplished nothing; others 

just sat aro.und waiting for instructions 

from above, and these accomplished 

nothing either. 



What this amounts to, briefly and 

bluntly, is that many Councils came into 

existence suffering from what the jargon 

of the day calls an " identity c risis. " 

They came into being without any very 

clear idea of what they were, and this 

meant that they lacked in turn an ade-

quate concept of what they were sup-

posed to do and how they were supposed 

to do it. Unhappily nobody else knew 

either; the bishops and pastors who 

formed them were not a bit better off 
in this regard . 

Obviously, then , there is still need for 

help. But the nature of the need has 

shifted . When the first Parish Councils 
Report was written , the need was for 
something more or less along the lines 

of a blueprint, something, in other 

words, that wo uld detail the essential 

first steps to be taken in organizing and 

getting started . Now the need is for a 

presentation of the main areas of con-

cern and activity for a Council and sug-

gested means for dealing with them. 

It is to meet thi s subsequent need 

that this guide is offered. Unlike much 

of the first, it falls entirely within the 

realm of what the vocabulary of scho-

lastic theology used to call the " prac-

tical order. " At the risk, sometimes, of 

seeming to labor the obvious, we have 

endeavored to treat the very down-to-
earth problems that any Parish Council 
will run into as it goes about its work . 

Some of these problems are big, some 

small ; some may be broad and general 

in nature, others are rather specialized; 

some would doubtless arise in any kind 

of formal or organized group, others 

are more or less peculiar to a Catholic 

congregation . But whatever their nature, 

they all enter into the I ife of a com-
munity of die " People of God" in the 

twentieth century, and this means that 

they are matters of concern to a Parish 

Council. 

To set forth these problems we have 

supposed the existence of five commit-

tee~r.-Administra tion, including finance, 
budget, and maintenance; Parish Life, 
including liturgy and ecumenism; Edu-
cation, including the parochial school , 
CCD, and adult education; Family Life, 
including, among other things, the 

special problems of youth and the aged; 

Social Action, including liaison with 
government and chancery, research, 

information services, and the relation-

ship of the parish with the larger com-

munity of which it is a part. 

Before going any further, a number of 

observations are in order. First we are 
aware that not all Parish Councils use 

the committee system. But our re-

search would seem to indicate that the 
vast majority do, and certainly it is the 

most logical means of assuring a proper 

division of labor and of seeing that 

needed work gets done. 

Second, those Councils that do use 
them may not have these particular five . 

But regardless of how many there are, 

and what their names may be, all the 

areas in which a Council would nor-

mally be called upon to function would 
seem to fall under one or another of 

these headings. 

Third, and most important, it is rare 
for a committee to exist purely qua 

committee. As a general rule a commit-

tee is a subunit of some larger body-in 

this case, of the Parish Council. There 

may be times when we seem to be giving 

the impression that each of these five is 

operating in a vacuum, making its own 

decisions without reference to anybody 

or anything else. Nothing could be more 

erroneous, or- in practice- more frus-

trating . Because there are no imposed 

and uniform structures, procedures 

here will doubtless vary from one coun-

cil to another ; but it seems safe to say 

that in most cases authority wi II be 
vested in the council as a whole, and 

that the final responsibility for making 

11 



Read This First 

decisions will ~st with whomever it has 
chosen to be its head. That is why we 
have spoken of the desirability of some 
form of constitution or bylaws in which 

these matters are carefully spelled out, 
and that is why, too, after treating each 

of the five committees, we have added 
a brief closing chapter that offers some 
comments on their interrelationships 

and mutual collaboration . 
In each section we have tried to in-

dicate what the duties of that particular 
committee should be and put forth 
some concrete and practical suggestions 

for going about them. Although we may 
occasionally say things that anybody 
could reasonably be expected to know, 

we have done our best to avoid writing 
the kind of "how-to" manual which 

condescendingly assumes that its audi-

ence knows nothing about anything. At 
the end of each chapter there has been 
included a brief list of books, sections 

of books, articles, and other publica-
tions that pursue the subject in further 

depth and might possibly be helpful. 
Like its predecessor, Parish Council 

Committee Guide is essentially the work 
of many hands in many places. Our own 

role in writing and producing it has been 
hardly more than bringing together in a 

common fund the experiences of coun-

cils, at both parish and diocesan levels, 
in every part of the country. We are more 
grateful than we can say for their gen-
erous interest and cooperation, and our 

greatest regret is that it is quite imprac-
tical to attempt anything like a detailed 
listing of acknowledgments. If it is true 

that there is no school like experience, 

it is also true that the sharing of experi-
ences with others is the next best form 
of instruction; and for this reason we 
invite all Parish Councils everywhere to 

continue to tell us what they have done, 
what knowledge they have gained, what 
mistakes they have made, and what they 

would do differently if they had it to do 

12 

over again . It is only in this way that all 
of us will make progress in what is, after 
all, still a very new field of endeavor. 







Administration 

Christ founded a Church and not a com-
pany, but for better or w orse that Church 

has become a big business in our time. 

This is as true of an individual parish as 

it is of a diocese or the reputed " wealth 
of the Vatican ." 

To argue, as so many well-intentioned 

people have done, that huge physical 

plants, property holdings, and complex 

investments have nothing to do with 

the original simplicity of the Gospel 

message is true enough, but it is one of 

those truths that does not really prove 
anything. A good case can doubtless 

be made for store-front churches and 

against the giant urban and suburban 

parishes many of us have known. But 

even if the latter were to disappear 

tomorrow and store-front churches took 

their place everywhere, some kind of 

business transactions would still be 

needed . Money would come in, and 

some of it would have to be paid out. 

The building would have to be kept 
lighted and warm . If it began to de-

teriorate, somebody would have to be 

hired to repair it. 

For these reasons, there is simply no 

getting away from the need for what we 

have called here the "Administration 

Committee." Its size and the complexity 

of its responsibilities will naturally de-

pend upon the size, resources, obliga-

tions, and needs of the parish itself. But 

not even the poorest inner-city parish 
nor the remotest rural one can operate 

without this committee in some form. 

In what follows, simply to cover as 

many aspects of the subject as possible, 

we have envisaged the committee at 

work in quite a large parish-a typical 
suburban one of two thousand, or more 

families, having a big church, a school 

with religious and lay teachers, a rec-

tory, a convent, a hall or other faci I ity 

for parish and community meetings, 

and the extensive grounds needed to 

hold such a " plant." What is said can 

be applied, making the necessary allow-

ances, for other parishes in different 
circumstances. 

Before beginning the discussion of the 

tasks of this committee, two points must 

be made clear. First, the Administration 
Committee in such a parish calls for a 

high degree of expertise, in a number of 

distinct and varied specialties. At the 

very least, the committee should include 
an accountant or bookkeeper, an attor-

ney, an insurance man, and someone 
with a professional knowledge of plant 

engineering and/ or maintenance. The 

experience of a purchasing agent and 

someone versed in city, county, and 

state ordinances and requirements may 

also be quite helpful. Naturally, not 

every parish is going to have such 

human resources . Where they are avail-

able, fine; where they are not, a com-

bination of interest, willingness to work, 

and intelligent grasp of problems may 

often make up for any lack of ski lis. 

15 



The Committees 

Second, and even more important, 
the Administration Committee can only 

do its job if it is in possession of the 

total picture of affairs. This committee 

in particular, exists to relieve the pastor 

of an enormous burden of detail work 

for which he has probably had no real 

training and in which he presumably 

has little interest and less aptitude. The 

more the Council can assume this 

kind of responsibility, the freer he will 

be to devote himself to the ministry of 

Christ's Word for which he entered the 

priesthood and was ordained. 
Nevertheless, it is undeniable that 

there are sti II many pastors about, who 

have been used to running their parishes 

as a " one-man operation," and who 

shrink in horror from the thought of 

revealing any of its secrets to someone 

else-particularly their own lay people! 

The Administration Committee need 

not have, and probably wi II not have, 

full authority, but it must have full 

knowledge, or else there is no point in 
its trying to do a job at all. Here again 

we are going to assume that we are 

dealing with a pastor who welcomes 

the assistance a Parish Council can 

bring him, and who works with his 

committees in a frank, open, and un-

inhibited manner. To assume anything 

less or to expect such men to weigh 

problems and make intelligent judg-

ments on the basis of incomplete or 

possibly even distorted information 

would be to make a mockery of their 

talents. 

Income and Expense 

The first matter to which the Administra-

tion Committee will want to address 
itself is the hard one of dollars-and-

cents-that is, how much does the 

parish take in, how much must it pay 

out, and how can it make provision from 

its income to meet its many varied 

obligations. 

16 

In any parish, but more especially in 

large ones, both income and expense 

fall within certain broad categories. 
Sound accounting principles suggest 

that each of these be studied and treated 

on an individual basis. The first and most 

obvious of these breakdowns is, of 

course, that between the parish itself 

and the school, but there are others. 

For example, the cost of operating the 
ceo program should certainly be con-
sidered separately. In the case of the 

parish, it might even be well to dis-

tinguish between "public" expense 

(chargeable to the church, the hall , and 

any other facility where the congrega-
tion meets as a body) and those that 

for lack of a better word could be called 

"private" (chargeable to maintenance of 

the rectory and its personnel) . 
Here the matter of expertise is im-

portant. The Administration Committee 

will normally be responsible for all 

parish finances. It should be familiar 

with the cost of every parish operation; 

it should review and approve all bud-

gets and pass upon a// expenditures (or 
at least those above a certain clearly 

specified amount). But the Education 

Committee will presumably have the 

same degree of professional compe-

tence in its field that the Administration 

Committee has in the realm of finance. 

Its membership will be composed, at 

least in part, of educators who know 
something about the cost of operating 

schools, who are familiar with the 

salary scales that must be paid to qual i-

fied teachers on the basis of their aca-

demic degrees, experience, and tenure, 

and who know, too, what audio-visual 
aids and other physical equipment are 

needed in a good school and what it 

costs to have them. The same is true, 
in a slightly different area, of the ceo 
program . 

Accordingly, both financial respon-

sibility for the school and the annual 



budget for its operation should be duties 

of the Education Committee. Those in 

charge of the ceo program (which in 
any event will certainly be represented 

on the Education Committee) should 

similarly oversee the monetary detai Is 

of this program. These groups may 

want assistance from the Administra-

tion Committee in certain matters, and 
they are entitled to have it. But in 

accordance with what has come to be 

known as the " principle of subsidiarity, " 

the Administration Committee should 

not try to do what the Education Com-

mittee is competent to do better. All 

the former need do is review these 

budgets, pass upon them with or with-

out modifications, and integrate them 

into the total picture of parish finances. 

For these reasons, we are going to defer 

consideration of school and ceo bud-
gets until we discuss the Education 

Committee. 

Listed below are the most common 

items of income and expense which the 

Committee must study and on which it, 

or some responsible person, must 

maintain records. To most of these we 

have added some brief supplementary 

comments. It is no part of the function 

of this manual to tell the Committee 
how to keep a set of books; but some of 

these remarks may possibly be helpful 

in indicating how to estimate revenue 

and expenditures, and to provide for 

them in budgets. 

Income 

Plate Collections . These are, of course, 
the regular Offertory collections taken 
up at all Masses on Sundays and holy 

days. Week in and week out during the 
year they should be fairly constant. 

Needless to say, they are the main 

source of parish revenue . Later on in 

this chapter we will discuss possible 

ways of seeking to augment them. 

Special Collections. Any of the extra 

Administration 

collections taken from time to time for 
the explicit purpose of supplementing 

the regular collections should be con-

sidered and dealt with separately. Cer-

tain collections, for certain purposes, do 

better than others ; past experience will 

indicate what can be expected in each 
case. 

N.B. Collections taken up at the direc-
tion of the Ordinary for special purpose 
or occasions-for example, Catholic 
Charities Appeals, Foreign Miss ions-
are, of course, income at the time, but 
they will normally be transmitted shortly 
thereafter to the Chancery Office or to 
some other designated agency. They 
should be recorded in a separate ac-
count which will usually show a zero 
balance. 

Parish Events. These are any social 
affairs sponsored by the parish for the 

express purpose of raising funds; for 

example, fairs, carnivals, dances, and 

dinners. Past experience wi II certainly 

be some guide in estimating what they 

will yield , but it should be borne in 

mind that many of these things no longer 

have the attraction for people that they 

once had. The old-time parish carnival , 

for example, has in many places all but 

disappeared from the scene. 

Bequests. Bequests made by present 
or former parishioners, or by any phil-

anthropic source, can be a significant 

item in parish income. It is usually un-

wise, however, to count upon them in 

advance. On the other hand, the income 

derived from past bequests can gener-

ally be considered a stable item of 

revenue. 

Income derived from purchase or sale 
of stocks, bonds, and government or 
other types of securities. 

Interest on savings accounts in banks 
and building-and-loan institutions. 

Interest on funds' advanced to dio-
cese. In many places it has become 

customary for parishes to place any 

17 



The Committees 

excess funds they may have on deposit 

with the Chancery Office, for use by the 
Ordinary in his care of the over-all needs 

of the diocese. The Chancery Office 

covers this loan with an interest-bearing 
demand note, and the rate of interest 

is at least equal to what could be real -

ized from commercial in stitutions. Such 

advances can, therefore, be a source of 

revenue . 

N.B. Purely for bookkeeping purposes, 
interest derived from the three foregoing 

items will probably all be entered in a 

single account, " Interest Income." How-

ever, in the preparation of an annual 

budget it might be well to estimate and 

itemize them individually. 

Sales of papers, books, pamphlets, 

votive lights, religious articles, the poor 

box and so on . 

In many places, sale of the diocesan 

newspaper is handled on what is usually 

referred to as the " Parish Distribution 

Plan," that is, it is sent to all families on 

the parish membership rolls, and the 

newspaper bills the parish for the total 

quantity at a discount, usually about 20 

percent, from the regular subscription 

price. Assuming that the parish in turn 

collects the full price from each home 

receiving the paper, the difference will 

be a source of income. So far as vigil 

lights and many kinds of religious articles 
are concerned, it should be plain that 

the popularity of these has dropped 

sharply in the years since the Second 

Vatican Counci I. In old and long-
established city parishes use of them 

may still be fairly consistent; in newer 

and suburban parishes it is likely to be 

negligible or even nonexistent. 

Rental of facilities. Many inner city 

parishes are in the paradoxical position 

of having large and even commodious 

facilities which were built in a more 

affluent era and whi ch are now standing 

largely idle for the simple reason that 

the parish is only a fragment of its former 

18 

self. At the same time city and commu-

nity agencies are often in desperate need 

of space for children's and young adults' 

recreation or meetings, and other kinds 

of neighborhood activities. Making 

these otherwise unused facilities avail-
able for such purposes not only has the 

very desirable effect of involving the 

parish more deeply in neighborhood and 

community life (a responsibility of the ; 

Social Action Committee), but it may 

possibly provide the parish with some 

additional income. Rental of facilities, 

however, need by no means apply only 

to inner city parishes. Those in urban 

and suburban locations may also find 

it advantageous to make their facilities 

available to outside organizations for 

various uses and functions . 

These, then are the usual and regular ' 

sources of parish income, although . 

there may be others. The parish may, for 

example, own property which, for one ' 

reason or another, it has decided to : 

dispose of. But such a thing would be a 

nonrecurring type of income-under- · 

taken to meet a special pressing need 

or because it seems more profitable to 

get rid of the property than to hold on 
to it-and it would have to be taken 
into consideration at the time of the · 

transaction. In some cases the nature 

of the property and its value might mean 
that sale would require the prior ap- · 

proval of the Ordinary or the Chancery 

Office. 

Expenses 

Salaries of regular clergy. These are 

usually fixed by the Ordinary or the 

Chancery Office, but they naturally 

come out of parish funds. 

Travel allowance of regular clergy. 

For the most part, of course, this would 

cover priests' car allowances, but it 

might also cover plane or train fare, 

hotel bills, meals, and any other ex-

penses incurred for travel on legitimate 



business. I ri the case of a priest travel-

ling for the diocese, rather than for the 

parish itself, his expenses would in all 

probabi I ity be borne by the Chancery 
Office or by the diocesan agency on 

whose behalf he was making the trip . 

Clergy Education . In many places the 
Ordinary has urged-even if he has not 

actually required-members of his 

clergy to take seminary and college 
courses in theology, liturgy, and relat~d 
subjects, in order to keep abreast of the 

tremendous changes that have occurred 

in these areas si nee Vatican II. Priests' 

Senates and Associations have col-

laborated with local educational authori-
ties in working out curricula for this 

purpose. The tuition for these courses, 
as well as any other expenses incurred 

in taking them, should be considered a 

legitimate parish expense. 

Stipends for visiting clergy. Visiting 

priests who help out on weekends by 

hearing confessions on Saturday and 

celebrating some of the Sunday Masses 

must be reimbursed for their services. 

In some places the amount i"s fixed by 
diocesan synodal legislation. 

Parish debt. Sound accounting prin-
ciples suggest that payments on the 

parish debt be broken down into pri n-

cipal and interest. 
Cathedraticum. This is a tax paid to 

the Chancery Office by each parish to 
support the administration and chari-

table and educational works of the 

diocese. Generally it is a percentage, 

fixed by the Ordinary in consultation 

with his financial advisors, of the annual 

gross income of the parish. 

Rectory household expenses. It would 

be well to break this down into two 

categories : (1) supplies and equipment 
designed for long-term use (furniture, 

rugs, desks, filing cabinets, · and so on) ; 

and (2) the items needed for ordinary 

day-to-day living (food, paper goods, 

laundry and toilet articles, and so on) . 

Administration 

Salaries of parish personnel. This 

would include housekeepers, parish 

secretaries, lay coordinators, janitors, 

sextons, and all other parish personnel 

except for the priests themselves . The 

popes from Leo XIII to Paul VI have re-
peatedly emphasized the · necessity of 

a just wage, but all too often the Church 

has been the last to hearken to its own 

admonition. There is no reason whatever 
to assume that people who work for 

the Church do so out of a sense of devo-

tion or charity; they are entitled to the 

same sal(lry or wage that they could 

earn· for substantially the same services 

elseyvhere. Also, paying them a salary 

involves certain other benefits, at least 
one of which, Social Security, is required 

by law. Both employer and employee 

must pay FICA tax on the employee's 
earnings (at the present time it is 4.8 
percent for each of them on the first 

$7,800), and the employer's share must 

be included in the budget as a salary-

related item. Many dioceses now also 

require the parish to pay for group 

hospitalization insl!rance and to con-
tribute to some form of pension fund 

for lay employees; in such case these, 

too, must he taken into consideration 

in computing what the annual payroll 

cost will be. 

Utilities: heat, light, power, telephone 

and so on . 
Ordinary maintenance and repairs. 

Under this heading would come the 

routine and relatively minor expenses 

incurred in the day-to-day physical up-

keep of the parish plant-such things 

as paint jobs, repairs to a faulty heating 

system, and replacing a broken window.. 

Some of them can be foreseen and pro-

vided for in a budget; for example, the 
Administration Committee would be 

able to estimate when the rectory wood-

work is going to have to be repainted, 

or that the lawn about the church or 

school will have to be re-sodded in the 

19 



The Co mmittees 

spring. On the other hand, there is no 

way of knowing in advance that the 

heating system will break down in the 

middle of january and require purchase 

and install ation of a new part, or that a 

broken window will have to be replaced. 

(Major alterations or additions- re-

decoration of the church , the installa-

tion of an entirely new heating plant, 

or the addition of several new classrooms 

to the school-obviously belong in an 

altogether different category, and will 

be discussed later. ) 

Insurance. More and more it is be-
coming the practice for all diocesan 

insurance to be centralized in the 

Chancery Offi ce or one of its depart-

mental agenc ies, since such an arrange-

ment naturally permits great savings in 

premiums to all concerned . In that case 

the diocesan insurance office would 

handle such matters as claims and ad-

justments. Where this arrangement 

exist s, it wil l not be necessary for the 

Admin ist rati on Committee to concern 

itse lf with the details of insurance 

coverage; but since the central office 

wi l l bill the parish for its share of the 

premiums, the Committee must at least 

be familiar with this billing so that it 

can make proper provision in the budget. 

It will also be its responsibility to notify 
thi s office of anything that could con-

ce ivably affect its coverage or premiums 
many way. 

Charity. Few parishes are so well off 
or located in such universally prosperous 

communities that they have no need 

whatever to practice charity. In some 

pari shes these demands may be heavy 

and unceasing, and meeting them may 

be an agonizing burden; but they must 

be met nonetheless. In more affluent 

and differently situated parishes, it 

may amount to nothing more than an 

occasional itinerant person knocking 

on the rectory door in hunger or want-

but he cannot be turned away either . 

20 

There is some danger that businessmen, 

who make up the Administration Com-

mittee in a large, well-to-do parish, may 

have a tendency to dismiss this sort of 
thing as unreal or pointless, but nothing 

could be more wrong. It is one of the 

reasons-it may, indeed, be the chief 

reason-why the parish exists : to mani-

fest the charity of Christ to those who 

are in need of it. Some provision for it 

should be made in any budget. 

"Adopted" parishes . Related to the 
foregoing, but in a somewhat more 

specialized vein, is the increasingly 

frequent custom of an affluent parish 

adopting a less fortunate one and pro-

viding, to whatever extent may be pos-

sible, for its needs. It may mean taking 

up an occasional Special Collection, the 

receipts of which are sent to the adopted 

parish ; it may involve setting aside for 

it a certain percentage of the parent 

parish 's own plate collections, over and 

above actual budgetary requirement; or 

again it may call for sending supplies 

of canned foods and other nonperish-

able goods on some kind of regular 

basis so that the poorer parish may be 

better assured of being able to meet the 

charitable demands made upon it. The 
parish thus adopted may be in one's own 

diocese, or it may be much more re-

mote-say in an undeveloped and 

cruelly impoverished section of Latin 

America . In either case, there can be no 

better way for some of the members of 

the People of God to manifest their 

concern and love for their brothers in 

Christ. The Administration Committee 

should at least give very serious thought 

to whether such a thing can be under-

taken; and if it can, the knowledge and 

advice of the pastor or of the diocesan 

Charities Office or Office of Urban 

Affairs will be most helpful in deter-

mining just where such assistance can 
best be directed . 

As with receipts , so with expenditures 



-the foregoing list is doubtless incom-

plete, and a particular parish may have 
obligations of an unusual nature which 

could not possibly have been foreseen 

and dealt with in a work of this sort. 
But as we indicated, these are the ordi-

nary ones, the ones that would be pretty 

much common to all parishes every-
where. The Administration Committee 

will want to have full knowledge and 
give careful study to each of them, both 

for its own sake and for its place in the 

preparation of a parish budget. 

Budget 

A budget can be defined as "a plan for 

the coordination of resources, the 

amount of money available, required, 

or assigned to a particular purpose. " 

Well in advance of the first of the 

year, at least three months before, but 

possibly even four or five, the Committee 
should set up a budget calendar. Writ-

ten notice should go out to all the other 

committees of the Parish Council, as 

well as to every organization and office 

which will need or want parish funds to 
operate, informing them that a prelimi-

nary budget request must be submitted 

by a given date. Naturally, sufficient 

time should be allowed between the 

date of the notice and the deadline for 

submission so that the task can be done 

properly for, as anybody knows who has 

ever worked on one, the preparation of 

a budget can be difficult, tedious, and 

time-consuming. Members of the Ad-

ministration Committee should be avail-
able to give help where it is needed or 

asked for. 

When all individual budgets have 
been received , the Committee should 

hold a meeting to review them (or 

several meetings, if the review cannot 

conveniently be done in one session). 

The date for the meeting would, of 

course, have been fixed ahead of time 

as part of the calendar. Here each 

Administration 

budget can be carefully scrutinized and 

requests weighed both on their own 
merits and in relation to the total pic-

ture of parish finances. Members of the 

committees or groups submitting them 
need not be-and in all probability 

should not be-present at this meeting. 

If the information given is complete, 

if the requests seem reasonable, and if 

the Administration Committee has rio 

questions or reservations, the budget 

can be approved forthwith. 
If there are questions, or if the amount 

asked for seems out of line or simply im-

possible, then one or more members 
of that particular body can be invited 

to join the Administration Committee 

at a subsequent meeting to consider 

the matter further. It should not be 

assumed that the sole purpose of such 

a meeting is to inform the group con-
cerned that it will have to slash its 

budget. It may, of course, turn out to be 

necessary to do this; but before coming 

to that decision the group should at 

least have a fair chance to set forth the 

reasons for its requests and whatever 

arguments seem to justify them, and the 

two bodies together may be able to 
weigh possible alternatives. 

Once the individual budgets have all 
been approved, either as originally 

submitted or in a subsequently modified 
form, the Administration Committee 

can proceed to integrate them into a 

single budget reflecting the total anti-

cipated revenues and expenditures of 

the parish for the year. This will be the 

Parish Budget. Although prepared by the 

Administration Committee, it will pre-

sumably require formal approval by the 

full Parish Council, by the pastor, and 

possibly by the parish a:s a whole. 

Even if approval by the entire parish 

is not necessary, or just not practical, 

parishioners should at least know about 

the budget and have an opportunity to 

see it. This can be done by presenting it 

21 



The Committees 

at a well-publicized general meeting, or 

by sending it in the mail to everyone on 

the parish rolls with a remark that com-

ments and suggestions wi II be welcome. 

The important thing here is that no 

parishioner should be able to make the 

statement that a clique prepared the 

budget and that the parish as a whole 

had no voice in it. 

How rigid should it be? Well, setting 

aside the word "rigid" as being perhaps 

not the happiest one to use here, it 

goes without saying that it should be 

just as realistic and exact as possible. 

Every effort should be made by everyone 

concerned to operate within its frame-

work, or else there seems little point in 

having a budget at all . At the same time 

this can certainly be balanced by at least 

a moderate degree of flexibility . After 

all , each committee or department is 
going to be responsible for the adminis-

tration of its own budget, and responsi-

bility normally implies judgment, some 

initiative, and the authority to make 

some decisions. Circumstances change, 
and demands no one could have fore-

seen when the original requests were 

submitted sometimes arise. No budget 

should be calculated so tightly or be so 

unalterable in its application that 

anyone has to fear making making minor 

adjustments in it or even asking for 

supplementary funds if there is real 
necessity for them . 

Naturally, having once prepared the 

total budget, the Administration Com-

mittee cannot assume that from that 

point on it will simply travel on its own 

momentum with no further supervision . 

On the contrary it should be reviewed 

on a regular basis, certainly not less than 

quarterly. The advantages of this are 

obvious. If, for example, it should de-

velop that a particular committee or 

group has used up three-quarters of its 

budget in one-half the time, the re-

sponsible people can be alerted and the 

22 

situation examined. Perhaps there is a 

need for more money, but perhaps just 

a little belt-tightening is all that is neces-
sary to bring things into line. 

Remember, too, that it cannot always 

be assumed that if the figures in the 

budget are divided by twelve, this will 

give the amount of income and expense 

to be anticipated for each month of the 

year. If the school, say, consumed 

three-quarters of its budget in the first 

six months of the calendar year, this is 

not necessarily critical because it is 

going to be closed for the three months 

of summer and may very well get by on 

its remaining funds in the period be-

tween September and the Christmas 

vacation period . Similarly in the matter 

of estimating income: a parish with a 

large population of seasonal migratory 

workers, or one located in a popular 

resort area where there are I iterally 

thousands of summer visitors but only 

a few hundred year-round residents, 

must estimate income and its relation-

ship to expenditures in a manner sig-

nificantly different from that of a parish 

where membership and attendance are 

more or less constant. 

Realism and flexibility, these are un-

doubtedly the hallmarks of a successful 

and workable budget. In the kind of 

Administration Committee that we have 

envisaged here-a committee made up, 

that is, of experienced, level-headed 

businessmen-there is probably not 

much danger of error, poor judgment, or 

blinding oneself to plain facts in any-

thing so extremely practical as planning 

ahead for the parish 's financial life. But 

precisely because they are businessmen, 

there may be some danger of budgetary 

needs taking precedence over spiritual 

and pastoral ones. The Church may be a 

business because there is no way it can 

avoid being one, but the Committee 

should never forget that it is the People 

of God before all else. Neither should it 



forget that the budget exists for the 

parish, not the parish for the budget. 

Increasing Parish Income 

Suppose that when every possible source 

of revenue has been realistically ap-

praised, and every expenditure or need 

that can be anticipated has been pro-

vided for, the budget just does not 
balance. Suppose, in other words, that 

income is less than expenses, or so 

close to them that there is real fiscal 
danger. 

The first reaction of the Administra-

tion Committee may well be, " Let's cut 

down on expenses! " And certainly this 

may be quite possible . Perhaps the 

lawns do not have to be watered every 

day during the summer, or so many 

hours of every day. Perhaps somebody 
could go around at night turning out the 

lights if electric power is being used 

wastefully. Perhaps the closed-circuit 

TV system that the school had hoped for 

will just have to wait for a while at least. 

Another look at the income column 

might be helpful too. Is the parish earn-

ing as much as it could on its savings? 

Obviously, a bank or a building and loan 

association that pays 5.25 percent in-

terest is a better place for one's money 

to be than a similar institution that 

pays only 5 percent. 

But chipping away at expenses and 

building up earnings can at best be no 
more than merely marginal. The volun-

tary offerings of its members in the 

plate collections are, as we said earlier, 

the main source of income for the 

parish, and it is here that the problem 

must be met head-on . 

It has been pretty well established that 

in most parishes one-third of the people 

give 70 to 80 p~rcent of all income, 
another one-third give 20 to 30 percent, 

and the remaining third give nothing. A 

simple appeal for greater generosity will 

probably have the following results: the 

Administration 

upper third will respond (but since they 

are already bearing such a dispropor-

tionate share of the burden it seems un-

fair to ask them to assume more) ; the 

middle third may or may not increase 

their contributions ; and the lower third 

will give precisely what they gave before 

-namely, nothing. 

The Administration Committee will 

have to tackle this problem with the 

same careful judgment and circumspec-

tion that it used in working out the 

budget. It does no good to set imprac-

tical goals and hope that somehow they 

will be realized. Some very down-to-

earth questions will have to be asked, 

and it may take considerable study and 

probing to come up with the answers to 

them. 

How many families are on the parish 

rolls? Are some of them wealthy, do the 

majority fall in the middle-income 

bracket, and are there others which , by 

the most modest standards, must be 

con sidered poor? Or does the parish 

present a rather uniform picture in this 

respect? How much is normally collected 

on a Sunday, and if this is divided by 
the number of families what does it 

average out to for each? Who actually 

gives what (on the basis of the envelope 
records)? What should each family be 

contributing if the parish is to maintain 

a healthy financial condition, and can 

this figure reasonably be asked and 

expected? 

If finding the answers to these ques-

tions is not easy, the job of presenting 

the end result to the parish is harder yet. 

One way that it might be done is by 

an appeal from the pulpit. Only, instead 

of the parish priests, let it be done by 

members of the Administration Commit-

tee, perhaps taking turns at each of the 

Sunday Masses. The experience of hear-

ing a lay member of the parish set forth 

the parish 's plight in clear, realistic 

terms is certain to make a much deeper 

23 



The Committees 

impression than the same words would 

coming from a priest. Without taking 

too much time from what is, after all, a 
liturgical celebration, and without going 

into boring detail, the Committee mem-

bers can explain what the needs are, 

how far the parish is falling short of 

meeting them, and what is required 

from each to enable it to serve all its 
members well. 

These facts can also be presented 

succinctly in the weekly bulletin, and 

the problem can be made the occasion 
for a general parish meeting-except 

that at such a meeting the people for 

whom it is most specifically called will 

probably not be present. 

Whatever way it is done-and the 

Administration Committee may even 

want to go to the length of making 

house-to-house calls on all the parishion-

ers-the most important element here 

is communication. The facts must be 

made known to all-or substantially all 

-the members of the parish. They must 

be followed by blunt appeal, an appeal 

that stresses the new role of the laity 
in the Church, emphasizes that this role 

involves not only rights but responsibili-

ties, and brings out the fact that the 

People of God have a very real obi iga-

tion to their parish. Obviously this need 

not be done in the ecclesiastical jargon 

of Vatican II documents, but the the-

ology of the laity embodied in these 

documents will provide a very solid 

foundation . 

The envelope system is one of the 

few things in the American Church that 

has not changed . But there is need for a 

great change in the amount of money 

that is being put into them. It would 

seem to be a mystery as profound as 
any in our faith how people can know 

perfectly well that they must pay more 

today for a new car or a steak dinner 

than they paid ten or even five years 

ago, and yet at the same time blandly 

24 

assume the cost of living for a parish 

has not gone up. A vigorous program of 

education is called for in this area and 

there is good reason to believe that such 
a program can be successful, that if 

people are really awakened to the need 
they will respond . 

The envelope system itself, some form 

of pledge, tithing (if not 10 percent, 

then perhaps 5 percent)-the Adminis-

tration Committee will want to weigh 

all these in its consideration of augment-

ing parish income. Whatever is decided 

upon, there is no substitute for the 

direct approach: "Mr. jones, how much 

will you pledge to give to your parish 
each week during the coming year?" 

As a last resort, the Committee might 

want to give some thought to the ad-
visability of employing professional 

fund-raisers. These people have a very 

specialized expertise, and their cam-

paigns are usually quite effective. They 

can bring to the job not only their 
knowledge but full -time concentration , 

something that the members of the 
Committee, giving of both the time and 

the energy left over from their daily 

occupations, cannot do. It should be 

borne in mind, however, that in general 

such services come high-which is 

why we said " as a last resort." There 

may also be a feeling in many places 

that the parish can solve its own prob-

lems without calling in outside help. 
Certainly the relative merits and dis-

advantages of such a thing should be 

very carefully weighed before the 

Committee makes its decision . 

The Annual Report 

One of the most important duties of the 

Administration Committee will be to 

give an account of its stewardship. 

Since the people are contributing their 

money for the upkeep of the parish, 

they have a right to know what is being 

done with it; and this is accomplished 



by means of the annual financial report. 

Most older Catholics can remember 

that Sunday, usually toward the end of 

January, when the pastor at the Masses 
delivered the report for the year just 

ended. While the congregation fidgeted, 

he read in a more or less intelligible 

voice a long list of accounts and figures, 
bearing down heavily on that final item 

of what was left over. (In those days 
there was usually something left over.) 

Then he concluded by thanking the 

parishioners for their generosity in the 
past and by expressing the hope that 

they would do as well or even better in 

the future. 
If the current renewal in the Church 

had accomplished nothing else, it could 
at least be justified on the ground that 

it has eliminated this. There is not the 

slightest reason in the world why the 

celebration of Mass should be inter-

rupted for such a thing, and no real 

reason, either, why a priest should have 

to do it. With the advent of Parish Coun-

cils, it becomes the responsibility of 

those who have been entrusted with the 
management of funds by their fellow 

parishioners and who have actually 

been administering them throughout 
the year. 

The annual report for a parish does 

not have to look like the profit-and-loss 

statement for General Motors. It can be 

complete and honest without going 

into burdensome and meaningless de-
tai I. The majority of the people who read 

it are not going to be professional 

accountants, and their interest will be 

chiefly in totals and balances rather 

than i.n how those totals were arrived at. 

Nothing should be concealed, of course, 

and nothing should be misleading; but 

the two chief marks of a parish report 

will be brevity and simplicity-and also, 

perhaps, timeliness, since the longer it 

is delayed after the end of the year, the 

less interest and meaning it will have. If 

Administration 

it can be done without causing confu-
sion, perhaps the budget for the year 

should be set beside the actual receipts 

and expenditures so that a comparison 

can be made between the two. 

Where and how to present it, if it is 

no longer going to be a substitute for a 

homily? Certainly it should be a supple-
ment to the weekly bulletin , and again 

it might be well to make it the occasion 

for a general parish meeting. Here those 

who do have questions can ask them, 

and here, too, the Administration 

Committee can go into details and offer 
explanations that could not very well 

be included in the written report itself. 

Finally, here if anywhere is a splend id 

opportunity-especially if the figures 

do not look good-to emphasize that 

the parish has no other real means of 

support except the contributions of its 

members, and to point to the report 

itself in appealing for greater generosity 

on the part of all. 

One other thought in this connection. 

We have spoken in terms of a financial 

report, but there are obviously aspects 
of parish life that cannot be set down in 

terms of dollars and cents. How many 

persons, children or adults, became 

members of the People of God through 

Baptism? How many of the parishioners 

died during the past year? How many 

were joined in Matrimony? How many 

persons became members of this par-

ticular community by moving into the 

parish, and how many moved out of it? 

These figures may not be the respon-

sibility of the Administration Commit-

tee, but they are certainly part of any 

complete report of the life of a parish 

for a given year. 

Maintenance 

If we devote less time and space to the 

duties of the Administration Committee 

in the area of maintenance, this should 

not be taken to imply that it is secondary 

25 



The Committees 

or less important. On the contrary, 1t IS 

in every way as important as the manage-

ment of a parish's financial affairs, and 
whereas such things as budgets and re-

ports may come up only at infrequent 

intervals, maintenance of the physical 
plant calls for constant supervision and 

care, and for the making of a great 

many decisions. 

Two rather distinct things are in-

volved here-distinct even if quite 
closely related. The first is what is 

usually called preventive maintenance: 

the ordinary, day-to-day check of all 

facilities to make sure that they are in 

good condition and working with maxi-

mum possible efficiency. The other, for 

which there is really no convenient term, 

is concerned with the decisions that 
have to be made, and the implementa-

tion that they require, in the case of 

major renovations and additions to 

property. Obviously this latter is not 

something that is going to happen very 

often, but when it does it wi II demand 
the most careful consideration and 
judgment. 

With regard to the first, or preventive 

maintenance, it seems fairly safe to say 

that few parishes have any real idea of 

the extent of their facilities, appliances, 

and ordinary operating materials-of all 

the parts, in other words, that make up 
the whole plant. Such things are usually 

taken for granted until they break down 
or the supply runs out. For this reason, 

one of the first tasks of the Committee 

as it embarks upon its work in this area 

might well be to take an inventory of 

the parish, to set up some kind of file 

that would permit instant check of all 

properties and facilities and that could 

be referred to whenever the need arose. 

(This would be invaluable when this 

portion of the annual budget was under 

review.) 

Such a record would go beyond count-

ing the number of folding chairs and 

26 

spare light bulbs. It could even cover 
each individual room in the church, 

school, rectory, and convent. When, 

for exampfe, was the rectory living room 

last painted? Who did it, what grade 
and color of paint was used, and how 

much did it cost? When should one plan 

on having it painted again? In the case 

of operating appliances, the church 

heating plant offers perhaps the most 

obvious example. How old is it? What 

did it cost when it was put in, and what 

is it worth today on the basis of accepted 
accounting methods of depreciation? 

How efficient is it, and how would it 

compare with one that would be in-

stalled now? Does the type of fuel that 

it burns provide maximum efficiency at 

the most reasonable cost? What kind 

of service contract covers it, and if the 

plant is giving a great deal of trouble 

would it actually be more economical 
in the long run to consider replacing it 

with a new one? 

So with every other appliance-the 

air-conditioning system if there is one, 
the cooking ranges in the rectory kitchen 

and the school cafeteria, electrical fix-

tures and wiring, plumbing, and so on. 

Such things as floors, walls, ceilings, 

roofs, and weatherstripping, ought to 

be checked on a regular basis, and on the 

file card covering them a notation should 

be made when the inspection was made, 

what kind of condition they were found 

to be in, and when they ought to be 

looked at again. 

How is this checking to be done? In 

many cases-the heating and air-con-

ditioning systems being the niost ob-

vious ones-it is possible to call in 

outside contractors or consultants to do 

it. But though possible, it may not be 

necessary. Here again expertise is im-

portant. Plumbing is as specialized a 

profession as accounting, a master elec-

trician has as much technical knowledge 

as an attorney. It' is not unreasonable to 



suppose that in a large and diversified 

parish many of these ski lis and trades 

would be found among the members. 

One of the first tasks the Parish Life 

Committee should undertake when it is 

set up-and we will discuss this in more 

detail in the next chapter-is to conduct 

a parish census to determine, among 

many other things, its human resources . 
0 

What special skills and branches of 

knowledge are represented in the com-
o munity? What can each member do for 

the whole parish of which he is a part? 

In every kind of group, remember, there 

are always people who seldom volun-

teer for anything, but who will readily 

say Yes if somebody asks them . The 
0 parish will, of course, normally have 

paid employees who take care of the 

, routine upkeep of the property and 

;

0 

make minor repairs; but the general 

0 overseeing of this work is clearly the 

responsibility of the Administration 
• Committee. 

Major renovations and building should 

be und€rtaken only after exhaustive 

0 
deliberation and study. Not only the 

· priests and the Parish Council but 

perhaps the parish as a whole ought to 

: have a voice in the decision-making. 

(Often such projects will require the 

· prior approval of the Ordinary, or the 

Chancery Office, or the diocesan Build-

ing Commission.) Once it has been 

decided to go ahead, the Administra-

tion Committee will have numerous 

details, some big and some small, to 

keep watch on; not the least of these is 

seeing that the whole thing is adequately 

financed. Common business sense dic-

tates that for each phase of the job 

competitive bids be obtained, and 

awards made to the lowest bidder com-

o patible with the kind and quality of 

work desired. 

Both areas of maintenance involve 
0 the expenditure of money, and the 
0 second will call for the expenditure of 

Administration 

large sums. Obviously that is why, in 

setting up the committees, we have 

thought it best to group finance and 

maintenance under the general aegis of 

the Administration Committee. In some 

parishes there are separate Finance and 

Maintenance Committees; when the 

latter wishes to undertake repairs or 

improvements it must presumably go to 

the Finance Committee to obtain the 

necessary funds. If this arrangement 

works satisfactorily, there seems no 

compelling reason to change it, but it 

does appear to add an unnecessary 

amount of red tape to the operations of 

both committees. In our opm1on, 

placing both responsibilities in the 

hands of the same group facilitates both 

the making of decisions and the neces-

sary authority to ca rry them out. 

Books and Articles 

Material on the financial administration 

and physical mai11tenance of parishes 

is scant, and what little there is can 
hardly be ca lled helpful. Since this is 

really a new area of lay activity, in which 

much trial and error is currently going 

on, it will doubtless take some time for 

an adequate literature to build up. 

Programs for Parish Councils: An 

Action Manual by Bernard Lyons 

(Techny, Ill.: Divine Word Publications, 
124 pp. , $1.50) and Your Parish Comes 
Alive by Robert C. Broderick (Chicago: 
Franciscan Herald Press, 72 pp., $1.95) 
will both provide some assistance. 

Lyons treats finance and administration 

in his Chapter 11 , pp. 113-124; as in his 
handling of all the other committees 

he simply asks questions, but the 

questions do suggest directions and 

operational methods. Broderick sepa-

rates his " Finance Commission" from 

his " Building and Maintenance Commis-

sion ;" the former is treated in Chapter 

3, pp. 30-36, and the latter in Chapter 4, 
pp. 37-41. 

27 



The Committees 

An excellent Parish Budget Manual 
has been published by the Diocese of 

Tucson, Arizona, the result of a seminar 

on parish finance conducted by the 

Priests' Senate there in September of 

1968; though brief and very general, 

it is filled with many good ideas and 

suggestions. Far more complete and 

detailed is An Accounting Manual for 
Catholic Parishes put out by the same 
diocese a bit later; the system of ac-

counts, method of entries, and so on, 

were of course developed for use in the 
Tucson diocese, but with whatever 

modifications might be necessary or 

desirable, they could easily be adapted 

elsewhere. While these manuals are not 

available for public sale, interested per-

sons migh't at least direct their inquiries 
to the Chancery Office, 192 South Stone 

Avenue, Tucson, Arizona 85702 . 

The Layman's Guide to Preparing 

Financial Statements for Churches, 

written by Malvern j. Gross, Jr., CPA, and 
published by the American Institute of 

Certified Public Accountants, 666 Fifth 

Avenue, New York, New York 10019, 

contains very helpful material on bud-

gets as well as on annual reports, and 

includes sample financial statements of 

varying degrees of complexity. 

Most of the fund-raising firms publish 

brochures, in some cases quite elabor-

ate, which list and explain their services 

and offer general information on what 

may be expected from their use. In a 

bibliography of this nature there would 

obviously be little point in trying to 

include any of this material, but it can 

be obtained very easily from any such 

firm listed in the phone directory. 

At the present time there seems to be 

nothing devoted to the specific area of 

parish plant maintenance. There is a real 

need here, and it is to be hoped that 

something along these lines may appear 

for inclusion in subsequent editions of 

this manual. 

28 



Parish Life 

' The preceding chapter treated of things 

as solidly material as bricks and mortar, 

and as symbolically so as dollars and 
cents. The Parish Life Committee is 

concerned with the realm we usually 

think of when we hear the term "Church" 
used: the People of God as a worship-

ping community. 

In a sense the name we have given 

to this committee is misleading, be-
cause such things as administration, 

education, and social action are vital 

aspects of parish life too. But these 

aspects flow from and are inspired by 

the community's central act of worship. 

This is the first and chief reason why 

the parish exists at all, for where there 
is no worship there is no parish. Worship 

creates the community: around this 

concept together with all the activities 
that normally follow from it, we have 

structured the Parish Life Committee. 

The Liturgy 

The task of planning, perfecting, and 

playing an active role in liturgical cele-

bration, and of educating the total 

congregation in it, is the Parish Life 

Committee's primary responsibility. 

To say that such a thing is more im-

portant today than it has ever been 

before is really inaccurate. It is quite 

literally a brand new task, one that up 

until a few years ago did not exist. In the 

past, liturgical worship had been rigidly 
fixed: the Mass for the Tenth Sunday 

after Pentecost had not varied, year in 

and year out, since the sixteenth cen-

tury. Inflexible rubrics provided for the 

celebrant's position at any given mo-

ment, even for the movements of his 

hands and fingers. Except for a choir 

and an organist at High Mass-and, 

of course, the altar boys-there was no 
role for the laity and no need for them 

to take part. 

This is being written at a time when, 

following already extensive liturgical 

reform in recent years, a new Order of 
Mass has been introduced, the chief 

marks of which are flexibility and pro-

vision for options. It provides for much 

greater freedom in prayers, music, and 
available Scripture readings. The selec-

tion of these depends not just on the 

particular Sunday or feast but also, and 

to a large extent, on the needs and 

wishes of the congregation, its members, 
and even the whole secular community 

of which the parish is a part. It is neces-

sary to plan the liturgy as it never had 

to be planned before. And in this the 

role of the laity has become more than 

important-it 1s now integral and 
indispensable. 

Thus the Parish Life Committee bears 

new and heavy responsibilities . These 

break down into two main areas, which 

we may call respectively implementation 
and education. 

Implementation has to do with the 
actual performance of the liturgical 

29 



The Committees 

celebration itself. Since this involves· 

many different persons and roles, the 

committee should be as representative 
of the community as possible. Since 

the leader of worship is usually a priest, 

either the pastor or an associate priest 

designated by him must be a member. 

To it he can bring the professional 

knowledge of his scriptural and theologi-

cal studies and his personal expertise 
in the liturgy, as well as the benefit of 

all communications which the parish 

regularly receives from the diocesan 
Liturgical Commission. But there must 

also be room and a voice for represen-

tatives of the lectors, cantors, ushers, 
organists, the choir (if there still is one), 

the parish school and CCD, and any 

other group specifically concerned with 

religious education. 

Finally-and this point is more im-
portant-membership on the committee 

should by no means be restricted just 

to those who take an actual part in 

liturgical celebrations from within the 

sanctuary. The man and woman " in the 

pew" ought to be represented, as well as 

teenagers and young adults. And if 

there are in the parish any writers, poets, 
artists, or professional musicians, these 

may also be able to make significant 

contributions. 

Such a group can constitute, in effect, 
a task force whose responsibility it will 

be to insure that the liturgy is carried 

out both with dignity and meaning: the 

dignity that befits it as the proclamation 

of God's Word, and the meaning that it 

must have for the congregation and each 

of its members. The committee will have 

to determine not just the parish's needs 

and desires (which after all are subject 

to change) but even its " personality/' so 

that this may be faithfully reflected in 
its worship and that worship may in 

turn deepen and enrich its personality. 

Needless to say, this is not just a 

matter of trying to keep everybody 

30 

happy. It does not mean having "tra-

ditional " hymns on occasion for old 

and conservative people, or scheduling 

a " guitar Mass" or two each week for 

young and liberal ones . Even less does 

it simply consist in being sure that 

Masses are at those hours which pro-

vide maximum convenience for the 

greatest number, and that they are 

spaced sufficiently far apart for people 

to get on and off the parking lot without 

either fenders or tempers being scraped. 

These things are among the details 

which the committee will have to con-

cern itself with, but the total respon-

sibility goes deeper. 

It calls for an intelligent planning and 

coordinating of the various elements of 

the liturgy-hymns, prayers, readings, 

homily, the Prayer of the Faithful-in 
such a way that the whole is spiritually 
enriching and satisfying for everyone, 

even though some individuals may not 

be happy with one or another of the 

parts. There are Catholics-and very 
good ones-who will simply never be 

able to reconcile themselves to singing 

"A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" or who 

are downright shocked by some of the 

new hymns being used at folk Masses. 

There are others for whom the formal 

Latinized supplications of the Roman 

Missal, even in translation , are meaning-

less. It is not likely that these people 

can be changed . But there is surely no 

good reason why they cannot worship 

with each other in community, and in a 

liturgy that has meaning for all of them. 

The many options which the new 
Order of Mass makes possible will go 

far, of course, toward providing this 

meaning, and the selection of these 

will be largely up to the judgment of the 

priest-celebrant. But the committee can 

do much to help him in making such 

judgments. So, too, with the homily. 

While the committee cannot do his 

preaching for him, it can at ~east suggest 



subjects to be dealt with and points to 

be made. It is not going too far to say 

that one of its duties ought to be to 
report to him afterward how well he 

got his message across-how, in other 

words, he related to his hearers. 

Because all these things are still so 
new, mistakes are going to be made. No 

matter how much knowledge and ex-

pertise the committee members may 
have, there wi II be errors in judgment. 

Nobody should feel too badly about this 

for the job of this committee is complex 

and sensitive. Some comfort at least 

may be derived from reflecting on the 

fact that similar committees, in other 

parishes, are going through precisely 

the same difficulties. But such a thing 

points up the need for a continuing 

process of self-evaluation, and this can 

be assisted by two things: hearkening 

honestly and humbly to the feedback 

froni parishioners, and maintammg 

effective liaison with Liturgical Commit-

tees elsewhere for an interchange of 

ideas, experiences, and common prob-

lems. (In fact, two or three members of 

the committee might even be assigned 
to this specific task- keeping in regular 

touch with neighboring parishes for 

just such a sharing.) 

The second area of committee re-

sponsibility is education. It seems ob-
vious that the best place for the 

committee to begin is with itself. No 

one can do a really effective job on a 

Liturgical Committee unless he knows 

something about liturgy, and this means 

not only being familiar with the Church's 

seasons and feasts but having a solid 

background in the theology of Mass and 

the sacraments. Each of the members 

of the committee has an obligation to 

keep abreast of the literature on the 

subject, both in periodicals and in 

books, and to hold regular meetings at 

which these materials are studied and 

discussed. In the books and articles 

Parish Life 

section at the end of this chapter we 

have listed some of the materials which 

will be helpful along these lines, and the 

priest-member of the committee can 

undoubtedly suggest others. 

There is more to it, however, than 
this. The liturgy is not a set of rubrics, 

and it is not even a collection of prayers, 

hymns, and Scripture readings. It is 

these things, of course, but it is also 
something over and above them-in this 

case the whole is greater than the sum 

of its parts. It is, in essence, something 

spiritual, and this means that no person 

and no committee can contribute effec-

tively to it without having some kind of 
spiritual depth. It is inconceivable that 

a group whose reason for being is litur-

gical celebration should never celebrate 
the liturgy; and on occasion at least its 

meetings should be for the purpose of 
praying together and having some form 

of liturgical or paraliturgical service. 

The committee should arrange for a 

series of speakers, films, and discussion 

sessions to which all lectors, cantors, 

organists, and others intimately involved 
in the liturgical celebrations are es-

pecially invited. Those who have the 

responsibility to lead the community in 
its worship must prepare themselves 
not only by practicing their particular 

part so that the liturgy will proceed 
smoothly and in the proper spirit. Much 

more important is that they deepen their 

awareness of the Mystery of the cele-

bration so that each of their contributed 
actions is filled with conviction and joy. 

So far as the rest of the congregation 

is concerned, it should be remarked at 

the outset that all the liturgical changes 

of the past few years are not something 

decided upon arbitrarily by a commis-

sion in Rome, and they are not change 

for the sake of change. There are good 

reasons for all of them-reasons lying 

in the purpose and nature of the liturgy 

itself, in Scripture and tradition, and in 

31 



The Committees 

the whole teaching and sanctifying mis-

sion of the Church. They were long 

overdue; but when they did come it 

seemed to be with an almost terrifying 
suddenness and completeness. Much of 

the confusion and resentment that the 

changes evoked was caused by the fact 

that the laity were not adequately edu-

cated and prepared for them. 

The committee must, therefore, under-
take to provide as much enlightenment 

in this area as it po·ssibly can. The con-

gregation should be informed not only 

on the broad reasons for liturgical re-

form, but even on why the liturgy is 

being celebrated as it is in this parish on 
this Sunday. Workshops and discussion 
groups should be regularly scheduled, 

qualified speakers should be brought in, 

and all available printed and audio-
visual material (of which there is an 

ever-growing amount) should be studied 
and used to provide this education. If 

time and resources permit, it could even 

be done on a " block" basis-that is, 

meetings could be scheduled in private 

homes with all parishioners in the neigh-

borhood being invited, and their study 

or discussion of the liturgy could cul-

minate in the celebration of a home 

Mass. 

Here, too, is an excellent opportunity 

for members of the committee to get the 

feedback mentioned earlier. In addition 

to explaining the liturgy and what is 

happening to it, the committee can get 

a sense of what the people of the parish 

themselves want or would like, and can 

communicate this to the priests for 

possible further development and 

improvement. 

The committee should remember that, 
while the Mass is the center of the 

liturgy and the time when most mem-

bers of the parish come together in 

community, it is not the only liturgical 

celebration in parish life. The new Rites 

of Baptism, Confirmation, Matrimony, 

32 

and the Funeral Mass fall within the 

province of the committee too; and 

must be carefully studied, planned for 

and carried out. 

The Parish Societies 

The parish is a community, but at all 
times there have existed within it vari-

ous subcommunities engaged in spe-

cialized forms of the apostolate. These 
are the parish societies and organiza-

tions. Among them are the Sodalities, 

the Holy Name Society, the Ladies of 

Charity, the Altar Gui Ids, and numerous 
others. Some · of them have been in 

existence, in one form or another, for 

generations or even centuries. 

In recent years, and especially since 

Vatican II, many of these groups have 

fallen on rather hard times. Often the 
specific need they were created to meet 

simply no longer exists . At the same time 
new needs have arisen in the parish and 

community, and the societies, geared 

to older and simpler forms of rei igious 

activity, are sometimes unable to adjust 

to them. Membership has dwindled as 

a result, and those who still belong have 
sought almost desperately for something 

that would bring into them new life 
and meaning. 

Certainly there is no reason why these 

societies should go out of existence for 

lack of anything to do. Quite the con-

trary, the need for them may be greater 

than ever; before. For many Catholics, 

indeed, they represent the only form of 

organized activity and commitment. 

Their dissolution would not only be a 

serious blow to these people, but would 

deprive the parish of many willing hands 

and energies. 

One of the chief tasks facing the 

Parish Life Committee is to study the 

present role · and future potential of 

these societies and make a genuine 
effort to revitalize them. The job will 
not be easy, and it may even mean 



occasionally conflicting head-on with 

entrenched vested interests; but if it is 
done with intelligence and tact, and if 
care is taken to preserve the autonomy 
of each society, everyone in the com-
munity will be the richer for it. The 
heads of all such groups ought to be 
members of the Committee, so that 
their mutual problems can be studied 
together and they can help each other 
achieve their respective aims. 

The Parish Census 

Taking a census calls for some rather 
specialized knowledge and techniques. 
It does no good to get a mere "count of 
noses;" such a thing will, naturally, tell 
how many people are in the parish, but 
it will tell nothing at all about them. 
The principal purpose of a parish census 
is to assemble a body of present data 
from which the future can be accurately 
projected. If statisticians or sociologists 
are represented among the parishioners 
they should be drawn on immediately 
to help plan this undertaking. 

Here are just a few of the facts which 
a census should bring out to form an 
intelligible parish profile. 

What is the average age of the families 
in the parish? If the majority are still in 
their twenties or thirties, they will con-
tinue to have children, arid this will 
have a very important effect on the de-
mands which the school will have to 
meet in coming years. If, on the other 
hand, they are for the most part older 
people, whose children have already 
married and moved elsewhere, what 
effect will this have on the parish's 
future? How is it going to take care of 
the elderly, the ill, and ·those who can-
not get out to Church? How will parish 
revenues be affected as more and more 
people live on the limited incomes of 
old-age pensions? 

How long have families lived in the 

parish? In other words, is the population 

Parish Life 

fairly stable, or is there a high degree of 
mobility with people moving out and 
new ones coming? 

What is the socio-economic profile 

of the parish? How many are profes-
sional people-doctors, scientists, 
teachers, executives, how many are 
white-collar workers, blue-collar work-
ers, laborers? What is the average level 
of education? Without arousing resent-
ment, it would be well to get some idea 
of income brackets. 

And, since the parish is first and fore-
most a spiritual community, the census 
should reveal information of a spiritual 
nature. Who has not been baptized? 
Confirmed? Made First Communion? 
What about the status of marriages? 
How many of the children are enrolled 
in the parish school, how many are re-
ceiving religious instruction through 
ceo or some other source, and how 
many are receiving no kind of religious 
instruction at all? Are there handicapped 
people or retarded children who re-
quire special attention from the priests? 
All these things are immensely impor-
tant, and the census form should be 
designed to provide for them. 

Once the census has been taken, it 
should be kept up-to-date. Births and 
deaths should be regularly noted, and 
every possible effort should be made to 
keep track of families moving out of 
and into the parish . If the rectory staff 
does not do this, then some members 
of the Parish Life Committee should 
have specific responsibility for it. 

Finally, bear in mind that these cen-
sus cards represent something more than 
a collection of names. They are people, 
the People of God in this particular 
parish. If they have nothing else in 
common, they at least come together 
to worship. Space really does not per-
mit any adequate discussion of ways to 
bring them together on a social basis, 
but some mention must be made of 

33 



The Committees 

provision to bring in new members. 
Many a family, moving into a parish 

and attending its first Mass there on 

Sunday morning, has been struck by the 

fact that the people did not make them 

feel welcome. 

The member of the Parish Life Com-
mittee who calls on such a family to fill 

out a census card is doing something 

more than collecting information; he 

is, in effect, welcoming them into the 

community. Lately, many parishes have 

published brochures listing the times 

of their Masses, the names of the priests 

and other personnel, information about 

the school, parish organizations and 

activities, and even about the com-

munity at large; the Committee's repre-

sentative should take one with him and 
go over it in detail with the new arrivals. 

He can offer to be their host at next 

Sunday's Mass and help them get to 
know their new neighbors. 

Ecumenical Relations 

Before Vatican II, Catholics neatly 

divided Christians into two neat cate-
gories: themselves and non-Catholics. 

This is as if one were to divide all Ameri-

can voters into Democrats and non-

Democrats. With the advent of Pope 

John, the Council, and the Church's 

entry into ecumenical affairs, Protestants 

became "our separated brethren," but 

even this has an air of exclusivism about 
it. Whether the term "People of God" 

must be restricted to Catholics, or 

whether it can be broadened to include 

other Christians and indeed the members 

of other religious bodies, is a theological 

question that it would be futile to enter 

into here. 
While the theologians are discussing 

it, along with other doctrinal matters, 

the rank-and-file Catholic can do a great 

deal to enhance ecumenical relations 

with his neighbors. If there are Protestant 

churches in the community, as there 

34 

probably are, they face precisely the 

same problems that the Catholic parish 
does. Changing neighborhoods, race ., 

relations, poverty, crime, and delin-

quency are not Catholic problems 1,. 

any more than they are Protestant ones; 
they are the problems of all the people 

of a community, and all the people must 

work together on them. This is the task 
of the Social Action Committee, which 

we will discuss at length. The Parish Life 

Committee can do much to lay the 
groundwork for such collaboration by a 

carefully planned program of ecu-

menical activities. 

Discussion groups and living-room 

dialogues offer an excellent beginning 
for such a thing. Most Protestant 

churches now have Interfaith Commit-

tees; they should be contacted and a 

schedule of meetings and studies 

worked out. Naturally, the more nu-

merous the denominations represented, 
the better. Meetings in private homes 

should be as informal as possible, but 

at the same time it does no good merely 

to have sessions at which each person 

tries to convince everybody else that 
his religion is the right one. Some kind 

of organized materials should be used 

and agreed upon in advance. There is 

a wide selection to choose from . 

Once the discussions have gotten 

well under way, it should be possible 
to move into the area of parish visits; 

each congregation plays host in turn to 

all the others. This can be done at a 
time when no religious services are 

going on and the group can be taken 

around the church and have its various 

features and appurtenances explained 

to them; or it can be done at attendance 
at an actual worship service, with a · 

period set aside afterward for answering 

questions the visitors may have. The 

latter is undoubtedly preferable; some 

Catholics may still feel a bit squeamish 

about attending services in a Protestant 



' J 

l , . ~ 

I 

church, but there is really no reason at 

all why they should. 

Do not forget, too, that ecumenism 

is not something just going on between 

Catholics and Protestants. Jews have 

been overlooked in many ecumenical 

gatherings; however most synagogues 
also have interfaith committees and 

experience has shown that they are quite 

eager to be a part of this mo·vement. 

If there are Jewish places of worship in 

the area, it would be ungracious not 

to make them a part of such a program. 

And the Anglicans and Orthodox, who 

do not consider themselves either 

Roman Catholic or Protestant, should 
be included too. The word "ecumenical," 

remember, means "universal," and there 

are really no limits to what can be ac-

complished either in breadth or in depth. 

Books and Articles 

Lyons and Broderick both treat of 

Liturgical (or "Worship" ) Committees in 

their books, the former in Chapter 5, 

pp. 41-52, of Programs for Parish 

Councils: An Action Manual, and the 
latter in Chapter 2, pp. 24-29, of Your 

Parish Comes Alive. In both places 

handling of the subject is brief, but 

should be helpful. 

It hardly needs to be said that since 

Vatican II Catholic liturgy has been in 

such a state of flux that what was cur-

rent and useful a year ago may be utterly 

out-of-date now. It is (at the moment of 

writing) perhaps still a bit early to look 

for much on the new Order of Mass, 

but the first thing in the field is very 

good indeed-the Manual of Celebration 

written by Fr. Robert W. Hov'da and pub-

lished by The Liturgical Conference, 

1330 Massachusetts Avenue, N. W ., 

Washington, D.C. 20005 . Offered "to 

Christians-priests and laymen-in-

volved in the planning of liturgical 

celebrations," it covers with admirable 

fullness not only the new Mass but the 

Parish Life 

new baptism, marriage, and funeral 

rites. In each case the official liturgical 

text is accompanied by a running com-

mentary which not only explains the 
rationale of the rite bu·t offers many 

enlightening and useful suggestions. 

It is priced at $10.00 and comes in the 
form of a loose-leaf binder to allow for 

future changes and additions. 

Mention might also be made of The 

New Mass by A.M. Roguet, O.P., (New 

York: Catholic Book Publishing Co., 189 

pp., $2.95). It is "a clear and popular 
explanation of the new Mass Liturgy;" 

though very full and detailed, and not 

without some scholarly background, it is 

done in a remarkably easy and readable 

style. It is not specifically written, of 

course, for Parish Life or Liturgical 
Committees, and as a matter of fact 
every Catholic interested in today's 

liturgical renewal would do well to read 

it; but the members of such committees 

will find it particularly helpful. The 

same is true of The Experimental Liturgy 
Book by Robert F. Hoey (New York : 

Herder & Herder, 194 pp., $4.50), 

Eucharistic Liturgies edited by John 

Callen, S.J. (New York : Newman Press, 
215 pp., $6.50), and Home Celebrations 

by Lawrence Moser, S.J. (New York: 

Paulist Press, $4.95). There is an excel-

lent little Handbook for Lectors by Wil-

liam M. Carr (New York : Paulist Press, 

52 pp., $.75). 

The literature on ecumenism is of 

course enormous, but much of it is of a 

very theological and scholarly nature 

that would be of little practical help to a 

Parish Counci I. In addition here, too, 
things happened so fast (for a while at 

least!) that a great deal of what was 

written a few years ago is now dated . A 

very helpful book would be A Practical 

Guide to Ecumenism by John B. Sheerin, 

C.S. P. (New York: Paulist Press/ Deus 

Books, 262 pp., $1.95) . It contains both 

historical background and a discussion 

35 



The Committees 

of present ecumenical activ1t1es, and 
includes the texts of the Second Vatican 
Council's Decree on Ecumenism and 
the "Interim Guidelines" prepared by the 
American Bishops' Commission for 
Ecumenical Affairs. 

Without doubt the two most useful 
things for a committee desirous of 
setting up discussion groups with mem-
bers of other faiths would be Crass-
Roots Ecumenism, published by the 
National Council of Catholic Women 
and the National Council of Catholic 
Men, 1312 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., 
Washington, D.C. 20005, and Living 
Room Dialogues jointly prepared by the 
National Council of the Churches of 
Christ and the Paulist Press. The former 
is a kit containing four very practical 
guidebooks for various stages of an 
ecumenical program; especially notable 
is the booklet on "Jewish-Christian 
Dialogues," since this is an area we have 
tended to overlook in concentrating 
on unity among Christian churches. The 
kit is priced individually at $5.50, but 
there are substantial savings when it is 
ordered in quantity. 

The Living Room Dialogues contains 
articles and essays written by Catholics, 
Protestants, and Orthodox Christians 
that can be used as a basis for informal 

dialogue, along with prayers for opening 
and closing meetings and suggestions 
for further reading. There are now three 
volumes in the series; the first two are 
priced at $1 .00 each, and the third at 
$2.50. 

On the general topic of Dialogue, a 
book that has become a classic is Reuel 
L. Howe's The Miracle of Dialogue (New 
York: Seabury Press, 160 pp. $1.65). 

Most Catholic magazines-Sign, The 
Catholic World, St. Anthony Messenger, 

Commonweal, and others-regularly 
publish articles dealing with almost 
every aspect of parish life, and the 
Committee would do well to subscribe 

36 

to some of them, or at least make an 
effort to keep abreast of their issues. 
Parish Today, published 10 times yearly 
by the National Council of Catholic 
Men, is the only publication devoted 
specifically to the work of Parish Coun-
cils. A year's subscription costs $5.00; 
bulk orders of from 10 to 30 copies to 
one address cost $2.50 each. Another 
very informative magazine in this area is 
Today's Parish which is published bi-
monthly by Twenty-Third Publications, 
P.O. Box 180, Fort Wayne, Indiana 

46801. A year's subscription costs $6.00. 
Parish Council and Liturgy, both 

published by The Liturgical Conference 
(see address above), often contain very 
useful and interesting articles, and are 
rather liberal in their approach . The 
Ecumenist, published bi-monthly by the 

Paulist Press, 304 West 58th Street, New 
York, New York 10019, prints many 
informative and enlightening articles 
in its field and reviews current books; it 
is distributed without charge to inter-
ested persons, but recipients are asked 
occasionally to make a small contribu-
tion toward defraying publication costs. 

Virtually all dioceses have a Liturgical 
Commission, and most of them also 
have an Ecumenical Commission or 
Commission for Christian Unity. These 
offices usually publish guidelines and 
other materials for the use of Parish 
Councils (and also interchange them 
with their counterparts in other dio-
ceses). The Parish Life Committee should 
make certain that it has all such avail-
able materials, and also that it is on 
regular mailing lists. 



Education 

The role and fun ction of the Education 

Committee is not easily delineated . It 

is not exactly a School Board as that 
term is commonly used in the public 
education system. It does not determine 

such things as curriculums, texts, and 
marking systems; these lie within the 

province of the DPpartment of Catholic 
Education of the diocese. Lastly it is not 

concerned with the details of adminis-

tration-this is wholly the responsibility 

of the principal and the faculty . 

To think of it as a body whose sole 

job is to devise ways to keep the school 

from being a ruinous drain on the 
monetary resources of the parish is to 

fall short of the mark. Certainly this is 

the most challenging task it faces; it 

will spend more time wrestling with this 

problem than with anything else. But it 

has many other responsibilities too; 

before we go into the matter of school 

finances and budgeting, let us try to get 

a broader picture. 

The Role of the Committee 

The Education Committee exists to 
provide guidance, leadership, and prac-

tical implementation in the whole field 

of Christian education, formal and in-

formal, children 's and adult's, in school 

and out. It should be unnecessary to 

observe that this cannot be thought of 
in terms of dollars and cents only. 

In the past there was a tendency to 

regard Christian education -or perhaps 

it would be better to use here the more 
specific term " Catholic education" -

as something gotten between the first 

grade and the eighth and terminating 

abruptly at that point. Although some 
children went on to a Catholic high 

school, and a smaller number to a 

Catholic college, the parish as sue~ had 
no concern with this . By the time a 

child graduated from the eighth grade 

he was presumed to have acquired the 

rudiments of his faith, and this was 

thought to be sufficient to sustain him 

throughout life, to tell him what to do 

and what not to do to assure the salva-

tion of his soul. 
The Second Vatican Council 's Decla-

ration on Christian Education did not get 
a very good press, and it must be ad-

mitted that it is not on a level with some 

of the other documents, but it does 
contain a number of valuable insights. 

However, it was the events stemming 
from the Co unci I, rather than any effect 

of this document, that gave Christian 

education a new direction and a new 

urgency. We have already said, in treat-

ing of the liturgy, that lay people were 

not really prepared for the changes that 

took place, and this is true in other 

fields as well. Developments in theology 
and in scripture studies may occur 

among scholars but they also have a 

profound impact on ordinary Catholics. 

The involvement of so many Americans 

in social · problems today has led priests 

37 



The Committees 

and nuns to march in demonstrations 
and-in some cases-to burn Draft 
Board files and this has scandalized 
many Catholics. Yet some of this scandal 
might have been avoided had they had 
any kind of grounding in the social 
teachings of the popes from Leo XIII ori. 

The children in Catholic schools to-
day are much better off in this regard 
than many older Catholics. They are 
being educated in the new·developments 
in Catholic doctrine along with their 
other subjects. Those who finished their 
schooling before Vatican II not only 
have to learn a lot of new things, but 
also must unlearn some of the old. 
This makes the work of the Education 
Committee very difficult. It is really 
called upon to do three things: (a) assure 
that the children in the parochial school 
are receiving , a quality education in 
every area; (b) assure, too, that the 
Catholic children who are not in the 
school are receiving a religious education 
as nearly equai as possible to those who 
are; and (c) try to bring. to the parents of 
all these children a deep knowledge and 
a better understanding of the changes 
that are taking place in the Church and 
the reasons for them. 

Any one of these jobs is difficult. The 
three together constitute an undertaking 
of herculean proportions. Because 
education has become almost as special-
ized a field as medicine, it has to be 
assumed that no one person wi II possess 
equal competence in all of them; and 
therefore this Committee, too, will have 
to draw upon many diverse skills. The 
principal of the school will be a member 
as a matter of course; so will the head 
of the CCD; certainly one of the lay 
teachers should represent the interests 
and outlook of that particular segment 
of the faculty; and if there is in the parish 
someone who teaches or holds some 
other position in the public school sys-
tem, he or she might very well be asked 

38 

to serve. Anyone with experience in the 
world . of educational administration 
would have much to contribute, and so 
too, among others, would a librarian 
and a physical education instructor. 
Finally, one or two parents ought to have 
some kind of voice. Such a group should 
work together to provide guidance for 
the whole range of Catholic education 
in a parish. 

The Parish School 

Because elementary education takes 
place in a highly formal structure and 
requires such things as a physical plant, 
a trained and accredited professional 
staff, and many different kinds of tectch-
ing aids; because moreover, the educa-
tion of children is a matter that concerns 
not just the . Church but the state, the 
parish school is the Education Commit-
tee's biggest and most complex area of 
responsi bi I ity. 

We have already indicated that we 
have no easy answers to the problems 
facing the parochial school system to-
day. The matter of tuitions is a good 
example. If, at their · present scale, the 
school is not paying for itself and if it is 
dependent on the parish for a ·heavy 
subsidy, it would seem most riataral to 
increase the tuition . But anybody con-
nected with education know~ that the 
answer is not that simple. If tuitions 
were .raised to a level at which the 
school would be paying its ·own way, 
they would be too steep for the majority 
of the parishioners, and the last state of 
the school would be worse than the 
f. I 1rst. . 

This whole matter of tuition has . to 
be approached with the greatest caution 
and prudence. Unless and until there is 
some kind of uniform di.ocesan rate 
which would, in effect, distribute ·the 
load and have relatively well-off 
schools helping those in straitened cir-
cumstances, each parish will have to 



deal wit~ . the problem on its own. It 
may , be that an increase is essential; it 

may .be, too, that as a result some par-
ents will place their children in public 

schools. This is a calculated risk which 

the Committee will have to weigh, re-
membering that every child thus with-

drawn represents just that much less 

in overall income. A forthright appeal, 
backed by a financial report may bring 

families to realize that an increase in 

tuition is an absolute necessity and that 

the school cannot continue to do its 

work without it. Even after the Com-

mittee has settled on a figure represent-

ing the maximum increase it feels can 

be asked, some subsidy may still be 
necessary from the parish. 

In 'some places it is still customary to 

take up a special collection on a par-

ticular Sunday of the month to defray 

school expenses. This probably does not 

help very much and is the least depend-

ab.le portion of school income. But if 

such ,a: collection is long established and. 

generally accepted, it would be well to 

continue it. One of the objections most 
frequently voiced is that is makes un-

fair demands on parishioners without 

children in the school and who hence 

have no direct concern with it; but an 

obvious answer to this is that the school 

exists for the parish as a whole, not just 

for those families who may be sending 

children to it. 

There are some other sources of pos-

sible assistance about which it would be 

well to know. Before describing them, 

let us make two points . First the Com-
mittee cannot begin to approach the 

problem of school finances without a 

comp.lete and realistic budget prepared 

in advance. It must know how much it 

will cost to operate the school in a 
given year, and what its income for the · 

same period will be. Only then can it 

make intelligent decisions about the 

steps tQ be taken to bring income and 

Education 

expense closer together. Second, in-
come and expense for the school will 

have to be kept rigidly separate from 

all other parish operations. This is 

We have already treated of revenue 

and expenditures and of the preparation 
of a budget in the chapter dealing with 

the Administration Committee. Most of 

what was said there about salaries, 

operating expenses, maintenance, and 

so on, will apply here with only minor 

modifications. However, some re-

marks may be made about some other 

sources of income. 

Federal and State Aid. Here again it 
would be quite impossible for us to 

treat of this complex issue even in the 

most summary fashion . While there is 
no direct Federal Aid Program for 

education in non-public schools, the 

Elementary and Secondary School Law 
of 1965 does provide aid in certain 

categories and under certain stipulated 
conditions. Title I of the Act makes 

assistance available to culturally and 

economically deprived children. Title 
II provides for funds to be used for the 

purchase of textbooks and some in-

structional equipment for school libra-

ries . The Committee will naturally want 

to be familiar with these regulations, 

and the diocesan Department of Edu-

cation is the natural place to look for 

information and help. 

Some states have now passed legisla-

tion making assistance available to 

non-public schools in the form of pur-

chased services, that is, the state buys 

the services of faculty members in such 

schools to teach carefully specified 

secular subjects. At this time, similar 

laws, or laws having ultimately the same 

effect, are under consideration in other 

states, or are being urged upon the legis-

latures of such states by concerned 
citizens' groups. The Committee will 

have to be acquainted with the appli-

cable legislation in its own state, and if 

39 



The Committees 

there is none it should do all it can to 
work in an organized and effective man-

ner with whatever groups may be striving 

to obtain the passage of such aid . 
Diocesan Grants-in-Aid. In some dio-

ceses assistance is provided for needy 

pupils in the form of full or partial 

grants-in-aid. Generally these apply 

only to high-school students rather than 

to those in elementary classes but the 
Committee should at least be familiar 
with local practices. 

Sale and rental of textbooks. The sale 

of textbooks and the rental of texts on 

a yearly basis to new classes of pupils 

may provide some auxiliary income. 

Cafeteria. The operation of the school 

cafeteria may likewise produce supple-

mentary revenues. Consult carefully 

the legislation on school-lunch pro-

grams for needy pupils. 

School bus transportation. If the 

school operates its own bus service at 

a charge over and above actual tuition, 

a profit may be realized. On the other 

hand it may not; the service could 

actually be operating at a loss. This is 

something that should be investigated 

very carefully by the Committee. 

Bequests. Bequests may be made with 

specific provision by the donor that 

they are for the school rather than for 

the parish at large. In such a case, both 

the bequest and the income derived 

from it are required to be applied to the 

school budget. 

Rental of facilities . The school, like 

the parish itself, may find it advan-

tageous to rent some of its facilities on 
occasion to outside groups and organiza-

tions and derive some income from this 

practice. 

Concerning expenses it should only 

be necessary to add that the salaries of 

the religious teaching in the school 

ought to be kept separate from that of 

the lay teachers. The latter wi II generally 

be fixed by the diocesan Department of 

40 

Education and will be based upon such 

things as tenure, certification, and 

academic degrees; in addition, it will 

doubtless include fringe benefits like 

group hospitalization insurance and 
some plan of retirement benefits. The 

Committee will, of course, have no 

· choice but to abide by the scales that 

the Department of Education has 

established . 
It makes good accounting sense-it 

is, in fact, a virtual necessity- for the 

school to operate on a fiscal year be-

ginning, say, july 1 and ending june 30. 

The reasons for this are almost too obvi-
ous to need mentioning. If it were 

operated on a calendar year, one budget 

would be finishing up and a new one 

going into effect at a time when the 

actual school year was only about one-

half over. The Committee would have 

to project ahead into the next school 

year, and could very well lack reliable 

information on teachers' salaries and 

other important items. And, if · the 

school operates on a fiscal year, the 

parish really must do so too. (In some 

places, both parishes and schools are 

required by the Chancery Office to 

operate on the same fiscal year as the 
diocese itself.) 

Let it be repeated here, however, 

that the Education Committee should 

never get so bogged down in a morass 

of figures that it loses sight of the real 

nature of its job. We have said that its 

concern is with the total range of 

Christian education, and this means, 

among other things, that all the needs 
and problems of the school- not just 

the financial ones-fall within its area 

of responsibility. 

It must see that, so far as possible, 

whatever teaching aids the faculty may 

require to do its work well (for example, 

projectors, screens, tapes, recordings) 

are available. Perhaps some things-for 

example, the closed-circuit TV system 



that we mentioned earlier-may simply 

be desirable, while others are sheer 

necessities. The Committee will have to 

use its judgment, but it should be guided, 

of course, in large part by the recom-

mendations of the principal. 

The condition and upkeep of the 

physical plant will be one of its prime 

concerns, and periodic inspections of 
the classrooms and other facilities 

should be made. Adequate lighting and 

ventilation, proper heating during win-

ter months, and a clean, comfortable 

environment are of immense importance 

to the process of learning, particularly 

where young children are concerned. 

Here the Committee will have to work 

in close collaboration with the Adminis-

tration Committee, submitting its find-

ings and recommendations to the latter 

and including in its annual budget funds 

for whatever repairs and improvements 

may be needed. It should also see that 

such things are duly taken care of. 

The safety of pupils is another of its 

responsibilities . If the school is located 

on or near a busy street or highway, 

proper protection must be assured the 

children as they come and go. In addi-

tion to the parish 's own safety patrol, 

this may mean contacting the Police 

Department to see that hazardous cross-

ings are manned by officers at the ap-

propriate times of day. 

While, as we have said, the Com-

mittee is not directly concerned with 

administration, it certainly wants to be 

sure that the children are being taught 

by the best available personnel, and it 

would be well for it to review periodi-

cally with the principal the performance 

of faculty members and to obtain her 

valuation of them. This is true of both 

lay and religious teachers. 

Neither is it responsible for the actual 

operation of the cafeteria, but it should 

see that this is adequately supplied and 

staffed at all times. 

Education 

If there is a Home-School Association 

-and there certainly ought to be-the 

Committee should work in the closest 

possible cooperation with it. In theory, 

if not in actual fact, this association 

represents all the parents who have chil-

dren in the school, and it can thus pro-

provide an excellent channel of com-

munication . That is, the Committee can 
use it to make known to these parents 

all the problems and needs of the school 

and, on the other hand, it can listen 
attentively to members of the associa-
tion to find out what these same parents 

want and expect from the parish in the 

way of an education for their children. 

In recent years many parents have 

become highly upset and emotional 

over what they conceive to be new and 

unorthodox methods of teaching re-

ligion . In some cases this has no doubt 

been due to outright misinformation 

and misquotation on the part of the 
children, for example, " Sister says we 

should follow our own consciences" or, 

" Sister says we don't have to go to Mass 

on Sunday if we don 't get anything out 

of it!" In part, too, it is due to the fact 

that most of today's parents were taught 

their religion out of the Baltimore 

Catechism, and times have greatly 

changed. Where this situation has 

arisen, the Committee would do well 

to schedule meetings-a series of them 

if necessary- between the rei igion 

teachers and groups of such concerned 

parents so that the new teaching 

methods can be fully presented and dis-

cussed, and questions answered. If at 

all possible " open days," when parents 

could visit the school and see the class-

rooms in actual session, should be 
arranged . 

The Committee should keep in the 

closest possible touch, too, with the 

diocesan Department of Education. 

These people know- better than anyone 

else-the problems that beset the 

41 



The Committees 

parochial school sy.stem today. They 

know, too, that while Parish Councils 

are not going to solve them, they can at 
least shoulder a large part of the bur-

den and make some very valuable con-

tributions. In most cases they are not 
only willing but quite anxious to work 

with parish Education Committees and 

can provide an immense amount of 
helpful materials, information, and 
suggestions. The chairman of the Com-

mittee should see that hi s name and 

the names of all his members are on the 

Department's mailing lists, and-since 

this should be a two-way street-he 

should keep it informed of events and 

developments in his own parish . 

Finally, the Committee should not 

hesitate to work in any way possible 

with the publi c school or schools of the 

area. In some respects, needless to say, 

the concerns of the one will be different 

from those of the other: obviously the 
public school will have no problems 

about the teaching of religion , and 

while it may have financial difficulties 

too, they wi II be different from those of 
the parochial school . Nevertheless they 

will also have much in common, simply 

because they are both serving the same 

community. The old days, when a wall 

of dislike and suspicion existed between 

the two systems, are long since gone, 

and both have discovered that they are 

trying to do pretty much the same job. 

A sharing of faci I ities may not yet be 

practical for very solid reasons, but a 

sharing of ideas will be quite beneficial 

to both. 

The ceo 
Not so very long ago the CCD (Con-
fraternity of Christian Doctrine) was 

thought of in many quarters as a small 

band of parish volunteers who provided 

a makeshift form of religious education 

for the Catholic children attending 

public school. It is possible that in 

42 

some places and among some people, 

clerical as well as lay, this view is still 

held. Hopefully, no parish Education 
Committee will hold it, because nothing 

could be more erroneous. 

Even were it true that CCD had no 

other job than this, it would still be one 

of staggering proportions. Approximately 

half the Catholic children of elementary 

school age are actually attending paro-

chial schools. According to the National 
Catholic Almanac, enrollment in the 
latter in 1968 (the last year for which 

figures are available) was close to 

4,200,000. This would mean that an 

approximately equal number are in 
public schools, and thus not receiving 

any formal religious education. While 

it would be totally unrealistic to think 

that ceo is reaching all these, it is 
probably reaching half of them . In 

other words, it is responsible for the 
religious instruction of some two million 

children. 
Further, while it is true that the 

people who carry on this herculean task 

are indeed volunteers, the instruction 

they offer is in no sense makeshift. 

On the contrary, most CCD instructors 
have taken courses specially qualifying 

them for the work, and they offer it by 

means of a thoroughly developed pro-

gram that makes use of the most recent 

and best advances in catechetics . Texts 

and other teaching aids have been pre-
pared by experts in the field. Virtually 

every American diocese has recognized 

the importance of ceo by creating an 
office at the diocesan level, staffing it 

with professional personnel, and making 

its services available to all parishes. 
There is thus no reason why CCD 

should be a stepchild of the parish . That 

it has often been so in the past is unde-

niable. In many places pastors have 

granted it a mere pittance with which 

to operate, and the school has sought 

to deny CCD staff the use of its faci I ities 



or has granted perm1ss1on for such use 

very grudgingly. It is to be hoped that 

no parish Education Committee will 

tolerate such a state of affairs any 

. longer. 

Since this manual is intended spe-

cifically for Parish Councils and their 

various committees it is entirely un-

necessary to discuss how to operate the 
ceo, especially since many excellent 
materials on the subject are already 

available. Our concern here is simply 

to relate the ceo program to the work 
and responsibility of the Education 

Committee as a whole . 

If the CCO is itself structured along 

the lines recommended by the diocesan 

office, it will undoubtedly have its own 

Board, made up of persons experienced 

in such work and who have taken all the 

requisite courses. The president of this 

Board will naturally be a member of 

the Education Committee, representing 

his body in its deliberations. And it goes 

without saying that all other members 

of the Committee must have an ade-

quate knowledge of what ceo is doing 
and of the problems it faces, in order 

to give proper consideration to its 

needs . 

In recent years there has appeared in 

many parishes an entirely new figure, 

that of the CCO parish coordinator. This 

is usually a person holding a degree 

in religious education with a good 

background not only in theology and 

scripture but also in parish adminis-

tration and human relations. The job 

is to coordinate and direct on a full-

time, paid basis the many and varied 
facets of the CCO program. In some 

places his duties are even wider in 

nature, embracing a great deal of 

other parish work and activities and, 

in effect, relieving the pastor of much 

of his administrative burden . 

Such a person is at least desirable in 

any parish; in a large one, where the 

Education 

work of ceo embraces many different 
programs and the number enrolled is 

substantial, he is a necessity. In ac-

cordance with the principle quoted 

earlier that the laborer is worthy of his 

hire, he should receive an adequate 

salary ($10,000 a year is not unrealistic) 
together with the benefits that nor-

mally accompany it in the business 
world. He should be provided with 

adequate office space, the equipment 

and supplies needed to do his work and, 

if the demands on him are heavy enough, 

with secretarial assistance. It will be the 

duty of the Education Committee to see 

that all this is properly taken care of. If 

his work is done entirely for ceo then , 
of course, his salary should be charged 

to them; if he devotes his time to other 

parish work and activities, it should be 

apportioned accordingly. 

The CCO program should also have 

adequate funding for its other normal 

operating expenses. These would include 

textbooks and other printed materials; 
recordings, films, film-strips, and tapes; 

and the equipment needed to present 

these things . Such equipment would 

doubtless be a one-time purchase in 

each case ; the texts and other teaching 

aids will certainly have to be replaced 

and updated from time to time. Not to 

be overlooked are such things · as mailing 

and publicity expenses, subscriptions 
for periodicals, stipends for guest speak-

ers, and refreshments for meetings. If 

school or other parish facilities are used 

in evening hours, then a certain portion 

of light, heat, janitorial services and 

other maintenance expenses should be 

charged to the ceo budget. 
This budget should be prepared by 

CCO's own Board, and while the Board 

may wish to consult with the Education 

Committee in preparing it, it should not 
be included in or made part of the total 

education budget. That is to say, it 

should retain its own identity and be 

43 



The Co mmittees 

submitted individually to the Adminis-

tration Committee for the latter's con-

sideration and approval. 

Adult Education Programs 

While many parish programs of adult 

education . will probably function under 

ceo auspices, we have thought it best 
to devote a separate brief section to 

them here simply because of the over-

whelming importance of such a thing 

in the Church at the present time. 

We have already said that a lot of 

the changes that have taken place in the 

last few years caught most Catholics 

totally unprepared. Some people wel-
comed them with enthusiasm; others 

disliked them, resisted them, and feared 

that the gates of hell were at last pre-

vailing. If they did nothing else, they 

provided an entirely new way to classify 
Catholics-as liberal and conservative. 

Whichever of these camps is en-

trenched, there can be no doubt that 

both sides need a thoroughgoing educa-
tional program to explain just what has 

changed, and more importantly, why. 

This would include not only liturgical 

reforms, the area most immediately 

evident to the average churchgoer, but 

also the Church 's involvement in and 

teachings on race relations, poverty, the 

urban crisis, war, and peace. There is a 

very pressing need for competent ex-

planations of the Church's present 

moral teachings, particularly in the area 

of sex. Developments in theology and 

advances in Scripture studies, while 

they are scholarly disciplines which 

reach the lay person only in an indirect 

fashion, are nevertheless at the source 

of all these other things, and so they, 

too, should be dealt with at an appro-

priate level. 

Whether inside or outside the CCD 

framework, the Education Committee 

has a responsibility to see that the adults 

of the parish have at least the oppor-

44 

tunity to be informed and enlightened 

on these matters. There is a wealth of 

material available, far more than we 

could describe or treat of here. It would 

be well to have a special subcommittee 

acquaint itself with the literature, keep 

abreast of it (because it is constantly 

being added to) , and arrange programs 

accordingly. Some dioceses now have 

Adult Education offices or Coordinators 

of Religious Education who can be very 

helpful along these lines. 

Guest speakers, expert in one or an-

other of the above-mentioned fields, 

may be engaged for talks either singly 

or in a carefully planned and integrated 

series. The question-and-answer period 
that usually follows such a thing is 

often more helpful and stimulating than 

the talk itself . Even more to the point 
would be informal discussion groups, 

meeting to consider a particular subject 

or a particular book, provided they are 

led by someone with a better-than-

average mastery of the material and 

some skill as a discussion moderator. 

Whether such groups use parish facili-

ties or meet in private homes is probably 

not really important; but the latter makes 

it possible for more of them to function 

simultaneously and doubtless also per-

mits a greater ease and informality. 

The Education Committee would do 

well, by means of surveys, to try to find 

out what the needs and wants of the 

parish are in this area. The programs, 

speakers, and materials can then be 

planned accordingly. Probably none of 

this is going to change a conservative 

into an avant-garde liberal, or vice 

versa, but done rightly it wi II give each 
side a better understanding of the other, 

and it wi II provide each participant, too, 
with a deeper knowledge and a firmer 

foundation for his own position. 

Books and Articles 

The literature on Catholic education 1s 



a virtual library in itself, and to attempt 

anything like a complete listing of it 

would be utterly impossible. We have 

had to be even more selective here than 
elsewhere, so that it might be well to 

add that the mere fact that certain 

titles are not mentioned in what fol-
lows does not in the least imply any 

unfavorable judgment on them. 

Moreover, much of what has been 
written in the field is by educators and 

for educators, and hence has only a 

minimum of practical value for Parish 

Councils . Nevertheless, the Committee 
ought to be familiar with at least some 

of these titles, if only because they set 

forth clearly and succinctly the grave 

problems facing the Catholic school 

system today and often suggest possible 

solutions to them . What applies to the 

system as a whole will also apply to 

individual units in it. 

Among the volumes which do this 

quite competently, mention may be 

made of Catholic Education in a Chang-

ing World by George N. Shuster (New 
York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 241 

pps., $5.95), Catholic Education Faces 
Its Future by Neil G. McCluskey (New 
York: Doubleday, 311 pp. , $5.95), and 

S.O.S. for Catholic Schools by C. Albert 
Koob and Russell Shaw (New York: 

Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 150 pp., 

$4.95) . The famous Greeley-Rossi 
Report: The Education of Catholic 
Americans by Andrew M. Greeley and 
Peter H. Rossi, is available in a Double-
day Image paperback at $1 .75. Are 
Parochial Schools the Answer? by Mary 
Perkins Ryan (New York: Holt, Rine-

hart, and Winston, 176 pp., $4.00) takes 

a somewhat different approach, and 
arrives at rather different conclusions, 

from most of the literature on the 

subject. (Many of these works, inci-

dentally, carry extensive bibliographies 

and suggestions for further reading.) 

The Living Light is a quarterly that 

Education 

regularly contains excellent and infor-

mative articles on Christian Education . 

A year's subscription costs $8.00 and is 

available from Our Sunday Visitor, Noll 

Plaza, Huntington, Indiana 46750. 

In the particular area of the Education 

Committee of a Parish Council, there is 

an excellent I ittle booklet entitled The 
Parish School Board by Rev. Olin j. 
Murdick, published as a paper of the 

National Catholic Educational Associa-

tion (NCEA), Box 667, Dayton, Ohio 

45401 at $1.50 per single copy. It runs 

to only 31 pages but has a wealth of good 

ideas and suggestions. New Patterns for 
Catholic Education : The Board Move-
ment in Theory and Practice by Daniel 
R. Davies and james R. Deneen (New 

London, Connecticut : Croft Educational 

Services, 133 pp.) and Voice of the 
Community: The Board Movement in 
Catholic Education -A Report of the 
Superintendents ' Committee on Policy 
and Administration, National Catholic 
Educational Association (Dayton, Ohio: 
Ceo. A. Pflaum Co., 47 pp.) both deal 

with diocesan as much as with parish 
boards, but the latter will find a great 

deal of useful material in them. Both 

have excellent bibliographies. 

Bernard Lyons treats of the Educa-

tion Committee in Chapter 7, pp. 65-76, 
of Programs for Parish Councils : An 
Action Manual, and Broderick covers it 
in Chapter 1, pp. 15-23, of Your Parish 
Comes Alive. Both are quite good in 

this area. 
We make no attempt to list here any 

of the works written specifically for 

CCD programs, since the CCD Board of 

the parish will itself have access to the 

wide range of excellent materials in the 

field of modern religious education and 

catechetics. They will also be largely 

familiar with much of what is available 

today-and is constantly appearing-

in the related area of adult education. 

The selection here is literally immense, 

45 



The Committees 

and we can do little more than simply 

list some of the titles . All have their 

me.rits, but it goes without saying that 
some are better than others 

Adult Education Pamphlets, by St. 

Mary's College Press, Winona, Minne-

sota 55987: " What's Happening?" Series 

-a set of six titles, e.g. "What's Hap-
. pened to that 'Unchanging Church '?" 

"Why Be a Catholic Christian?" 

Focus on Hope, HiTime Publishers, 

Box 7096, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53213: 
A seven-week series of adult texts with 

discussion guides, designed for discus-

sion in the parish and informative home 

reading. Choice of two principal courses 

-"The Church Today" and "Crisis of 
Morality. " 

Come My People, W. H. Sadlier, Inc., 
11 Park Place, New York, New York 

10007: " A manual of 'Five Vital Topics 

for Adult Discussion ' ." 
Experiences in Faith, ed . by Donald 

Wigal and Charles Murphy (New York: 

Herder and Herder) : An open-ended 

" Program for an Adult Church" based 

upon the Dutch Catechism . It consists 

of four books of readings and four dis-
cussion leaders guides with study ques-

tions and extensive book and film 

resources. 
Belief In Human Life, by Rev. An-

thony T. Padovano, Paramus, New Jer-

sey: Pastoral Educational Services/ 
NCRD, 96 pp. $5.00 per single copy, 

discounts for quantities: A beautifully 

printed and iII ustrated book on the 

values that Christians place upon the 

sanctity of human life. The chapters 

are designed for group discussion, and~ 
a leader's manual accompanies the text. 

It should be borne in mind, too, that 

not all of the resource material in the 

field of Adult Education is necessarily 

in the form of printed media. There are 

many very fine films, filmstrips, slide 

presentat ions, and so forth, that can be 

used in conjunction with or in place of 

46 

books or pamphlets . The Department 

of Catholic Education of the diocese, or 

the CCD office, or the Office of Religious 

Education if there is one, can be very 

helpful here. 



-Family Life 

People normally come to church to 

worship in family groups, and the family 

is the nucleus of parish life as it is of 

society in general. However, there are 

sound reasons to argue that the Church 

has been the last to recognize this ob-

vious fact. She has expected and ex-

horted fam i I ies to contribute to her 
support, but has offered them relatively 

little in return . She has structures and 

institutions to help individuals in almost 

every kind of circumstance: the young, 

the old, the poor, the sick, the homeless; 

but until quite recently, with the advent 

of such things as the Christian Family 

Movement and the Can a programs, there 

was nothing designed specifically for 

the family as such. Even these, though 

they have the ubiquitous " priest-

moderator, " owe their origins prin-

cipally to lay interest and energies, and 

married couples usually direct the pro-

grams. And the Church's thinkers and 

teachers have never really developed 

anything that could be called a theology 

of family life . 

No doubt this is due in large part to 

the fact that for twenty centuries the 

Church has been under the guidance 

and direction of celibates for whom 

family relationships were, if not unreal , 

at least of secondary importance. But 

in any event the development of Parish 

Councils offers an excellent oppor-

tunity to redress the situation. Now 

much of the inspiration for parish 

act1v1t1es and planning will come from 

men and women who live in a family 

milieu, who know the problems of that 

state of life only too well, and who will 

be aware of what they, as members of a 

worshipping community, can do to-

gether to help meet such needs. They 
will know too, as Christians, the funda-

mental importance of placing that help 

under the special aegis of Christ's 
grace, in the environment and amid the 

ties that he himself knew when he lived 

upon earth. 

In dealing with the work of the Famil y 

Life Committee, we shall divide our 

treatment into three main parts: first, 
the family itself, including not only 

marriage but the preparation for it 

during courtship, as these are normally 

approached in the various Cana con-

ferences; second, the problems and 
needs of youth; and third, those prob-
lems which apply, in parti cular, to old 

age or at least to that segment of the 

community known as senior citizens. 

Such an arrangement is logi ca l enough 

and has its advantages, but it might 

also be pointed out that in a certain 

sense it is rather arbitrary. 

Life does not break up into neat 

categories or periods, each separated 

from the others by a clear line of de-

marcation. No one ever went to bed one 

night an adolescent and got up the next 

morning mature, and no mature person 

ever got old on a certain date. Life is a 

47 



The Committees 

continuum, in which one part flows 

smoothly and almost imperceptibly into 

another. Again, if youth, for example, 

has problems, then adults have ex-

actly the same problems viewed from 

a different perspective. The Family Life 

Committee can, of course, help each 

group meet its own parti cular needs, 

but perhaps just as importantly it can 

also prepare it to meet the problems of 

the next period, whenever and however 
they may come. 

Marriage and the Family 

Pre-Ca na . If we proceed in the normal 

chronological pattern of individual and 

family life, then the best place to begin 

would seem to be with consideration of 

a program of information and i nstruc-

tion for couples planning to be married 

-the area, in short, which has come 

to be known as " Pre-Cana." 

In many places the whole Can a struc-

ture functions under diocesan auspices 

and a central office coordinates and 

provides assistance for the work in 

parishes. Where this is the case, the 

Family Life Committee is able to draw 

upon the human and material resources 

of this office and should use them to the 

fullest . Where, however, for any reason 

it is not the case, the Committee should 

not feel daunted; it can still do a most 
effective job on its own. 

Pre-Cana conferences should be care-

fully planned to enlighten engaged 

couples on every aspect of marriage-

spiritual, physical, personal, and social. 

Sometimes and in some places this is 

done by means of a single day-long 

session during which all the material 

is covered . While such a thing is pos-

sible, it hardly seems desirable. It is 

more sensible to cover the material in 

three or four meetings spaced perhaps 

a week apart, each one being devoted 

to a particular phase of the subject. The 

Family Life Committee in one parish 

48 

may wish to join its counterparts in 

other Catholic churches in the same 

broad area and to offer the series now in 

one of them and now in another and 

thus make the best use of their com-

bined resources. 
A priest should be a member of the 

Committee, or should at least be avai t-
able to give the talk on marriage as 

sacrament, stressing the spiritual and 

salvific aspects of the marital relation-

ship . On him, too, may very well fall the 

duty of answering the questions which 

are bound to come up about current 

Catholi c teac hings on birth control. The 

talk on the physical side of marriage 

should be given by a qualified physician 

or psychologist, hopefully a Committee 

member. But again, if such is not the 

case, the Committee should obtain the 

services of one for its programs. Thi s 

presentation can be carried out in 

perfect frankness and openness, with 

no false modesty or prudishness, and 

yet with complete dignity. There are 

many excellent films and filmstrips 

which can be used to supplement the 

talk itself. 

Part of the series must be led by one 

or two married couples who can speak 

from the benefit of their own experi-

ence. This phase of Cana work has at-

tracted the interest of many couples in 

recent years, and almost any parish can 

provide a number of them. Generally 

speaking, it is doubtless unwise for 

the married couple to be so elderly 

that a real " generation gap" exists be-

tween them and the engaged couples. 

They should be fairly young, and yet 

married long enough to be able to talk 

about the problems of marriage with 

common-sense realism and frankness. 

Such husband-and-wife teams can offer 

practical advice and answer many 

questions on a wealth of things-honey-

moons, finances, apartment hunting, 

home and car buying, working w1ves, 



in-laws, the coming of children, marital 

jealousy, and the difficulties of sexual 

adjustment. 

Pre-Can a conferences, in fact, are 
intended to be as practical and helpful 

as possible, but this does not slight the 

spiritual and sacramental side of the 

matter. For there is a practicality of the 
spirit, too: and a well-developed pro-

gram, presented in a truly Christian 

frame of reference, will inevitably em-
phasize that all these other things are 

but means to deepen and enrich the 

lives of two persons who, out of love 

-for one another, have elected to become 

one flesh. 

Special attention must be given to 

what used to be called "mixed mar-

riages" and which are now known, in a 

kinder terminology, as "interfaith mar-
riages." The material to be presented 

wi II for the most part be the same, with 
an added discussion of the special prob-

lems that can arise in that situation. 

Doubtless these courses ought to be 

given separately from those designed 

specifically for Catholic couples . It 
would not be at all a bad idea for the 

priest, when he gives his talk, to be 

joined by one of the Protestant clergy-

men of the neighborhood {perhaps, out 

of courtesy, inviting a different one 

each time) so that the two of them to-

gether can deal with this topic. 
The atmosphere of a Pre-Cana con-

ference should be as friendly and in-

formal as possible. The attending 

couples will probably not know one 

another or the people who are giving it, 

and they are bound to feel awkward and 

ill at ease in the beginning. In many 

cases they may attend only because 

they are required to do so py the pastor. 
They will feel a reluctance about asking 

questions, particularly those concerned 

with sex. The Family Life Committee, 

or at least those members in charge of 

this phase of its work, must make the 

Family Life 

experience not just painless but actually 

enjoyable. Coffee and tea during the 

meeting and refreshments at the end of 

each meeting will go far toward doing 

this . And certainly the last meeting, if 

no others, should end with some form of 
liturgical service. 

Cana. Cana Conferences were first 

held in the 1940's, to provide a solid 

foundation for Christian married life 
through study and application of the 

theology of marriage. Pre-Cana was 

developed a bit later, as a result of the 
idea that this foundation could and 

should be offered during the period of 

engagement. Still later Post-Cana was 

developed to provide both spiritual and 

practical help to those who, after years 

of marriage, suddenly found themselves 
alone in the widowed state. 

These two off-shoots of the original 

idea, laudable and necessary as they are 

in themselves, have a tendency to push 

the basic concept into the background. 

This is especially true of Pre-Cana, which 

absorbs more and more time, energy 
and thought. In many places Can a itself 

has come after a while to be neglected. 
One of the axioms of the spiritual 

life, often attributed to St. Bernard of 

Clairvaux, is "He who does not advance 

falls back;" in a very real sense this is 

true of marriage. If it is not kept fresh, 
it goes stale; and one of the best ways 

to keep it ever fresh is by a constant 

enriching of its spiritual sources. 

The Family Life Committee can under-

take no finer work than to make avail-

able such means of enrichment within 

the framework of parish programs and 
activities. One way would be for groups 

of approximately six couples to meet 

informally on a regular basis in parish 

facilities or private homes to discuss 

their common problems. In such a 

structure and atmosphere they can gain 

valuable insights from one another 

about questions that they all face-

49 



The Committees 

finances, the upkeep of homes, the rais-

ing of children, and perhaps even any 
difficulties in the specific area of sexual 

relations and adjustment. 

Many fine books on Christian marriage 

have been published in recent years, 
some of which are listed in the book 

list at the end of this chapter. They treat 

their subject with great reverence and 
beauty, at the same time dissipating 

the old idea that the married state was 
a kind of "second best" grudgingly per-
mitted those who had no gift for celi-

bacy or virginity. On the contrary they 

emphasize its dignity as a sacrament on 

a level with all the others, and show 

how the graces of this sacrament 

strengthen and sustain every aspect of 
married life. At the same time they are 

realistic enough to treat fully and frankly 

the most basic question~ of sex. 
Such an informal group could well use 

one or another of these books as a 

basis for discussion, proceeding through 

it chapter by chapter or subject by sub-
ject. The essentially religious framework 

of the meetings can be deepened by 

Mass (a Home Mass if the members 
meet in one another's houses) or by 
some other form of liturgical action, 

and the rich variety of readings in the 
Lectionary can add valuable new in-

sights to the meaning of Christian mar-

riage and family life. For the benefit of 

those who do not belong to such groups 

the Committee could make recom-

mended reading lists available from 
time to time, and perhaps assure that a 

good selection of material is on hand in 

the parish library. 

Married couples' retreats have be-

come increasingly popular during the 

last few years; the old days, when lay 
people's retreats were rigidly segre-

gated, are happily a thing of the past. 

Under the guidance of a skilled retreat-

master, couples have an opportunity to 

renew their vows of dedication and 

50 

fidelity to one another, to learn from 

others, and to reflect in quiet and 
prayer on the graces and duties of their 

state. They also have an opportunity to 

get away, if only for forty-eight hours, 

from home surroundings which have 

perhap$ come to seem rather humdrum, 

but which may take on a surprising new 

freshness when they get back. Almost 
every diocese in the country has re-

sources for such retreats, and the Family 

Life Committee should schedule them 
as often as they may be needed or 
wanted. 

One final word of caution may be in 
order. It is not the task of the Committee 

as such to provide help for marriages 

which may be in trouble. This is a dif-
ficult and delicate job, requiring a pro-

fessional background in psychology 

and the other behavioral sciences and 

great skill in counselling. Someone on 

the Committee who possesses this 

background and skill may wish to pro-

vide this service for the parish . But 
what he does he does by virtue of his 

own qualifications and not on behalf of 

the Committee. The Committee should 
make and maintain a resource list of 

such services for the benefit of persons 

who wish to make use of them. 

Post-Cana. The death of a beloved 
husband or wife brings with it not only 

grief, but difficult problems of emotional 

and spiritual adjustment as well. Often 

it means adjusting to a new, very dif-

ferent kind of life, at a time when a per-

son is ill-equipped both physically and 

psychologically to face change. Without 

intruding upon the privacy of family 

relationships of those who have been 

thus bereaved, the Family Life Commit-

tee can do much to help members of 

the parish community meet not only 

those problems which come with the 
death itself but others that arise in the 

years ahead. This phase of Cana work 

has come to be known as Post-Cana. 



Generally (though not always, by 
any means) widowhood comes rela-
tively late in life, and so to the problem 
of loss must be added those other dif-
ficulties which are so often an accom-

paniment of age. We will deal with 
these in the concluding section of this 

chapter. Here we will discuss briefly 
some things that the Committee could 

plan within the framework of parish 
life for those who no longer have the 
companionship of spouses and are 

faced with the threat of loneliness and 
boredom. 

Regular social act1v1t1es are very 

important although not to the extent 
that the Committee becomes a Lonely 
Hearts Club. A special effort should be 
made to involve such people in the work 
of whatever parish societies they may be 

best suited for by virtue of their age and 
interests, and to encourage their par-
ticipation in the various Adult Education 
programs mentioned earlier. Where 

necessary, the Committee can even 
arrange transportation to and from these 
meetings. Interesting group trips can 
be planned. And since widowhood is 
as much a state of life as marriage or 

religion, its spiritual aspects should not 
be lost sight of -special retreats, days 

of recollection, and other forms of 

liturgical and paraliturgical services 
should be a prominent part of the Post-

Cana program. 
It is possible, too, that the Committee 

can be of help in other practical ways. 
Death usually brings with it a multitude 

of details that have to be handled, some-
times on short notice and with very 

little preparation-insurance, Social 

Security, pension programs, perhaps 
trusts and estates. These things can be 
very confusing, especially to one grief-
stricken by loss. While, as we have said, 

the Committee should never intrude 
itself into the private details of people's 

lives, it should at least be ready to offer 

Family Life 

help along these lines wherever it may 
be needed. 

The Parish Council and Youth 

So much is being said and written these 
days about the problems of youth that 
we feel reluctant to add to it. Certainly 

we have no intention of discussing 
here such things as delrnquency, drug-
addiction, sexual looseness, hippies, 
long hair, short skirts, student unrest, 

and draft-card burnings. Anything we 
might say on these matters has already 
been said elsewhere in detail. All that 
we want to do in this section is give 
some indications about the role of young 
people in parish life, and this can be 

done without a lot of moralizing and 
sociological trimmings. 

First, it should be observed that a 
Parish Council which does not provide 
a place in its structure for youth is 

failing gravely in its responsibilities. 
It would be like a Council made up 

entirely of men and no women, or one 
in a racially mixed neighborhood that 
consisted wholly of one race or another. 
It would, in short, be denying an effec-

tive voice to a large segment of the total 
parish population (larger in some par-

ishes than in others, of course), and to 
this extent it would fall short of really 
representing the total community. 

Saddest of all, it would be as detri-
mental to the life of the parish as to the 
young people themselves. They need 

to be heard and, what is more, listened 

to. Modern youth is serious, idealistic, 
and concerned; it sees some of today's 
problems and issues much more clearly 

than its elders. There is at least a danger 
that the older people on a Co unci I may 
look at the parish and its affairs in terms 
of dollars and cents, or bricks and mor-

tar; repairs to the church roof may seem 

more important to them than the 
changes that are taking place in the 

surrounding community. Very often the 

51 



The Committees 

voice of youth may be needed to balance 

this view with an added perspective. 
The officers and members of a Parish 

Council must be aware, however, that 

nothing could possibly be worse than 

treating the young people on the Council 

in a patronizing manner and listening 

to what they have to say with an attitude 

of impatience or amused tolerance. It 

would be better not to have them at all 

than to have them serve under such 

conditions. 
Youth activity in the parish will 

normally function through the Catholic 

Youth Organization, and since this, too, 

usually has a diocesan headquarters it 
. will be possible to draw upon the re-

sources, programs and materials of this 
office. CYO, however, can be different 

things in different parishes. If it consists 

of nothing more than a Saturday night 

dance and an occasional athletic event, 

then it is hardly deserving of a place 

among the parish organizations. In such 
a case it is not living up to the original 

intent of CYO, which was to promote a 
" program of spiritual , cultural , social , 

and physical activities. " 

One of the reasons for its lack of 

success in so many places is that, like 

every other Catholic lay group, it ap-

parently had to have a "priest modera-

tor" to watch over it, and this job was 

almost always handed to the third or 
fourth assistant-in other words, to the 

youngest and most recently arrived 

priest in the parish . If he had a genuine 

enthusiasm for it, if he was really inter-

ested in young people and their prob-
. lems, and if he knew how to communicate 

with them, then CYO would flourish. 

If he took the job only as one chore 

among others, then it was bound to fall 
into neglect. 

There is no reason in the world why 

a priest should have to direct parish 
youth programs, and there may be ex-

cellent reason s, considering the other 

52 

demands on his time, why he should not. 

This phase of parish life, too, should be 
part of the work of the Family Life Com-

mittee, under the guidance of men and 

women who have a special talent for 

it and who really know how to work 

with young people. Of course, a priest 

can be and probably should be a part 

of the group, ready to give any coun-

seling or advice that may be asked of 

him in particular cases. It hardly needs 

to be said that teenagers of both sexes 
should be members of the Committee, 

working with their elders as equals, 

communicating to the latter the needs, 
wishes, problems, and insights of their 

peers, and working with the rest of the 

Committee to provide these to the fullest 

extent possible. 
When we spoke of dances and athle-

tic events, we certainly did not intend 

to do so in any disparaging sense. These 

things are important, and should be an 

integral part of the Committee's pro-

grams for young people. All sports 

events, inter- and intra-parish, should 

come under its aegis, and the coaches 

of all athletic teams should serve on it. 
Events could be planned that would 

involve both youngsters and their 

parents-for example, a talk by some 

competent authority on the dangers of 
drug addition would certainly be of 

interest and importance to both old 

and young. And just as married couples' 

retreats have become quite popular in 

the last two or three years, so, too, have 

retreats for teenagers . The " Search" 

program, described by its sponsors as a 

weekend of " search for Christian matur-
ity" which seeks to " give youth a deeper 

insight into the meaning of Christianity, " 

has proven highly successful , and most 

dioceses have both the physical faci li-

ties and the trained personnel for it. 

The Parish and Its Senior Citizens 

Ours is a youth-oriented culture. We 



spend a great deal of time thinking 
about the problems of young people, and 

the all-encompassing problem that 
young people seem to be to their 

elders. There is perhaps good reason for 
this. Of the 208 million people counted 

in the 1970 census, close to half the 

total are less than 25 years old. Another 
25 million will be in the 25-to-34 age 

bracket. This means that approximately 
60 percent of the nation's total popula-
tion will be under 35 . 

Yet at the opposite end of the age 
spectrum, the census also reveals that 
one out of every ten persons is 65 or 

over-a total of 20 million men and 
women. In five years, this figure will 
have increased by another three million. 
And there are now 18 million or more 

people in the 55-to-64 age group, many 
of whom will be facing, in the next few 

years, the prospect of retirement. 
The majority of these senior citizens 

are self-sustaining, able to care for 
themselves, and making a contribution 
in one way or another to the society in 
which they live. But old age can bring 

its own special set of problems, which 
youth cannot really conceive of. It can 
bring illness, and even helplessness; it 
can bring enforced inactivity and great 

loneliness; it can bring a dependence 
on others that is terribly wounding to 

- human dignity and self-respect. 

Because of this dependence and need, 
the Family Life Committee has perhaps 

a greater responsibility to the elderly 
people of the parish than to any other 
group. 

The census of which we spoke in 
Chapter II will give a breakdown by 

age of all parishioners, and will pre-
sumably also supply some details about 
home and family relationships . Together 
with the names of those to whom the 

priests of the parish regularly make sick 
calls or to whom they take Communion, 

it can provide a source from which the 

Family Life 

Committee will be able to determine the 

needs in this area and what must be 
done to meet them. Not everybody 
over 65 -or even over 75 for that 

matter-is going to be in need of help, 
but a substantial enough number will 
and it is these whom the Committee 

must locate and make the object of its 
special concern. 

Those who live alone and who get 
out seldom or not at all should be regu-
larly visited, if for no other reason than 
to see if they may need some errand 

done. Between visits a phone call can 
do a lot of good; its real purpose may 

be to check and make sure that the per-
son is all right, but the sound of a voice 
and a few minutes' conversation may 
brighten an otherwise bleak and lonely 
day. Doubtless, too, many elderly per-

sons would go to Mass on Sunday morn-
ing if only they had some way of getting 

there; an important duty of the Com-
mittee should be to provide such trans-

portation on a regular basis. 
When a member of the parish has to 

go to the hospital, and of course this 
can apply to younger people too, some-
one on the Committee should not only 

visit occasionally, but should also make 
sure that the parish priests are in-

formed. Many priests have been severely 
criticized for not visiting a parishioner 

in the hospital, when the simple fact is 
that nobody ever told them of the 
situation. 

It is important to remember that 

people do not necessarily have to live 
alone to need some kind of assistance. 
An elderly couple may just barely be 
able to help one another and may really 
need someone to bring them groceries, 
pick up a prescription from the drug-

store, or even help with the laundry 
and housework. 

It is ironic that just when government 

and private agencies have become aware 
of the needs of the aged, life for them 

53 



The Committees 

has become more com pi icated than it 

ever was before. How many such people 

know how to deal witn the intricacies of 

Medicare and Medicaid? How many 

may need help on a problem of Social 

Security or Blue Cross/ Blue Shield? 

There are instances where pe-ople may 
be eligible for some kind of public 

assistance but do not receive it either 

because they do not know about it or 
are bewi Ide red· by the forms that have 

to be filled out to apply for it. The 

Family Life Committee must be familiar 
with all these matters and have the 

resources to provide help to anyone 

needing or wanting it. 

The Committee must have a thorough 

knowledge of the various forms of assist-
ance to older people that federal, state, 

and local agencies offer and of where, 

how, and under what circumstances it 

may make use of them . The Administra-

tion on the Aging, a branch of the 

Department of Health, Education, and 

Welfare, serves as a central focus within 

the government on all matters relating 

to the elderly. It acts as a clearinghouse 

for information, administers grants, 
develops plans, and undertakes research . 

The National Council on the Aging, 
a private, voluntary, non-profit agency, 

has launched at the behest of the govern-

ment a program known as "Project 
Find," to serve as a model for helping 

aged people. Partly because it operates 
with Federal funds, "Project Find" is 

not something that a Parish Council 

could very well undertake on its own . 

But the Family Life Committee could 

investigate the possibility of working in 

conjunction with other community 
agencies to get such a project started in 

their area. The " Meals-on-Wheels" 

program, which provides hot meals 

and regular visits to shut-ins, can often 

mean the difference between elderly 

persons living on their own or entering 

an institution. This, too, is a program 

54 

which the Committee should · be familiar 

with and on whose facilities it may wish 
to draw. 

One of the most important things to 

bear in mind is that in many cases it 'is 

not necessary to do things for old ·peo-

ple, and that as a matter of fact they do 

not like to have everything done . for 

them. They are entitled to as much of 

their independence and self-reliance as 
possible. For example, many an elderly 

person would make an ideal baby-sitter, 

or would be entirely competent to 

perform jobs in the neighborhood. All 

that is needed is the opporfunity, the 

contact, and perhaps transportation . 

The Committee has a very real obligation 

to see that the best possible use is made 

of the abilities that these people have, 

and that within the community they, 

too, fit into the law of supply and de-
mand. Similarly, an infirm and aged 

woman may resent the idea of having 

somebody else go out and do her mar"' 

keting for her, but may be afraid to do 
it by herself; simply going along, help-

ing to pick out the items and get them 
back home, can be a boon beyond ·the 

power of a younger person to imagine. · 

Nobody likes to think about getting 

old, and " old age" is always at least a 

decade beyond one's own present years . 

Nevertheless it makes good · sense to 

prepare for it intelligently ahead of 

time. The Family Life Committee coul'd 
undertake no finer or more valuable 

task than to provide meetings or semi-

nars on "Pre-Retirement Planning" for 

the benefit of those in the parish who 

have not yet reached that time but who 

will do so in the not-too-distant future. 
In the kind of series that we have- in 

mind, a doctor could speak on the physi-

cal and mental aspects of growing old ; 

an occupational therapist might talk on 

what people can do with their time in 

retirement; a banker or an insurance 
agent could offer practical information 



on such subjects as insurance, Social 
Security, Medicare; pension programs, 

and investments; a real estate man 
could speak on housing possibilities, 

both private and institutional, for the 
aged. The talks · could be followed by 
question-and-answer sessions, and much 

supplementary printed material is avail-
able along these lines. Planning for 
such eventualities now can prevent 

many a crisis or heartache later. 
At the end of what we have covered 

in this chapter, someone may still wish 
to ask the question: "What does all this 
have to do with the parish?" The answer 

is quite simple~these people are the 
parish. 

Young and ·old, men and women, 

engaged or married or widowed, wealthy 
or poor, they are the ones who make up 
this communit¥ of the People of God. 
Each one, in his or her' own way and 

with his or her own particular gifts, has 

contributed something to this commu~ 
nity and they have a right to all that the 
community can give them in return . 

Christ said that whoever gave so much 
as a cup of cold water to one of his fol-
lowers would not go unrewarded. The 

cup of water need not be taken with 
exact literalness. Whoever talks under-

standingly and sympathetically to a 
teenager who cannot or will not talk to 

his own parents, whoever opens up to 
an engaged person the beauty and the 
grace of Christian marriage, whoever 

calls an aged and lonely person just to 
say "Hello! How are you?" is offering 

such a cup. And we have his word, too, 
that when we do it to them, we are also 

doing it to him. 

Bo.oks a~d ~rticles 

Lyons (Programs for Parish Councils) 

treats of the Family Life Committee in 
his Chapter 9, pp. 89-99. Broderick (Your 

Parish Comes Alive) does not provide 

for a Fami·ly Life Committee as such, but 

Family Life 

covers some of the ground in his chap-
ter on the "Social Commission," pp. 

42-47. 

The Basic Cana Manual edited by 

Rev. Walter J. lmbiorski and published 
by the Cana Conference of Chicago dates 
to 1963, and much of its vocabulary is 
hardly the kind that would be used in 

this "post-conciliar" period; but It is 
sti II very good and very usable, and as its 
title indicates, it is really the basic 

manual for Cana conferences. · 
Unhappily It is rather weak on the 

subject of "interfaith" marriages, and 

as a matter of fact this whole area has 
not been too well covered. A recent 

book, Marriage: An Interfaith Guide for 
All Couples, may, however, be recom-
mended unreservedly. It is edited by a 
priest, Raban Hathorn, O.S.B.; a minis-
ter, William H. Genne; and a rabbi, 
Mordecai Brill; and is published jointly 

by Association Press, New York, and 
Abbey Press, St. Meinrad, Indiana at 
$5.95. Every aspect of interfaith marriage 

is realistically treated; and while it is 
not a textbook or designed sp~cifically 
for group use, it would be most helpful 
i~ conjunction with interfaith Cana 
programs. 

The Authority of Love by William 

Maher, published by the National 
Council of Catholic Men, Washington, 
D.C., covers the whole gamut of family 
life and its problems, and is arranged in 

the form of six discussion units, each 
provided with appropriate and stimulat-
ing questions. It would be ideal for the 

kind of parish groups we have described 

in the text. The book is priced at $1.95 
per · copy, with substantial discounts 

for quantity purchases. 
Books on Catholic marriage and family 

life exist in such great numbers that it 
is really impossible to attempt anything 
like a full listing of them here. How-

ever, any good Catholic bookstore will 

probably have shelves and display 

55 



The Committees 

counters devoted to them . Most may 

be had in inexpensive paperback form 

as well as in hardcover, for which reason 

we have not provided price information. 

Anything by the Birds, joseph and Lois, 

is well worth reading: The Freedom of 

Sexual Love, Marriage Is For Grownups, 
and even their poem, Love Is All. Love 

and Sexuality by Mark Perkins and john 

julian Ryan is in the same vein and is 

also very well done, as is Our Bed Is 

Flourishing by Robert B. McCready, 

Ph.D. Lovers In Marriage by Louis 
Evely provides an excellent spiritual 

background . 

Marriage, published monthly by St. 

Meinrad Archabbey, St . Meinrad, Indi-

ana, regularly carries good and helpful 

articles. The Committee should subscribe 

to it and see that it is avai I able in the 

parish library, along with some of the 
volumes just mentioned. 

Despite today's emphasis on youth 
and its concerns, there is a real paucity 

of program materials for youth work in 
Catholic parishes. The American journal 

of Catholic Youth Work carries a good 

selection of articles and may provide 

ideas which can be adapted to individual 

circumstances. It is publi shed three 

times a year by the Division of Youth 

Activities of the United States Catholic 

Conference, 1312 Massachusetts Ave-

nue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20005, and 

the subscription rate is $5 .00. 

On the other hand, there is a wide 

selection ot materials on the needs and 

problems of the aging. Mention may be 

made of Handbook of Social Gerontol-
ogy: Societal Aspects of Aging edited 

by Clark Tibbitts (University of Chicago 

Press, 770 pp. , $10.00) ; The Social Com-

ponents of Care (American Association 

of Homes for the Aging, 49 W. 45th 
Street, New York, New York, 96 pp. ); 

Protective Services for Older People : 

Progress Report 1966-67 (Benjamin Rose 

Institute, Cleveland, Ohio, 82 pp. ); and 

56 

Resources for the Aging: An Action 

Handbook, second edition revised , 

prepared for the Office of Economic 
Opportunity by the National Council on 

the Aging, 315 Park Avenue South, New 

York, New York 10010, 224 pp. The 
latter may be particularly helpful , since 

it lists all assistance programs available 

to or of interest to the aging, both at 

national and local levels. 



Social Action 

In nothing that we have said so far 

has there been the slightest attempt to 

make the work of one committee seem 

anymore important or indispensable 

than that of another. Quite the con-

trary-all are important and all are 

equally necessary. Neither are we going 

to argue here that the job of the Social 

Action Committee is bigger, more diffi-

cult or more dignified than any of the 
other four. All we will say is that it is 

different, and this is for two reasons. 

It is possible for the others to operate 
more or less as though only the parish 

exists. In practice, of course, they do 

not, but the fact still remains that they 

could . The Administration Committee 

could devote itself solely to the finances 

and maintenance of the parish plant 

without relationship to anything around 

it. The Education Committee could re-

strict its attention to the Christian for-

mation of the parish's own people, 

young and old. The Parish Life Commit-

tee could utterly ignore any kind of 

ecumenical activity and concern itself 

solely with the worship that goes on in 

Church. _Each one could effectively 

carry on its work as if the parish were 

cut off from the world at large. 

But this privilege, if such it could be 

called, is denied the Social Action Com-

mittee. By the very nature of its task, 

it must go beyond parochial lines and 

strictly parochial concerns. The parish 

is a community, of course; but it is also 

part of a still larger community with 

which it is intimately bound up, and 

its life depends in a very real sense on 

the life of that larger unit. This is the 

neighborhood, the section, perhaps everi 

the whole town or city. The problems 

that face this larger community are not 

just Catholic, and in the strict sense they 

may not even be rei igious, but never-

theless they are of the utmost concern 
to the · parish for the simple reason that 

it is there in the midst of them . 

The second reason is directly related 

to the first. It is, of course, a common 
cliche to say that we live in changing 

times. The whole fabric of the society 

in which we and our parents and grand-

parents lived so comfortably is under-

going drastic alteration. Values that 

were long taken for granted are being 

seriously questioned, and new values 

are being proposed. No time in history 

has been without its problems, but the 

ones that we face today-nuclear war, 

poverty, hunger, tension among races, 

environmental pollution, a population 

almost bigger than the earth can hold-

are new and different, and are certainly 

as terrifying as any plague. 

Since Vatican II the Catholic Church 

has been making an effort to address 

itself to these problems. Sometimes the 

effort has seemed frantic, and sometimes 

it seems misdirected, but that it is a 

genuine effort not even its severest 

critics will deny. It operates not just 

57 



The Committees 

from Rome (though it started there in 

the Council sessions), and not just in 

the work of national hierarchies, but 

also at the level of the humblest parish . 

Formerly a Catholic church seemed iso-

lated from the neighborhood in which it 

stood and indifferent to what went on 

around it, but in few cases is this any 

longer true; it is now very much a part 

of the neighborhood, and works gladly 

with others to find solutions to common 

problems. 

This is what makes the work of the 

Social Action Committee essentially 

different from the others. The demands 

on it may not be any heavier, but the 

area of its interest and responsibility 
is much wider. An enlightened and 

effective Social Action Committee will 

relate the life of the parish to the life 

of the comm unity, for the greater en-

richment of both. It will address itself 

to the concerns of al l the members of 

the community in their role as citizens 

-black and white, rich and poor, 

Catholic and non-Catholic. It will get 

its hands dirty doing what seem to be 

quite ordinary things, and it will offer 

proof that the Word of God heard in the 

church is something lived on the street 

outside. 

The Committee and the Community 

Unhappily, in numerous places the very 

term "Social Action " has turned out to 

be a catchall designed to pick up any-

thing that did not c learly come under 

the jurisdiction of the other commit-

tees. Although " Social Action " does 

cover a wide range, each of its activities 

requires expert knowledge and a high 

degree of professional competence. 

One of the commonest misconcep-

tions about it is that it exists only to do 

something-many committees are not 

at all sure just what-in the specific 

area of race relations; for example, to 

"stabilize" neighborhoods, and make a 

58 

few black families feel that they are 

welcome at Mass on Sunday mornings. 

At this particular time and place in 

history, race relations will undoubtedly 

be its most difficult and challenging 

assignment; but it is not the only one. 

Indeed, a Social Action Committee could 

sti II do a valuable and very necessary 
job even if, locally, the racial problem 

was not a pressing one. 

But setting racial matters aside, at 
least momentarily, let us point out that 

a Social Action Committee has much to 

concern itself about right in its own 

immediate neighborhood. 

First, it must know the community-

and here it has to be borne in mind that 

a given parish may embrace two or 

more quite distinct communities, while 

on the other hand a community may 

overlap the boundaries of several 

Catholic parishes. It must know how 

many people live there, the social strata 

they represent, and their general educa-

tional and cultural background; how 

old the homes are they live in, and what 
those homes are worth today; if most of 

the people own their homes or rent 

them; what the community's resources 

are-its shopping centers and stores, its 

schools, its playgrounds and recrea-

tional facilities; the nature and extent 

of its public services; what major high-

ways flow through and around it, and 

what the traffic pattern of its streets is . 
If the community lies in the industrial 

area of some large city, what are the 

products made by its factories? How 

many people do they employ, and do 

these people come from the surround-

ing neighborhood or from elsewhere? 

Do they pollute the atmosphere with 

their waste and bother residents with 

the noise of their machinery, and if so 

what can be done about it? Are their 
owners and/or managers interested in 

the community, and do they relate in 

any way to it? 



If the area is primarily a residential 

one, what are the extent and quality of 

its sto res and services? What role do the 

barbers and beauty-shop operators, the 

dry-cleaners and liquor store owners, 

the grocers and branch bank managers 

play in local affairs? Are their shops 

clean and attractive, contributing to the 

general appearance of the neighbor-

hood? Are they themselves residents? 

(In general , and purely as a matter of 

enlightened self-interest, most owners 

of such shops are very interested in the 

w elfare and standards of the community 

in which they are located and are only 

too -happy to cooperate with others in 

maintaining them .) 

What about the local Protestant 

churches and Jewish synagogues? How 

large are they, and how well attended? 

How do they relate to the community 

as a whole, and how wi IIi ng are they to 

work with other groups on common 

problems? Are there neighborhood 

improvement associations, and how 

active and effective are they? 

The Committee will , of course, want 

to know the names and addresses of 

the elected officials who represent the 

section on the city council or other local 
governing body, in the state legislature, 

and in Congress. It ought to have a 

pretty clear and realistic idea of political 

power structures-including any 

" bosses" who, for good or iII , wield 

influence and dispense patronage. And 

it goes without saying that it must 

really know its Police Department and 

be prepared to cooperate with it in 

every way possible . 

These, then, are among the things 

with which a Social Action Committee 

must be familiar and in which it should 

have an interest-and this list is by no 

means complete . But it wi II at least 

serve to show how far the responsibili-

ties and sphere of action of this Com-

mittee transcend the specific concerns 

Social Action 

of the parish, and it should show, too, 

how impossib'le it would be for it to do 

its job unless it worked in close liaison 

with other groups-with the other 

churches of the area, with improvement 

associations, with neighborhood busi-

nesses and, where necessary, with the 
police. 

What are some of the matters to which 

it may and should devote itself? We said 

a moment ago that it would get its 

hands dirty doing what often seemed to 

be very ordinary things, and this is 

true. But the fact that they are ordinary 

does not make them unimportant. 

Suppose, for example, a traffic I ight 

is badly needed at a dangerous inter-

section. The complaints of a few in-

dividuals might go utterly unheeded, 

but the action of a group-a group 

composed, moreover, of numerous 

sub-groups representing the area's 

churches, businesses, and neighborhood 

associations-may bring about prompt 

installation of the signal before some-
body is killed. 

Or suppose that a given block or 

stretch of blocks lacks adequate street 

lights, thus inviting crime and making 

residents afraid to go out after dark. 

Here again the proper kind of concerted 

action may result not only in more and 

better lights, but in increased police 

patrolling of the area . 

It may be that there is no safe place 

for the children of a particular neigh-

borhood to play. This problem is some-

what bigger, because obviously it is not 

as easy to provide and equip a play-

ground as it is to install a traffic signal 

or a lamp-post. The various groups may 

have to get together to determine how 

serious the need is, just where the play-

ground could be put, what equipment 

would be required, and whether there 

will have to be personnel to supervise 

it. It will probably be desirable to collab-

orate with the schools of the area, and 

59 



The Committees 

almost certainly it will be necessary to 

work with-and "on" -City Hall to 

bring such a project into being. 

But children are not the only residents 

of the neighborhood on whose behalf 

the Social Action Committee may have 

to exert itself . Increasingly, many cities, 

large and small, are providing commu-

nity centers for the care and activities 

of the elderly. Is there one of these in 

the area, and if not is there a need for 

one? And do not forget teen-agers-

the Committee may want to work with 

members of the Family Life Committee 

and with groups from other neighboring 

churches to make sure that there are 

ample social and recreational facilities 

for them . 
If some local gathering place is known 

or strongly suspected to be an outlet for 

dope this will require swift and vigorous 

action. Here is where liaison with the 

police department, and even with the 

district attorney's office, is immensely 

important. Here, too, is an area which 

clearly demonstrates just how far the 

Committee must go beyond the imme-

diate problems of the parish as such. 

If the parish is one located in the 

inner city, it will face a battery of prob-

lems of greater magnitude than most of 

those we have just been talking about. 

These wi II demand resolution, tireless 

patience, and hard work . Rats and 

vermin are not disposed of by holding a 

meeting, and children who go to school 

in the morning hungry will not get 

much nourishment from a motion in 

committee. All the social ills that one 

could think of-dirt, overcrowding, 

poverty, hunger, disease, crime, dope, 
illiteracy, neglect and indifference by 

city authorities and by the police-will 

be here concentrated and multiplied; 

and while they all have to be handled 

together, it wi II doubtless be necessary 

foreachofthem to be handled separately. 

Obviously there 1s not sufficient 

60 

space here to treat these matters with 

anything like the care and thoroughness 

which they demand. Fortunately this 

subject too has built up an immense 

I i brary in recent years, and some of the 

better materials are indicated in the 
book list. The Committee will have to 

take whatever action it deems appro-

priate in each area. It may have to bring 

strong pressure to bear upon the city's 

Department of Education and School 

Board to assure that inner-city schools 

are not crumbling fire-traps and that 

they are provided with competent teach-

ers, decent textbooks, and all other 

necessary aids. If the children in these 

schools are suffering from malnutrition 

-and some of them probably are- it 

will have to press these people as well 

as government officials to see if some 

kind of free-lunch program cannot be 

set up. It may be necessary to work on 

the Department of Sanitation to provide 

more frequent collections of garbage 

and trash in order to cut down on the rat 

population and the threats to health 

and personal safety that it poses. 

Crime and drug addiction can be 

serious problems here, and thus collab-

oration with the Police Department 

will be even more important than else-

where. The situation is complicated by 

the fact that many inner-city residents 

fear and hate the police, and the police 

themselves have misgivings about ven-

turing into it. In many cities, though, the 

Police Department has now set up 

neighborhood "community relations" 

centers to improve its image with these 

people, and in many cases the results 

have been good. If there is no such 

center, the Social Action Committee 

should exert its efforts to get one; and 

if and when there is, it should cooperate 

closely with it. 

Neighborhood meetings can be held, 

if necessary block by block, to encourage 

people to take pride in their homes and 



streets . Remember that, by and large, 

what is now the inner city was once a 

prosperous middle-class community, 
and that the homes are sometimes much 

bigger and more solidly constructed 

than most of the homes that are being 
built today. Generally, it does not take 

much to restore them to something 

like their original attractiveness, if only 

people can be stimulated to do it. And 
in this connection, absentee landlords 

sliould be sternly given to understand 

that they have a responsibility here too, 

and that neglect and exploitation wi II 

not be tolerated . 

One of the things that will make the 

work of the Social Action Committee in 

a section like this so much more diffi-

cult is the fact that there are relatively 

few human resources to work with . In 

all likelihood there will not be a mer-

chant's association, because most of 

the merchants will not live there and 

many of them could not possibly care 
less about conditions in the neighbor-

hood. Probably, too, there will not be 

any kind of improvement association 
such as one is likely to have in more 

affluent areas. The Committee will 

have a hard, lonely, and often discou-rag-

ing task; but it will be worth it if, some-

how and in spite of everything, it can 

make what was once a slum into an 

attractive, livable neighborhood . 

Its counterpart in the better endowed 

suburban parish may ·not have exactly 

these same problems, but it, too, will 

have plenty to do to keep it busy. For 

one thing, it has a duty to at least know 

something about the conditions in inner 

city parishes and to investigate seriously 

what it can do to help. Also, crime and 

drug abuse do not stop at the bound-
aries of the inner city; and traffic condi-

tions can be much more dangerous on a 

suburban highway than on narrow 

streets farther in town. Delinquent 

youths can come from well-to-do homes 

Social Action 

as well as from poor ones. And remem-

ber, too, that the inner city is likely to 

resemble a bubble, constantly expand-
ing. This brings us to the matter of 

" changing neighborhoods" and race 

relations, to which we now turn our 
attention. 

The Committee and Race Relations 

Some years ago an American Cardinal 
was booed when he appeared before a 

public meeting to plead for the passage 

of open-housing legislation in his city. 

By their own admission a fair number 

of those who engaged in this display 

of bad manners were Catholics, of whom 

he was the spiritual leader. 

Although he may have been the high-

est ranking churchman ever to be sub-

jected to such treatment, the incident 

is not really unique. Bishops, priests, 

religious of both sexes, and lay persons 

have faced resistance, abuse, and in 
some cases threats of personal vio-

lence, from other Cat hoi ics over the 
matter of race relations. Usually their 

argument is that the racial problem is 

not a moral but a political one, in which 

the Church and its members have no 
right to intrude. 

This is what we meant when we in-

timated that a parish which does not 

think it has a problem in this area may 

have a serious one indeed. The Social 

Action Committee of a white urban or 

suburban parish has a real duty to edu-

cate its members in the theology and 
practical aspects of race relations. It 

must make them see that it very def-
initely is a moral issue, as well as a 

political one. It has this duty even if 

there is not a black person within miles 

of the church; but the duty becomes 

more pressing, of course, if blacks are 

moving into and becoming part of the 

community. 
How is this education to be under-

taken? It is not easy. One method that 

61 



The Committees 

has yielded good results is Project 

Commitment, originally launched in 

the Archdiocese of Detroit and later 

used successfully in a number of other 

places. This program brings together a 

group of parishes, perhaps a dozen or 

more, representing a geographical , 

racial, and socio-economic cross-sec-

tion. They meet weekly for six or seven 

weeks, and at each meeting a qualified 

speaker talks on some aspect of race 

' relations: on housing, for example, 

or public welfare, or crime and vio-

lence. The participants are seated at 

tables holding ten or twelve, and seat-

ing arrangements are very carefully 

worked out in advance to assure that 

each table has both blacks and whites, 
men and women, religious and lay per-

. soris; and people from a number of 

different parishes. Following the talk 

and a question-and-answer period , the 

participants engage in informal dis-

cussion on the material they have just 

heard. 
The great advantage of something 

like · Project Commitment is that it 

brings whites and blacks together, 

perhaps for the first time in such con-

ditions and such an atmosphere, to set 

forth fully and frankly to one another 

their attitudes and problems. One pos-

sible disadvantage, from the standpoint 

of an individual parish , is that the 

program requires a cross-section of 

people from different parishes. For this 

reason it can really only be under-
taken by the diocese, with the bishop 

asking the cooperation of a number of 

pastors. 

But even without this kind of diocesan 

program, there is much that a Social 

Action Committee can do to awaken 

parishioners to some sense of their re-

sponsibilities in this matter and to in-

culcate an understanding of human and 

racial equality . If they cannot effec-

tively come together with a black parish 

62 

from the inner city, the Committee can 

at least bring in speakers who can talk 

authoritatively on the problems of that 

area and on what can be done to alle-

viate them. Most dioceses now have 

Offices of Urban Affairs or Urban Com-

missions whose specifi c task it is to 

formulate policy and carry out action 

on the issues of race and poverty . These 

agencies are not only willing but quite 

anxious to work with parishes in all 

types of educational programs and, as a 
rule, they have speakers ' lists through 
whom qualified persons may be obtained. 

One thing that has proven effective 

in many places is the practice known as 

" pulpit exchange. " Here a priest from 

an inner city church, accompanied by 

some of his black parishioners, visits a 

white suburban parish on Sunday morn-

ing and preaches at one or more of the 

Masses. Either at the same time or later, 

a priest from the suburban parish and 

some of his people go for Mass to the 

church in the inner city. Both ways, this 
has been a revealing experience for 

many people. And we have already men-

tioned in the chapter on the Administra-

tion Committee the possibility of an 

affluent parish adopting a poor one and 

providing in a very practical way for 

some of its needs. 

If the neighborhood is beginning to 

change its character, the Social Action 

Committee has a group of problems to 

meet promptly and directly. There is 

hardly any need to rehearse here the 

gloomy story of what has happened to so 

many sections of many large American 

cities in the past two decades: the in-

flux of a few black families into a 

hitherto white area, the flight of the 

white residents to an outlying suburb, 

the sharp decline in property values, and 

finally, after a couple of years, the con-

version of the all-white neighborhood 

into one that is all-black. 

In this situation the Social Action 



. -- ~ - -- -- -------- -------- ·- --· 

Committee will, as we just indicated, 

have to act with intelligence and vigor. 

Here too, if anywhere, it must join 

forces with all the other groups and 

organizations of the area- because it 
must be obvious that this is not just a 

Catholic problem but a general social 

one. The parish will have to league it-

self with all the surrounding Protestant 

churches, with the local improvement 

associations, and with the business com-

munity. It will have to ask for the co-

operation of the real estate companies 

who are active in the area and offer its 

own cooperation in turn. (It is almost a 

necess ity that a realtor be on the Social 

Action Committee.) 

If there ·is any place where education 

is needed, it is here. The Committee 

must mount a full-scale program with 

meetings, talks, discussions, and the 

use of any kind of helpful printed or 

visual material. In at least one case 

we know of, a parish faced with just 

this crisis met it by holding block meet-

ings with all its members. Each week the 

Social Action Committee would invite 

the res idents of one block to a meeting 

and there discuss with them the prob-

lem, set forth the facts, and make its 

appeal. The task was not easy and it 

was rather drawn out, because the 

parish was large. It was also at times 

rather discouraging; all the people in a 

block would be invited but more than 

once only a handful would show up, 

and not all these were agreeable by any 

means . But in the long run and for the 

most part it seems to have worked ; the 

parish still has problems, but an exodus 

of its members is not one of them. 

The Committee should also work 

closely with the Parish Life Committee in 

extending a warm welcome to black 

families coming into the parish fold . 

Such a family, going to Mass on Sunday 

morning only to be ignored and cold-

shouldered, is not exactly seeing Christ 

Socia l Action 

rn its fellow-worshippers . We have al-

ready said that all newcomers to the 

parish should be made to feel at home, 

and the obligation is perhaps more 

pressing here than elsewhere. 

The Committee should, of course, 

maintain close touch with the Chancery 

Office of the diocese and be familiar 

with all of its agencies, programs, and 

directives that bear upon social prob-

lems. It has also a duty to keep abreast 

of local, state, and federal legislation 

relating to such things as housing, urban 

renewal , public assistance, food, and 

medical aid to the indigent and aged, 

and laws covering drug traffic and abuse. 

As it plans, it should think as much of 

tomorrow as of today-what are the 

parish and the community going to be 

like five, or ten , or twenty years from 
now, and what can it do to he I p pre-

pare for these changes. The city's Plan-

ning Commission can be of great assist-

ance here, and would doubtless welcome 

interested and intelligent cooperation 

in return . 

And just as the Committee's concerns 

are not limited to the parish but extend 

to the community, so they need not 

stop here but can embrace national 

and international problems as well. The 

whole recent emphasis on ecology, the 

pollution and waste of natural resources, 

could very well be a focus of activity, 

and if it only succeeded in doing some-

thing at a local level, it would have 

made a very valuable contribution in-

deed . Inflation, good government, war 

and peace, justice among nations-

these are among its natural and legiti-

mate concerns, and there will doubtless 

be many public issues on which it will 

have not only the right but the duty to 

"stand up and be counted." 

Some parishes have " Publi c Affairs" 

or " justice and Peace" committees as 

integral parts of their Councils . The 

function of these bodies is usually to 

63 



The Committees 

provide information and knowledge on 

the great issues of the day, and to take 

a stand where such a thing seems useful 

or necessary. These are good if there 

seems a need for them; but even with-

out them , the Social Action Committee 

both by its words and deeds, can con-

tinually remind parishioners that they 

are citizens of this world and that they 

have very definite Christian duties 

toward it. 

Books and Articles 

As in the case of the Education Commit-

tee, the available material on social 

action (and on each of its many sub-

divisions) is so great that we can call 

attention to only the tiniest fraction of 
it. Fortunately · any good public library 

can help here, and most such librari es 

are not only willing but eager to work 

with churches, neighborhood groups, 

and community organizations. This 

Committee, more than any of the others, 

should learn how to make the best pos-

sible use of I i brary resources . 
Without doubt the most important 

piece of " must" reading for anyone 

concerned with social action is the 

famous Kerner Report, the Report of 
the National Advisory Commission on 
Civil Disorders (New York: Bantam 
Books, 607 pp., paperback $1.25). This 

documents fully and dispassionately 

the history of race relations in the United 

States and the causes, open and hidden, 

leading to the troubles of recent years. 

It also sets forth some of the things that 

must be done to work toward a solution 

of the problems . It is, of course, enor-

mously long, and a quite good summary 

of it is available in the form of a 30-page 

pamphlet published as a public service 
by various organizations (inc luding the 

National Council of Catholic Men) at 

$.15 per single copy. 

Two other works that might well be 

read in conjuncti on with it are One Year 

64 

Later, an assessment of the nation 's 
response to the original Report (New 

York: Urban America, Inc. and the Urban 

Coalition, 122 pp.) and Civil Rights and 
the American Negro edited by Albert P. 
Blaustein and Robert L. Zangrando (New 

York: Washington Square Press, Inc. , 

671 pp., paperback $1.45). The latter is 

especially valuable since it includes with 

its text many official documents ranging 

from early state const itutions to recent 
court decisions. 

Beyond this, in the specific field of 

race relations, the field is wide open. 

Interested members of a Social Action 

Committee will certai nly want to read 

such things as The Nature of Prejudice 
by Gordon W. Allport (New York: 

Doubleday Anchor Paperback, 496 pp., 

$2.45), The Church and the Urban Racial 
Crisis edited by Mathew Ahmann and 
Margaret Roach (Techny, Ill.: Divine 

Word Publications, 262 pp., paperback 

$2.95), The Church and the Black Man 
by John Howard Griffin (Dayton, 0 .: 
Pflaum Press, 133 pp. , paperback $2.95) , 

and Am I a Racist? edited by Robert 
Heyer (New York: Paulist Press and 

Association Press, 143 pp., paperback 

$1.95). These are only a few suggestions; 

there are many more books and equally 

good ones. 

Turning from race relations to the 

field of urban ren ewal and the Church's 

role in it, one finds a similar wealth of 
material. We mention but two books 

that should be helpful: The Church and 
Urban Renewal by George J. Younger 
(Philadelphia : J. B. Lippincott Co., 216 

pp., $4.50) and Steeples in Metropolis 
by Robert G. Howes (Dayton, Ohio: 

Pflaum Press, 200 pp., $5.50). The latter 

describes in detail an elaborate survey 

undertaken on this problem by a par-

ticular archdiocese (Ba ltimore), and goes 

on to discuss the present and future role 

of the Church and of parishes in our 

changing cities . Interested persons wi II , 



of course, also want to read The Secular 

City by Harvey Cox (New York: The 

Macmillan Co., 244 pp., rev . paperback 

edition $1.45), which has become a 

modern classic in its field . 
A Social Action Committee will 

naturally want to know about the pro-

grams of governmental assistance in the 

areas of poverty, housing, and so on, 
and these are covered exhaustively in 

the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assist-

ance published by the Office of Eco-

nomic Opportunity. Its 610 pages cover 

the whole range of " the Federal govern-

ment's domestic programs to assist the 

American people in furthering their 

social and economic progress ." It may 

be purchased from the Superintendent 
of Documents, Government Printing 

Office, Washington, D.C. 20402 . 

Another book of this kind, " a hand-

book for human relations programs," 

Organizing for Community Life by Chris-

topher T. Carley is avai I able from the 
Archdiocese of Chicago . 

Some specific things that Parish Coun-

cils can do are covered by both Bernard 

Lyons and Robert C. Broderick in their 

books. Lyons breaks it up into two 
chapters, one (Ch . 6) on " Community 

Life, " pp. 53-57, and another (Ch . 1 0) 

called "Social, " pp . 101-112, in Pro-

grams for Parish Councils: An Action 

Manual. Broderick deals with the " Social 

Commission" in Chapter 5, pp. 42-47, of 

Your Parish Comes Alive. 

Soc ial Action 

65 







.....---------------------------------------



Let us repeat here a point which was 

made in the introduction but which 

may have been lost sight of as we dealt, 

one by one, with the work of the various 

committees. No one of them can func-

tion on its own or in a state of isolation; 
each must relate in the fullest possible 

way to the others, because together they 

make up that single body which is the 

Parish Council. Some examples may il-
lustrate how mutually interdependent 

they are. 
Suppose that the Parish Life Commit-

tee decides that there is a real need for 

parishioners to be instructed in the new 
Order of Mass, not just in external 

details but in the whole spiritual and 

doctrinal foundation for liturgical re-

newal. It must obviously work closely 

with the Education Committee, and in 

particular with any subgroup of it 
specifically charged with adult educa-

tion, to plan programs, talks, speakers, 

schedules, among other things . 
Or suppose that the Family Life Com-

mittee, in its work with parish youth , 

finds serious or potentially serious prob-

lems of drug traffic and usage in the 

area. It and the Social Action Commit-

tee have a job on their combined hands 

locating and stamping out the distribu-

tion spots, and making young people 

realize the dangers to which they are 
exposing themselves . The two of them 

together may want to enlist the aid of 

the Education Committee in bringing 

qualified speakers to the parish to talk 

to both adults and teen-agers about this 

problem. 

It is highly desirable that the Educa-

tion Committee know not just how many 

children will be enrolled in the school 

next year, but how many are I i kely to be 

in it five years or ten years from now. 

The census records of the Parish Life 

Committee, extrapolated by competent 

hands, should enable them to project 

this with a high degree of accuracy. And 

if the social, racial , and economic na-

ture of the parish is likely to shift during 
this time, it will want to work with the 

Social Action Committee in getting 
ready to meet these changes . 

The relationship of the other four to 

the Administration Committee, which is 

responsible both for the raising and use 

of parish funds, is of course obvious. 

These are just a few examples. The 

list could go on and on because the 

number of ways that the committees 

could be called on to work with each 
other is as extensive as the activities 
and problems of the parish, and as 

complex as the nature of those problems. 

Remember, too, that while each com-

mittee has responsibility in its particular 

area, authority in major matters will rest 

with the full body of which it is but a 

part. In the case, for instance, of school 
tuition, it will be the task of the Educa-

tion Committee to assemble all the 

pertinent data, consider all the possible 

69 



Tying Things Up 

alternatives, and certainly to make its 

recommendations ; but the final decision 

as to whether tuition will or will not be 

increased must be made by the whole 
Parish Council. 

Whether democracy, as we know it in 

our American system of government, 

will ever enter into the structures of the 

Church is an open question which it 

would be pointless to enter into here. 

But certainly the years since the close 

of Vatican II have seen the beginning of 

forms of shared responsibility, of "co l-

legiality," ranging from the union of 

bishops with the Pope to the union of 

parishioners with their parish priests . 

Undoubtedly this will increase in both 

breadth and depth as time goes on . It 

cannot, however, be something that 

sounds good on paper but has no prac-

tical application ; to be effective it 

must be real , and to be real it requires 

the hard work, mutual trust, and close 

collaboration of many people-clerical 

and lay, men and women, young and old 

-coming together in the unity of the 
People of Cod. 

70 



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