By Joan Rampersad Sunday, July 29 2007

Recent headlines have not been good for the Catholic church, both here and abroad. A recent census revealed that only 17 percent of Catholics attend Sunday Mass.

In Trinidad, a large virtually uninhabited St Joseph de Cluny Convent, with only three elderly nuns, is up for sale in San Fernando. Selling price $50 M.

The Carmelite Order, now celebrating 100 years in this country is also facing a bleak future with 53 of its present roll call of 75 nuns, all over the age of 60 and with few young recruits in sight.

The St Joseph de Cluny nuns who have been here for more than a century, still have residences in Port-of-Spain, Arouca, Belmont and other areas, and have contributed greatly to education. But recruiting new members is problematic.

The San Fernando Convent for example covers a space of over 20,000 sq ft on prime land and is occupied by three elderly nuns.

There is also simply no rush to join the Carmelites who have been administering to sick and abused children, the mentally challenged, and similarly disadvantaged people. The Rosary Monastery of cloistered nuns which occupies acres of prime real-estate land in St Ann’s is also largely a community of elderly women.

The historic Mt St Benedict, which sits atop the slopes of the Northern Range overlooking Central Trinidad, is also facing a dwindling number of priests with the spectre of a shut down when the elderly monks now resident there pass on.

“The situation is a bit bleak,” said the monastery’s Abbott Fr John Perreira, “because there aren’t many young men joining the priesthood now.”

But a slightly brighter picture is painted by Archbishop of Port-of-Spain, Edward Gilbert, who although he has problems of his own with an archdiocesan shortage of priests, points out that Mt St Benedict is independent and related to other monasteries that are doing well and which could help in its re-population.

In earlier years, Catholic priests were imported from Ireland, France and Spain. The Holy Ghost Fathers who excelled in the field of education, and from whose ranks our first and only local archbishop had come, were Irish.

The Archdiocese of Port-of-Spain established its own seminary at Mt St Benedict some decades ago and began training Caribbean men to fill the need as the arrivals of foreign priests began to slow down.

But the numbers have simply not been enough and even after ordination some have left the priesthood to pursue other careers.

Today lay people run many parishes where Mass is sometimes only available on Sunday and then only if a visiting priest can be rostered.

Is there a link between the recent census that revealed that only 17 percent of the country’s 300,000 Catholics attend Mass on Sunday and the shortage of priests? It seems so. When they go to church, Catholics want Mass not a service conducted by someone who is not a priest.

Archbishop Gilbert offered some other reasons: “Secularisation, neo-paganism, breakdown of family life, drugs and the sex culture will answer why there is the fall away from Mass,” he said, “but what is of more concern is how to stop the slide. We are beginning to pick apart the statistics to find out exactly what they mean. Why only 17 percent? It is relatively easy to analyse but not as easy to solve. An immediate response is to have two censuses a year in the hope that tracking will reveal a pattern. We noticed that people are making moves back to the church at 45, and we are positively surprised at the number of men that are worshiping,” Gilbert said. “However we are going into dialogue to analyse the issues and address the problem. We have no magic flags here but we are going to the schools and we need to be more present to the people,” Gilbert stated.

One of the popularly held reasons for the lack of priests is the issue of celibacy, about which the Catholic church is inflexible.

But Fr Jason Gordon, Administrator of the Archdiocese, draws reference to the situation in the Anglican and Episcopal churches, which allow priests to marry, but who are facing the same crisis for clergy, so Gordon does not seem to believe that celibacy is the main issue and like Gilbert, thinks it is the changing culture.

He said: “Secularism is the new culture of the west unlike before. It is a different way of experiencing life for them.

But the world went through this before when Rome was falling in the 400s and the church went into monasteries when paganism was rampant. Eventually the church re-emerged in new ways. Another factor is the materialistic culture driven by money and that unfortunately has presented itself as an alternative to religious culture,” said Fr Gordon.

He added that it is not a straightforward simple thing, nor is it unique to Trinidad as all over the world there is a decline in mass attendance.

“Therefore for us, it is about recognising and repositioning the religious imagination so the people can see the religious dimension in their lives. It is not a simple task. The last time Benedict did it through the monastery in the fourth century. It is really about the church being obedient to the Spirit of the Church,” said Fr Gordon who also stated that they are targeting working with Catholic principals about vision and mission for the Catholic schools in the next academic year through a post SEA programme for kids, just before they go into secondary schools. He explained: “We are going to have values formation programmes, that take the abstinence programme as the backbone for classes to instill in our kids. Added to which we are going to do a lot of fun things to attract them.”

He then reckoned: “We have to become a lot more imaginative and innovative in listening to what the Spirit is saying to us and responding to the needs of the people and of the church.” There are those who believe the Catholic church could solve its priests shortage by opening the still tightly closed door to women.

The late Pope John Paul II in pronouncing on this, declared that it was not up for discussion.

Women could be lay ministers, decorate the church, even preach sermons on hell and damnation but were denied ordination into the priesthood.

Many modern, educated women, however, find this totally unacceptable, which, it was suggested, was one of the reasons they weren’t “taking on the nunnery.” Whereas in the past this rule was accepted, today’s woman views it as relegation of women to the secondary tier of church level, dismissing the argument that Christ chose 12 men for His apostles. Women lobbyists reply that He also chose 12 Jewish men.

Monsignor Cuthbert Alexander, Vicar for Communications, said the hope is always that there will be more vocations to the priesthood and religious life such as for the nunnery.

“If people are not attending Sunday Mass I think we have to ask ourselves why. And if it is any indication people are not attending Mass as before that does not necessarily mean they are leaving the church,’ said Alexander.

About priests being allowed to be married and women being ordained as priests, Alexander stated: “I don’t want to get into that discussion because it is not in the cards at all. The local church is not a law onto itself. Church has been around for 2000 years but that is a matter for discussion. We can’t assume the drop is because priests can’t marry or women can’t be ordained as priests. The Church is based on teachings and not on public opinion. I suppose there is room for much study and analysis and I think the local churches are asking those questions.”

It may however take more than hope given the many issues facing the church in a world that has become increasingly more materialistic and secular, and where sexual abuse by priests has become so widespread that the RC church in California recently had to pay over $4B dollars in settlements to victims of such abuse.

This latest development has probably done more harm to the Catholic church than the shortage of priests and nuns combined.

But for an organisation with millions of members worldwide the Catholic Church has weathered many storms over the last 2000 years. And it still believes in miracles.