The following is a letter from the Director of Youth and Young Adult Ministry for the Diocese of Sacramento:
Dear Pastors/Parochial Administrators:
It is with great excitement I announce our partnership with the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology to offer a Master’s Degree Program for lay persons in ministry within the Diocese of Sacramento.
The Master’s in Theology for Ecclesial Mission is presented by the Dominican School faculty via a combination of online and live sessions. I ask your support in finding possible candidates from your parish that will be suited for this program. Properly trained ministers are essential to improving our “catechetical programs as well as expand[ing] opportunities for cradle-to-grave formation”, as the diocesan strategic plan states. Candidates should desire to serve the church as a volunteer or paid staff member in a pastoral role, and must have a Bachelor’s degree. The first cohort will start in August 2021.
This Master’s Program will equip our Lay leadership with broad, orthodox theological foundations as well pastoral, catechetical and leadership skills to better serve the Church of the Sacramento Diocese. I am aware of the difficulties lay ministers have financing a Master’s degree. With this in mind, we can offer a limited number of Diocesan Scholarships.
The scholarship works as follows: the student, the Diocese, and the Parish each pay a third of the cost of the program and in return for this financial support, the student agrees to serve the Diocese after graduation as a Master Catechist and likewise agrees to serve the sponsoring parish for at least 4 years after graduation. Please visit www.scd.org/graduateprograms for more information. If you have any questions, please contact Lauralyn Solano, Assistant Director for Lay Formation at 916-733- 0153 or lsolano@scd.org.
Yours In Christ,
Deacon Kevin Staszkow Director
I strongly discourage anyone from spending money to finance an education for the purpose of working for the church. The church is the worst employer out there. You will spend your money to get educated, or go into debt, and you will be paid a poverty salary insufficient to raise a family, with dreadful working hours. You will encounter scores of parents who expect you to cater to their every whim for “grandma” baptisms and “sacrament factory” religious ed. On top of that, you can expect your bosses (priests) to lack management skills and people skills, and many will be gay with all that brings. Get trained for a secular career, make decent money, then volunteer to teach CCD if you have time and inclination. The institutional church and parish system are collapsing in America. Especially if you are young, don’t hitch your future to the church. They’ll try to entice you and appeal to your idealism by saying you are doing it for God, but God won’t help when the mortgage needs to be paid or another child in your family needs to be fed and the parish is paying you $40k less per year than you could have been making in a secular career. There are realities of life to consider very seriously.
Right. Here’s another example of an anti-Catholic rant. Clearly, anyone working for the Church must have more than money in mind.
The main problem is many priests have no clue about what it takes to live in the real world… bills, taxes, insurance, food, retirement. All priests’ needs are taken care of for them.
Kevin T., this is not correct.
What do you mean? A priest I know gets a salary of $34,000. He says that’s enough to live on. Meanwhile, the parish provides him with a rectory rent free, his food is paid for by the parish, his car is paid for by the parish. That 34,000 is fun money. Of course he thinks that’s enough to live on.
Anonymous, his salary may be $34k but what are his personal expenses , taxs, etc. his schedule is not 9-5 , he is held to a higher standard , the emotional and physical health may take a tool on him considering his ministry , I would not count it as “fun money ” given the circumstances a lot of priests endure , they do not do it for the money.
And here is another example of an anti-clergy rant, that is sadly typical here.
Just because you think it and post it doesn’t make it true. Aren’t you the one who wrote that God sent the church pope Francis because he’s who the church needs right now? He’s been the most confusing pope of all time. It’s like you bend over backwards to criticize people who post their opinions here but overlook even egregious flaws and faults in the clergy. Are you a priest? Is that why you’re particularly sensitive about this?
Ernie, you’re wrong: I bend over backwards to defend the Church, her ministers (whether popes, bishops, priests, deacons), her teachings, her sacraments, her people. And Ernie, you don’t have to be priest to defend the Church. This is the responsibility of every Catholic. Critiquing other posters is not the greater sin here; the greater sin is for lay Catholics to publicly, scandalously, and unjustly criticize the anointed shepherds of the Church. Your priorities Ernie are skewed.
Strawman fallacy jon the same one you condemned in a recent post , the poster brought up legitimate real world concerns , maybe a bit harsh but not untrue and of concern in this economic climate. Your response lacks reason or charity that a Catholic should have.
Anonymous: give us a break. The “Anonymous” poster is not bringing up “legitimate real world concerns.” As I noted in my response, people who work in the Church have more than money in mind. People do not enter into a career in the Church in order to get rich and comfortable. If this “Anonymous” did not know that, then he doesn’t know anything about “real world concerns.”
Like they used to say: “Work for the Lord; the pay ain’t much but the retirement plan is out of this world.”
But everyone gets the same retirement benefits, so what’s the point of working for the church then? It’s not like church workers get a special VIP room in heaven that is better than regular heaven. Imagine how you’ll feel if in heaven you’re seated next to Mahony, Wuerl, McCarrick, McElroy, Ziemann, Weakland, Cupich, Gregory, James Martin, oh and Hitler and Stalin and Mao too. You’ll think, why did I bother? The church needs to better communicate a coherent eschatology. Just this past weekend the priest preached that we’ll all be in heaven with all our present and past relatives and friends, and it will be a big party and we won’t have to socially distance and there will be no more crying. I was thinking, so then what’s the point of doing anything in this life? What’s the point of the church? What’s the point of sacrificing or avoiding sin if everyone’s going to heaven anyway? If that priest is right, why should I be Catholic?
Anonymous or Kevin T. you’re wrong. The Church has a very coherent and beautiful eschatology. Moreover, condemning ministers of the Church to hell and numbering them with murderous dictators like Hitler, Mao, and Stalin is disgraceful, irreverent.
It says Work for the Lord, not work for the Church. Although working for the Church is one way to do that.
Heaven is the beatific vision. You are going to be focused on God.
People who you judged on earth will be there, but you will no longer be so judgmental
The point of the Church is salvation. There is no salvation outside the Church. The Church exists to spread the Gospel and to give people the means of grace which are the sacraments.
Heaven is not guaranteed. Presumption is a mortal sin. There are others. Those who die in mortal sin will not go to heaven.
You know all this.
Good advice. Even St. Paul worked on the side as a tent maker.
I assume this is for volunteer positions. I know a lot of people who would do it if they could afford it. They would not be seeking compensation. I do not think they are in Sacramento, though.
All of what Anonymous complains about would not be possible today but for implementation of Vatican II.
Would this include the “broad, orthodox theological foundations” of Bishop Barron, Hans Urs von Balthasar and Henri de Lubac?
Lord help us!
Anonymous’ post is another example of an anti-Catholic, anti-Christianity, anti-religion post on here. Those who endeavor to work for the Church know that money is not the end-all and be-all, Anonymous. Drop your hatred for God.
Anonymous appears to speak from experience. I definitely speak from experience. He/she is right. Working for the church is a housewife job, a job for a second household income, not a job for a primary breadwinner. The church doesn’t respect its parish ministerial employees enough and many parish ministry workers burn out by the seven-year mark and leave for more lucrative careers if they don’t have a breadwinning spouse. Become a lawyer and work for the church, and you’ll be paid well in addition to having other clients. DRE? Not at all, even if you have a master’s degree. Start a construction company and contract for the church, you’ll be paid well plus you’ll have work for other customers.
And the fact is that money is needed to live decently. The church teaches that employees should be paid decently but doesn’t follow its own teachings. Yet it expects couples to have large families. It takes money to raise even a small family in California, where $60,000 is a subsistence-level income in many places and housing is unaffordable.
I think it’s good that people considering working for the church be told exactly what they can expect in such a career so they don’t have regrets later in life.
I suspect if parishioners wouldn’t leave the burden to others by giving less money than they spend on coffee every week this would be less of an issue. As it is, there are some pretty stingy folks that come to mass and expect all of the benefits to appear magically….volunteerism is another symptom of this stinginess. The stingier the parishioner the bigger complainer they are, too.
Richard , I agree volunteers are needed in every parish , to ease the burden and to be an example for the parish , stingy folks expecting benefits, yes ! in retail they are called difficult customers , a reading of the riot act in a gentle form can help with this. The church has not been a responsible steward of it’s finances , so that is a reason for lack of donations , as well as less people attending church , for examples go through the archives of this site.
“The Church has not been a responsible steward of its finances…” you mean the sex abuse scandal and settlement payments?
Anonymous, yes , that and other examples , i.e.the Bishop Vann story from this site. , the foundation was set up because of the scandals, the Peters Pence abuses are also reasons for my view on this , look up the story some years ago on this site about Bishop mcgrath and his retirement housing , don’t belive me search this site for stories on the abuse of the church’s treasure.
This is encouraging. The Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology is solidly Catholic. Frankly, it seems to be the only school at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, of any stream of Christianity, to have remained true to its founding and roots. The Dominicans there do excellent work. You can find out more at:
https://www.opwest.org/
Thank you for the link. It is good to read the writings of faithful Dominicans.