While watching a local television news program the other evening, a public service announcement warned viewers about hypertension (high blood pressure) being the “silent killer” of millions of Americans each year.
That moniker “silent killer” struck me as never before, especially since I have been preparing a posting about the increasing incidence of what has been generally referred to as “burnout” among Pastors.
I heard of an incident just this week. A Pastor, a classmate from my days as a student in Rome, announced the Bishop’s acceptance of his resignation. No personal or moral failure on his part. No severe illness or medical condition. He’s simply “had it” , that's how he explained it. He said he just could not muster the energy and enthusiasm required of a Pastor anymore. His life had become increasingly unsatisfying and without any sense of personal fulfillment. Each day was another burden. He had become listless and was beginning to withdraw from parishioners and friends.
So he quit, or asked his Bishop to be allowed to quit.
While I haven’t seen any statistics regarding the number of Pastors who have resigned, I am inclined to think there are many who aren’t even aware that they are in the throws of such pastoral burnout.
I would even suggest that there are a number of reasons one could attribute to what I believe is an an ever-growing dropout rate among Pastors.
First, Pastors often see themselves as the sole caregiver in the parish. He has has to visit every sick person, prepare every wedding, Baptism, and funeral. He must make regular house calls, attend every parish society social. And, of course, he must attend to all the temporal affairs of financing and maintaining the parish plant. Such demands create false expectations and so many Pastors get hurt in the process.
Second, many Pastors are unclear about their essential ministry and mission. Are they supposed to be teachers, administrators, social workers, community activists? And so, they seek to be all these. And added to this uncertainty is the fact that most Pastors lack any sense of strategy to accomplish what they perceive to be their mission and vision. The result, hours of time and energy scattered in this or that direction accomplishing very little. An endless cycle of frustration.
Third, many Pastors do not have a sufficient budget to hire staff members. Rather than explaining this deficiency to their parishioners and asking for support and understanding, these Pastors take more and more tasks upon themselves.
Fourth, many Pastors succumb to being micro-managers. Rather than empower staff members and volunteers to do their assigned tasks, these Pastors feel the need to oversee the performance of every person.
Fifth, and I have written extensively on this matter, there are simply too many parish committees and meetings. Endless, meaningless, frustrating and useless meetings. It is not unusual for a Pastor to attend evening meetings two to three times a week. This allows precious little time as well as the physical and spiritual energy to attend to the individual spiritual care of the faithful who still expect attention and assistance from their Pastor.
And finally, many Pastors suffer from a desire to please everybody. Many times their Bishops put them in this position by not establishing clearly defined policies which govern how Pastors are to provide for the Sacramental and liturgical needs of the parish.
I know of one Pastor who has been assigned to two parishes. Parishioners at both parishes insist on a Saturday evening Mass as well as two Sunday Masses. And so, this poor Priest finds himself in the position of offering 6 Masses every weekend in two churches about seven miles distant from each other. This same Pastor has scheduled parish committee meetings six days a week, two on Saturday mornings!
The Bishops need to establish a policy that no Pastor or Priest will over more than 3 Masses per weekend. How those Masses are scheduled will be the sole discretion of the Pastor and not subject to any committee or council discussion or comment. This may seem a bit harsh, but as the number of Priests continues to decline and as the median age of our Priests continues to rise, our Pastors have a real problem coping. Real and radical problems demand radical solutions.
If hypertension is a leading cause of physical death among Americans, then overwork and its attendant stress are the leading cause of burnout among our Pastors. To date, I have seen no remedial response to this phenomenon by the Bishops who interpret the silence of their Pastors to be sign that “everything is fine” out there in the parishes.
Such an interpretation could not be further from the truth and reality of the situation.
Regular check-ups and examinations are the best way to treat the silent killer of hypertension.
I suggest Pastors and their Bishops need to do the same: an examination and treatment of how the demands which are either placed upon them or which they place upon themselves are killing them, physically, spiritually, psychologically and emotionally.
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