Faith-based mastery teaches practices.
In 2019, Linda Kueter advised one of the priests at her parish, Little Flower Church in Bethesda, Maryland, to inspire other priests to enroll in an online graduate program based in theology and spirituality through The Catholic University of America (CUA). . ) that sought to empower clergy to enforce the most productive control practices.
Before Father Anthony Lickteig, vicar for clergy and secretary for ministerial leadership for the Archdiocese of Washington, could act on his suggestion, the Washington, D. C. -based AUC Busch School of Business suspended the program due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
When Kueter, 51, who works in the AUC’s advocacy office, learned that the program will be relaunched this year as the Master of Science in Church Administration and Management (MEAM), he was happy to note that the former clergy-only program is now open to either. lay and consecrated persons.
When Father Lickteig heard about the opening, he told Kueter, who is actively involved in several parish ministries, that it would be “a wonderful opportunity” for her and that his feedback on the program would help her get the most benefit in the archdiocese. since this opening.
“At the time I thought [helping with parish management] is obviously anything that I’m going to do for the rest of my life, and that I’m going to do within my parish as well, in other parishes,” Kueter said. , who has taken two courses to obtain the degree. Certificate in Church Administration (part of the master’s degree). ” If this course is a possibility for me to expand my knowledge, then I will continue it far beyond my parish. “
As the program enters its first full educational year since its suspension due to the pandemic, it is now co-responsible between parish clergy and lay staff, said Opus Dei Father Robert Gahl, study associate and interim director of the MEAM at the Busch School. of Enterprise.
The MEAM also educates scholars on the role of the priest in the parish and how to put into practice the most productive practices in canon law and business in parishes, as well as in Catholic schools, hospitals and other institutions, he said.
Overall, Father Gahl said, “our purpose is to help the priest understand that being an intelligent leader, an intelligent manager, an intelligent administrator, he will be an intelligent pastor; And he will have to make a contribution, not separate himself from his prayer life and ministry.
The 15 or so scholars enrolled this fall are mostly clergy, but they also come with devotees and laypeople from various parts of the United States and other countries. Through multidisciplinary courses fostered through the Catholic faith, they earn a Master of Science or a one-year graduate certificate in Church leadership or administration.
The desire to reconsider the parish economic style and the role of priests arises in part from interrelated national trends of decline of ordered and unordered living, local and national migration of Catholics, expansion of population diversity, low giving among Catholic parishioners, and declining Mass attendance. and other parish components, especially among young Catholics, according to Charles Zech, professor emeritus at Villanova School of Business, in his white paper titled “Building the Parish Business Model for the 21st Century. “
A survey conducted that year by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University in Washington, D. C. , found that 90. 5 percent of paid parishes involved in ministry (such as director of religious education or music) depended on the pastor. Only 2. 8 percent reported to a district director and 2. 2 percent reported to a combination of the two, Zech states in his article.
At the same time, 71% of paid non-ministers (such as janitors, secretaries, etc. ) depended on the pastor. Less than a quarter reported to a ward director and 2. 4% reported to a combination of the two.
When priests entrust and delegate certain parish responsibilities and ministries to competent lay professionals, they can enhance their priestly ministry, adding the administration of the sacraments and the word of God, Father Gahl said, adding that lay and devout scholars in the program bring new perspectives on delegation. The priest doesn’t go to seminary to be briefed on HVAC [heating, ventilation and air conditioning],” he said. He’s been in charge of a multi-billion dollar company and the critical factor on Monday morning may just be HVAC, at least if you’re in Texas or somewhere in the South where it’s hot. “
Some pastors get hit with administrative details, said Harvey Seegers, associate dean of operations at the Busch School and a professor of practice who teaches a MEAM course on strategic and operational leadership. “They can’t do it. “
One explanation for why they’re less prepared to take on some day-to-day parish jobs is that many seminaries don’t pay much attention to control, said Seegers, who has held leadership positions at several giant companies. “If we go back in time, let’s say 20 years, a lot of those young priests can just stay in a parish looking at the pastor’s paintings for five to 10 years before founding their own parish,” he said. “Nowadays, you’re lucky if you have two years before you have a parish as a result, there is a marked need for formal training in control.
In redesigning the curriculum, Father Gahl and the Busch School consulted with bishops, seminary rectors, pastors and alumni about priests’ ability to control and the need for parish teams, he said.
The framework for the revised curriculum is Priesthood Theology, in reaction to the USCCB’s 2022 document, “Priestly Formation Program, Sixth Edition,” which identifies the characteristics of formation for a healthy priestly life.
MEAM’s courses are grounded in business, theology, canon law, generation and other disciplines and are taught through the Busch School and other AUC and experienced professionals at leading institutions, Father Gahl said.
The course contains the contents of priestly pastoral life, the design of governance and canon law of temporal goods, the virtues of priestly fatherhood, fundraising, and crisis management.
The church management programs of the Busch School, which serves the church, “aim to proclaim religion with an ecclesial reform effort, among the poor, and to proclaim holiness throughout the world,” the Busch School’s online page says.
Seegers, who taught a similar course in the Busch School’s master’s program, explains how to implement the most productive business practices in a parish.
Preparing his course to come with secular and devout scholars was less a replacement for Seegers than adapting it to an online format. MEAM leaders found before the pandemic that priests liked the flexibility of taking the program online than traveling to campus for the program, he said. saying.
The students, plus Kueter, who took Seegers’ MEAM course over the summer, along with priests, two diocesan vicars general and a nun, gathered on the AUC campus in August for a week of extensive in-person study. The students came from the Philippines, Nigeria, Tanzania, India and Australia, Father Gahl said.
Father Chris Stanish, a master’s student, said he was still analyzing what he learned during the long week. Father Stanish, vicar general and moderator of the Curia of the Diocese of Gary, Indiana, introduced the MEAM program in the spring after learning about it from his bishop as well as priests enrolled before the pandemic.
Looking to make greater use of business principles at the church level, Father Stanish said what he has learned has already served him well as he oversees diocesan departments. “The courses I’ve taken have given me a broad view of how church and business can be integrated. “
While he appreciates the flexible online format, Father Stanish said he enjoys online and in-person discussions with students, such as how dioceses and parishes serve Catholics.
At both the parish and diocesan levels, “many churches don’t have a procedure by which they provide facilities to their parishioners, or they just check out so other people can come through,” Father Stanish said. “These discussions have helped us reconsider how we provide other people with the facilities they want and how we can do that consistently and professionally. “
Father Stanish said he hopes the MEAM program will bring faith communities closer together by equipping as many clergy and lay leaders as possible.
The program presents a “great opportunity” to better prepare the laity for ordained ministers, said Kueter, who, after earning his graduate certificate, plans to pursue a master’s degree from MEAM.
“There are many, many roles, especially in business and pastoral planning, that the laity can and will have to take on so that our priests have more time to be the pastoral priests for whom they were ordained,” he said. “Our parishes will be more powerful if we can help them. “
Susan Klemond Susan Klemond is a freelancer living in St. Petersburg. John’s. Paul, Minnesota, writes news and feature stories for the Register, OSV Newsweekly, and Catholic Spirit, St. John’s diocesan newspaper. He has also worked in marketing, publishing, and magazine production.
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