Making Missionary Disciples by Curtis Martin

And second, because some professionals believe that missionaries will undermine their pastoral work due to differences in theological orientations and pastoral practices,' the report said. 'This can be very difficult for professional ministers, first, because they provide the primary pastoral care for the campus and appreciate consultation. In some cases, professional ministers were told, without consultation, by their diocese that missionaries would be added to their team. Paul's Outreach, or SPO.Īlthough the report was unable to quantify the frequency of such conflicts, it described them as 'serious difficulties' arising among groups with different visions of campus ministry.Īlthough some interviewees reported successful cooperation, some professional ministers felt 'colonized' by missionaries, while some missionaries felt 'undermined.' Some experienced campus ministers - termed 'professional' or 'degree-based' in the report because of their academic training and expectation of a long-term career in campus ministry-also reported tension with younger, less experienced missionary campus ministers who work for groups such as the Fellowship of Catholic University Students, or FOCUS, or St. I never will have that, even though, I will say, I have the credentials and the experience.' I would be a voice at the table, no matter where I was sitting,' one respondent told researchers. 'If I had a collar, all doors would be open to me in ministry. The new study confirmed that campus ministers see their work as a vocation and find joy in it, but they also struggle with long and erratic work hours, heavy administrative work and encounters with clericalism.īoth male and female campus ministers said they experienced clericalism when they were assigned more administrative work than their priest counterparts, left out of decision-making or passed over for advancement over newly ordained priests. The new study, which involved in-depth interviews with 45 campus ministers, was a follow-up to that 2017 study. campus ministry found that only one in 60 community colleges was served by Catholic campus ministry. bishops' Secretariat of Catholic Education.Ī task force will address 'shared ministry' between missionary and professional campus ministers, while a second group will examine creative ideas to build bridges between parishes and campus ministry, including for students who attend community colleges, McCrabb told NCR.Ī previous study of U.S. 24 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, two groups will be formed to study each of these issues and make recommendations to church and educational leaders, said Barbara Humphrey McCrabb, assistant director for higher education for the U.S. In response to the findings, released Jan.

Making Missionary Disciples by Curtis Martin