Research reveals trends in the U.S. Catholic Church
By Katherine Long
Sun associate editor

In the Diocese of Syracuse, there are currently 132 full-time, active priests working in the diocese and 131 parishes. Forty-one percent of parishes have pastors who serve in multiple roles. Twenty-six percent of parishes are served by pastors over the age of 68.

   The Catholic Church in America is changing. In the last half-century, there have been significant shifts in participation and attitudes, and in demographics and leadership. These changes have led to questions about who we are as a church, what we are looking for in our faith communities and what the future of the Church will look like.

   One hundred sixty people from nine dioceses in the Northeast, including more than a dozen members of the Diocese of Syracuse, traveled to the St. John Neumann Pastoral Center in Piscataway, N.J. April 17 for “The Changing Catholic Parish: Implications for Pastoral Leaders,” looking for answers to some of those questions.

   The seminar presented data from Emerging Models of Pastoral Leadership, a multi-phase, collaborative project funded by the Lilly Endowment, Inc. Emerging Models, working with the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), surveyed parishes, pastoral leaders and parishioners around the country to determine trends in leadership, sacramental activity and demographics in the U.S. Catholic Church.

   “This kind of parish-based research hasn’t been done since 1989, in terms of the degree and size of the study,” said Father James Lang, Vicar for Parishes in the Diocese of Syracuse and a key member of the Emerging Models team since its inception. The research is important, he said, because it convenes the conversation about what is happening in the church, broadens the scope to the national level and allows the church to assess the skills and training that will be needed by those leading faith communities. Understanding the data, he said, will aid in “figuring out, as responsible shepherds, how to guide the church.”

   Neil Parent, director of Emerging Models, opened his presentation with that old cautionary adage about lies and statistics. He noted that the data is meant to provide a sense of general national trends and that the research, which the organization will work to put into context in the coming months, needs to be interpreted for each parish.

   “What’s very important here is that you say, individually and together, ‘What is this data saying to me and what do we need to do about it?’“ he said.

   Parent presented extensive data and trends in several areas:

By Katherine Long
Sun associate editor

   Fits of giggles and shouts of encouragement echoed through the gym at Holy Cross School in DeWitt April 26 as teams of students and teachers took part in a challenge dance, or feather dance, taught to them by visiting Mohawk speaker Robert Little Hawk Martin. The rules were simple, but the execution proved difficult: Pick up an eagle feather from the floor with your mouth. Nothing but your feet can touch the ground. Though a few knees and palms hit the hardwood, everyone eventually managed to rise with a feather and a grin.

   Little Hawk’s visit to Holy Cross was the culminating lesson for the Young Biologists (YB) club, an after-school enrichment program that offers first- through sixth-grade students hands-on instruction in environmental topics.

   “Each year’s YB lessons have a different theme,” said Kelley Purcell, who developed the program and brought it to Holy Cross as a Le Moyne undergraduate in 2009. “This year the lessons incorporated indigenous cultures and their worldview on the environment, that is, that everything is cyclical and interconnected. Having Little Hawk here will tie it all together.”

   Little Hawk, who grew up in the Catskills, has taught about Native American culture and beliefs through storytelling and dance for years. He also said he, like many Native American children, was taught to move his feet to music before he learned how to walk.

   Dressed in bright blue, yellow and black regalia and angora sheep leggings fitted with bells, Little Hawk started the program off by explaining the importance of music and dance in his culture. Dance is how his culture prays, he said. The drumbeat is the heartbeat; it gives life. The bells on his leggings make the dance louder, which helps the prayer travel farther.