Today was a special training session for our new pastors, who were joined also by some priests who are likely soon to be named pastors. One thing they don’t teach us in seminary is how to administer a parish, and in the past a priest learned it by being an associate pastor for ten or twenty years. Well, we don’t have that luxury any more, and priests are becoming pastors with sometimes less than 3 years of experience. Hence, today’s training session.
We first covered the basic ecclesiology of what it means to be the presider of a community. Then, after lunch I presented a French-language version of a paper I once wrote on the relationship between a parish and a fabrique. Finally, we had a general overview of the administration of a parish: what papers need to be filed, how to avoid problems with the various level of government, and so on. It was a full day, to be sure!
I’m not sure how much 1 day of training is worth for the mammoth task of pastoring what can sometimes be several parishes at once. All the same, it is certainly better than nothing, and from the reactions of those just starting out, it was much appreciated.