Claude Michaud is a priest from New Brunswick who teaches psychology and religion at the University of Ottawa. A couple of years ago when Claude was home for his summer vacation he discovered that the shortage of priests was happening everywhere, even in the little town of St. Quentin (population 3500) from which he came. The local people welcomed him with open arms because the town was now without a resident priest as were the two neighbouring towns in the area. After celebrating Sunday Mass Claude was confronted by some members of the parish who poured out their feelings of anger and disbelief saying that the bishop seemed to have abandoned them and seemed not to care that they were without the Eucharist and a priest to officiate at their funerals and marriages. 

Claude was deeply moved by this experience, so when he returned to Ottawa he gathered together a group which included several married priests and some religious sisters to discuss the problem of the scarcity of priests everywhere in the country. 

 The group put together a statement called Le Manifeste, a kind of challenge which was addressed to the Canadian bishops requesting that they begin to deal with this situation. The Executive Committee of the Canadian Catholic Conference of Bishops referred the group to the General Secretary of the Conference. Following a meeting with him it was decided by the Executive that the statement called Le Manifeste should be an item placed on the agenda of the next Plenary Session of the Canadian Bishops, a meeting which will take place in October of this year. The text of Le Manifeste follows: 

 BISHOPS ARE INVITED TO ARRANGE FOR A SPECIAL COMMITTEE   ON THE SHORTAGE OF PRIESTS 

 In October 1998 the "Ottawa Statement Group" submitted a document on behalf of many Catholics to the Canadian bishops, concerning the shortage of priests. The document first described the rearrangements currently underway in parishes to enable the laity to undertake greater pastoral responsibilities, but at the same time the authors of the document stressed that the situation concerning the lack of priests constitutes a serious problem that must be faced immediately. 

 At their meeting on June 16-17, 1999 the members of the Executive Board of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) took note of the statement sent to them a few months earlier and delegated the Secretary General of the Conference to meet with the group responsible for the document. This meeting took place on September 20, 1999. 

 The meeting provided an opportunity to exchange views on the group's general objectives and to focus on its immediate purpose, which was to arrange for a committee of bishops to deal directly with the question of the scarcity of priests and to request that this matter be placed on the agenda of the next plenary session of the CCCB. 

 The group stressed the fact that from all parts of the Catholic world, voices were being heard insisting on the need to rethink the entire discipline concerning ordained ministers.  The intervention of Cardinal Martini of Milan, during the deliberations of the recent Synod of Europe (Rome - October 7, 1999), on the scarcity of priests, which he described as "dramatic," serves to illustrate the great urgency of dealing with this question. A statement in the same vein was that of Bishop Reinhold Stecher of Innsbruck, Austria, who said, "The tendency to place human laws and traditions above our divine mandate is one of the most shocking of a large number of decisions by the Church at the end of this millennium." Then there is the word of Bishop Rembert Weakland of Milwaukee in the United States who said recently that the majority of people in his diocese do not understand why the Church is not considering the ordination of married men. At the present time the Statement Group is compiling an extensive dossier on this question. 

The Secretary General noted that the bishops are deeply concerned with the question of ministry, and that it is being studied in certain sectors of the Conference. The group expressed its disappointment that this information is not being communicated to the Christian communities. Catholics want to know the views of their bishops on this matter and on the lack of eucharistic celebrations in a growing number of Christian communities. They also want to know where their bishops stand on the ordination of married men and of women. It is urgent that the bishops not delay any longer in reconsidering the discipline presently in force regarding the ordination of priests. In this matter it is not enough to appeal to Rome. Their concerns must be voiced and heard openly here. 

Questions were also raised concerning the excessive centralization by the Vatican which results in the suppression of true collegiality, and consequently in the slowing down of efforts to find practical solutions for the good of Christian communities here. 

At the end of the meeting the Ottawa Statement Group conveyed to the bishops, through the Secretary General, its desire to collaborate in the life of the Church so that it may remain significant for believers, especially for a rising proportion of young people who risk growing away from the Church. 

The Ottawa Statement Group October 13, 1999 

For more information, or to express support for this initiative, please contact Jean Trudeau, whose email address is: <[email protected]>.