EARLY HISTORY: Before 1989, married priests in Canada had little idea of how many or where other married priests there were.
Unknown to each other, two groups of married priests were meeting, one in the National Capital Region, Ottawa, and the other in Saskatchewan, Regina and Saskatoon. No doubt others were gathering besides these groups.

The Saskatchewan group decided to go national and so a newsletter was sent out asking for information of any married priests in Canada. Five years later there were 350 married priests on the mailing list.

TEN YEARS LATER: There are 25 married priests among the 43 paid up members of Corpus Canada on the Journal mailing list. Another 103 receive the Journal besides these members. No doubt there are married priests receiving the Journal who did not become members of Corpus Canada.

SO WHAT?  I guess the answer is: “so whatever we want to do with this information”. At our National Team meeting in Ottawa October 2000, Jim Cashen accepted the position of Outreach Representative.

CONTACTING MARRIED PRIESTS:
As the Sask. Corpus rep. my plan is to send a one or two page letter to the Saskatchewan MP addresses. First I want to re-establish contact with each one personally. Next I would share some news of Corpus Canada: our Web site, the Journal on the net, the discussion group Corpus-L,  the National Team site at Corpus-N, some information about pensions of which many married priests are unjustly deprived, and such other information that may be of interest.

A mailing to the 41 Sask. MP’s at 47c would cost about $20 - not too bad. To think of a mailing to the clergy and laity as well would be quite costly.

Next I would like to phone each one and establish a more personal contact. Now with cheaper long distance phone, this is possible. Also phoning will help find the address of those mailings that were returned, and possibly any new MPs. I’ll report the results in a future article in the Journal.
 
 

SASKATCHEWAN REGIONAL NEWS
Felix Kryzanowski and Emil Kutarna had lunch with Archbishop Peter Mallon last November. Emil shared with him the results of  Corpus Canada’s National Team meeting of October 2000. In particular Emil emphasized the question of pensions being denied to married priests. Felix emphasized the problem of inequality in the church regarding women. Bishop Mallon was very cordial and expressed interest in future meetings with us.

   Emil Kutarna raises a very important question. Personally, I'm more interested in the answer. Why? Because a lot of  married priests who have worked and continue to work hard in the Married Priest reform movement feel frustrated with what appears to be considerable apathy on the part of the great majority of married priests.  Underlying Emil's question is a desire to reach out to married priests and to urge them to become active in the reform movement (note Emil's action oriented program). I know that's the ardent desire of many married priests in CITI (Celibacy Is The Issue). So, I'd like to take a stab at an answer to Emil's question.  

   First of all, a clarification is needed with respect to the Corpus Canada Journal mailing list referred to by Emil. More than three years ago a policy change was made with respect to the mailing list. It was decided to continue sending The Journal free of charge, but  only  to those people who requested it, as subscribers normally do. A program for determining that was established. The result was a considerable reduction in the number of subscribers, particularly among bishops, clergy and sisters. Indeed, only one bishop requested it and he died last year. On the other hand, some bishops are presently receiving The Journal, because several married priests personally send it to them. Also, the number of U.S. and international subscriptions is slowly rising. Not so in Canada, unfortunately.  

   So what's happening? Here are a few suggestions: 
• The first wave of priests who transitioned are retiring and/or dying. Many of those still living don't have the health or energy to be active in the Married Priest reform movement.  
• The "younger" priests presently transitioning are really not interested in actively participating in this reform movement, and this for different reasons: - 
   - They have recently embraced the sacrament of life and are totally immersed in it. 
   - Their connection to the institutional church is minimal at best. When I have asked why, I get answers like: irrelevant, head in the sand, unjust, corrupt, hypocritical. 
   - They prefer to exercise a christian ministry in the midst of secular society, more often than not in a manner connected with their employment.  
   - They are more interested in spirituality than in religion. 

   In my view, this last point offers a positive opening through which Emil and others might attract such priests to the Small Faith Community movement. After all, as Arthur Menu and Chris Diamond say in their articles, the priest is essentially the one who "gathers" the People.   So, for those of us who love the Church, even with all its institutional warts, and who want to see the Church, and particularly, the priesthood renewed, what can we do?  

   Personally, I believe The Journal makes a very positive contribution to the Church/priesthood renewal movement. Unfortunately, it doesn't reach enough people to make a significant impact. This raises a media/public relations question. We need to find better ways to reach the public at large with the important message we feel called to proclaim. To do that, we need to connect the message to the profound needs of society in an attractive manner.  In this respect, I am very much impressed with the positive press coverage CITI has been able to garnish in so short a period of time. Louise Haggett deserves a lot of credit for this. As Media and Public Relations representative for Corpus Canada, I have learned a lot from her and the CITI organization. If you have any suggestions for me re Media and Public Relations, maybe a team of us could come up with a program better designed to respond to the problem raised by Emil Kutarna's question.