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Catholic Church Professionals

Harvard University

Like the church they serve, the full-time Roman Catholic professionals, including religious Sisters and Brothers as well as priests, are experiencing a period of crisis. Fewer people are entering this career, and many are leaving it. The main losses are in the specialized ministries in which the best- educated have been engaged. Meanwhile the traditional struc tures are being revised and replaced with experimental forms. The authoritarian system is giving way to collegiality at all levels, from relations with the laity to those with the hierarchy. A new focus on task-orientation has emphasized professionali zation which, in turn, has promoted self-fulfillment and relative autonomy. Seven out of ten of the church professionals in America are religious Sisters who are reorganizing their com munities around smaller task forces with much greater local self-direction than ever before. The traditional assumption that a celibate clergy is much more effective professionally than a married clergy is now being widely questioned. The religious orders, while maintaining celibacy, are re-evaluating the prac tical aspects of the vows of poverty and obedience. The in creasing "openness" of the church is reflected in the seminaries and training places of church personnel, who are now receiving a much broader and diversified professional preparation.

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