A Need to Serve

When Msgr. James Mortimer reached 75, the mandatory retirement age for Archdiocese of Philadelphia priests, he wanted to keep his pastorate.

Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua said no.

"He made no exceptions," said Mortimer. "But at that time, we had oodles of priests."

So Mortimer went elsewhere to continue his ministry. He taught in Rome, and lived for a bit in South Dakota, where he filled in for priests on sabbatical.

These days, he's back in Philadelphia, and even at age 88 he routinely gets called to replace parish priests who go on vacation or fall ill.

"When I came back ... the diocese was begging for help," said Mortimer.

An aging priest population and a dwindling number of younger priests to replace them has produced a much-documented shortage in the Catholic Church.

In the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, 171, or nearly a third, of the region's 520 priests and bishops are retired. In South Jersey, slightly more than half of the Camden Diocese's 229 priests are 70 or older.

That manpower shortfall, along with population shifts, has helped fuel a restructuring that includes closing and merging congregations, assigning pastors to two churches, increasing the role of the laity.

But it has also led to a greater openness to keeping older priests busy in ministry past their official retirement age.

"More and more will be retiring. And, priests - like everyone else - are living longer," said the Rev. Stephen Fichter, co-author of Same Call, Different Men: The Evolution of the Priesthood Since Vatican II.

 In response, some dioceses have moved up the retirement age from 65 to 70 and then to 75, said Fichter, pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Haworth, N.J.

And some keep working right past the deadline.

At 81, the Rev. Francis Lendacky, pastor of St. Agnes-St. John Nepomucene Church in Philadelphia, and Msgr. Donald Leighton, pastor of St. John Baptist Vianney in Gladwyne, are among the most senior of the region's full-time parish priests.

The Rev. Donato Silveri, chaplain of the Southeastern Veterans Center in Spring City, Chester County, is 86.

 Late last month, the archdiocese's oldest priest, Msgr. Charles J. Monaghan, celebrated his 100th birthday.

The retired pastor started out in the ministry 74 years ago but now resides in a Delaware County nursing home adjacent to a church-run retirement residence for priests.

"I'm totally inactive," Monaghan said at his birthday party, "except for my prayers."

He began his ministry on the eve of what could be called a golden age of joining the priesthood, when vocations were plentiful. Now those clergy are aging, posing a challenge to the church to care for them and ensure that their golden years are indeed golden.

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia claims 17 priests in their 90's, nearly three times as many as just five years ago. The Camden Diocese has seven priests 90 or older.

To care for them, the church must cope with rising health-care costs and the need for retirement housing, as well as shore up its pension funds, experts say.

The archdiocese recently dedicated part of the proceeds from the sale of seven nursing homes and the lease of 13 cemeteries to its underfunded priests' pension fund, improving its assets from $4 million to $80 million.

The Camden Diocese has a waiting list for priests to enter one of its four retirement residences.

"We have 100 priests who are still retired, but not in those places. Some are in rectories, but they continue to help with Mass and other kinds of pastoral care and activities," said the Rev. Terry M. Odien, Camden's vicar for clergy. "It's a whole movement of retiring in place."

In Philadelphia, such clergy members are called "senior" - not "retired" - priests.

In the Archdiocese of Newark, where Fichter serves, officials have dedicated a considerable part of a recently launched capital campaign to raise money for the priest retirement fund.

At 77, Msgr. Wilfred Pashley isn't quite ready to join the ranks of the retired.

Because he's past the usual retirement age, the pastor of St. Barbara's in the Wynnefield section of Philadelphia must secure the approval of Archbishop Charles J. Chaput each year to continue his pastorship, Pashley says.

In ministry for 51 years, he expects that one day he will be compelled to consider whether his age prevents him from "doing the best for the people" he is serving.

But for right now, Pashley says, "I'm enjoying what I"m doing. I've had reasonably good health and, barring any change, I look forward to going to 80."

171

Number of Phila. Archdiocese's priests and bishops who are retired.

120

Number of Camden Diocese's priests 70 or older.

17

Number of Phila. priests in their 90s.

7

Number of Camden priests in their 90s.EndText