Down East Catholics grapple with priest shortage

EASTPORT – Faced with a shortage of priests, the Catholic Church is struggling to do more with less, but some parishioners in eastern Washington County wonder how their faith will survive with only two priests and some churches designated as seasonal.

For months, parishioners across the state met to come up with local solutions to the priest shortage. In Washington County, the plan was to keep three priests who would minister to all of the county’s Catholic churches.

The Rev. Frank Morin would serve the needs of parishioners in Calais, Baileyville and Indian Township, while the Rev. Eugene Gaffey would continue to handle churches in Eastport, Pleasant Point and Pembroke until he retired, which parishioners believed was a few years down the road.

The Machias cluster that included churches in Cherryfield, Lubec and Campobello Island, New Brunswick, was to be handled by the Rev. Mark Nolette.

Then in May, the diocese announced that Nolette was leaving and going on sabbatical, never to return to Washington County, and two priests would handle the entire county – a territory the size of Delaware and Rhode Island combined. The decision by Nolette also put in play the original reorganization plan: seasonal churches in Eastport, Pembroke, Pleasant Point and Indian Township.

That change didn’t sit well with some Passamaquoddys.

The Catholic churches’ history with the American Indians dates back to 1604.

Pleasant Point Tribal Chief Rick Phillips-Doyle said in a recent interview that the first Mass in Washington County was said in a small makeshift chapel on St. Croix Island where French explorers and their priest had settled.

A harsh winter forced the French to abandon the island, but the Passamaquoddys clung to their faith even during those long years when there were no priests, Phillips-Doyle said.

Then in 1803, a permanent Catholic church was built at Pleasant Point. It was replaced in 1928 with the current St. Ann’s, which has been designated as a seasonal church.

“We know what it is to be abandoned because we went 40 years without a priest, yet we kept the faith,” the chief said. “I would hate to go another 40 years without [a priest] because I don’t know if we can survive.”

Phillips-Doyle said he was especially concerned now that St. Ann’s attendance was growing. “Now this whole thing is going to make us walk backward,” he said.

The Passamaquoddys are not alone.

Bill and Lennie Buehner moved to Eastport a few years ago and attend the Catholic church. “St. Joseph is my church of choice,” he said. “It is a place where we go on Sunday and have a truly rewarding spiritual moment.”

With the change to seasonal services at his church, Buehner worries about the elderly.

“There are several elderly people for whom even a drive to St. Ann’s in the winter is going to be a difficult thing even though it is going to be only a matter of two or three miles,” he said.

Buehner said he would recommend that the diocese replace Nolette with a priest from southern Maine and keep Gaffey in Eastport.

The Pleasant Point chief agreed. “If some of the larger areas … can get along with two or three priests and send one up here, I wouldn’t oppose that,” Phillips-Doyle said. “So that we can all continue our faith.”

If that is not possible, the chief said, then he would recommend that a schedule be put together for each church to have year-round services on an alternating basis with all of the churches. “We all should be treated equally,” he said.

Sensing the disquiet, Father Gaffey at a recent Sunday Mass talked about the loss to Eastport parishioners. He said he understood the emotions parishioners were feeling that ranged from denial to anger to acceptance. He urged parishioners to accept that the Catholic Church was more than just a building or a priest, but the people themselves.

“You are the church of Eastport. Make it work and God will help you,” he said.

William Schulz, director of planning and evangelization for the Portland diocese, said during a recent interview that the diocese was aware of the problem. “We struggle each and every day,” he said.

He said there were around 200,000 Catholics in the state. “We are projecting by 2010 we will have somewhere around 61 to 65 active diocesan priests,” he said.

Parishioners are going to have to adapt, he said. “We are asking people to re-envision what it means to be a church,” he said. “We are asking the laity to step up to some of those responsibilities that we used to expect priests to do in the past.”

Churches in the southern part of the state also are stretched.

“In every single cluster including the ones down this way, every cluster is looking at those exact same things,” Sue Bernard, the diocese director of communication, said recently of the priest shortage. “Every cluster has been told here is how many priests you are going to have to take care of these different churches.”