The "Parish Life Coordinator"...

"...a a sure-fire way to ensure that your parish will almost never again have a resident pastor."

On this feast of Saint Dominic, Father Philip, Powell, O.P., gives us several reasons why this "solution" to the lack of priestly vocations is more or less shooting ourselves in the foot.

Here's the article that caught Father Philip's eye, and here's his analysis.

Read the whole thing if you can but here's the money quote, in my opinion:

We gain nothing in the way of addressing the "vocation crisis" by showing our guys that they aren't needed. We can say all day long, preach loudly from the pulpits, and insist until we are breathless that priests are invaluable to parish life, but if boys and young men see the parish "getting along" w/o daily priestly leadership, they will go along to get along. They have to be needed, and they have to be shown that they are needed.