Parish life director

Administrative position within the Catholic Church in the United States

Parish life director is a lay title assigned to certain administrators within the United States Catholic Church. They are professional ministers, appointed by bishops, and act as the leadership of a parish, while a priest is assigned to perform the sacraments.[1] They have not taken priestly vows, and may be married with children.[2] A movement began in the 1980s to set more parish life directors as heads of local parishes, in expectation of a shortage of pastors. The trend did not pick up, and the position has seen a decline in numbers, where there were 553 parish life directors in 2005, and 428 in 2012. During this time, the number of parishes without a pastor rose, from 2,843 to 3,554.[3][4]

## References

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1. ^ William E. Simon Jr. (12 December 2013). "A New Model for Catholic Parishes". First Things. Retrieved 2014-01-04.
2. ^ Catholic Online. "National Catholic Register: Many parishes lay led, despite Vatican reaffirming priests' role - U.s. - Catholic Online". Catholic.org. Archived from the original on 2007-06-11. Retrieved 2014-01-04.
3. ^ Allen, John L. "Dynamic California parish shows benefits of an alternative structure | National Catholic Reporter". Ncronline.org. Retrieved 2014-01-04.
4. ^ "San Bernardino and Los Angeles: New Models of Parish Leadership - June 2006 Issue of St. Anthony Messenger Magazine Online". Americancatholic.org. Retrieved 2014-01-04.

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