Churches: M.A.S.H. units for Sinners

One possible advantage of the Roman Catholic Church's shortage of priests is that priests are forced to delegate.

Freed of the artificial bottleneck of needing "adult supervision", individual congregations can now support a multitude of "missions".

Similar to the original mission of Community Colleges ("Find seven people who are willing to pay tuition to take a class and we will find an instructor. The nature of the class is not important."), Catholic parishes now support scores of missions or special interest groups. It is a way of belonging to a large "church" and still have intimate relationships and the joy of making a tangible difference.

At the risk of constructing an artificial spectrum, when power was concentrated in the hands of one-or-two clergy there was a tendency to error on the side of "Churches as wax museum filled with Saints" side of the spectrum. After agency had been invested in go-getters within the congregation, there can be more investment in "Churches as M.A.S.H units for Sinners" end of the spectrum.