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From
Pope John Paul II's 2003 Encyclical,
Ecclesia de Eucharista:
". . . how distressing and irregular is the situation of a Christian community which, despite having
sufficient numbers and variety of faithful to form a parish, does not have a priest to lead it. Parishes are communities of
the baptized who express and affirm their identity above all through the celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice. But this
requires the presence of a presbyter, who alone is qualified to offer the Eucharist in persona Christi. When a community lacks
a priest, attempts are rightly made somehow to remedy the situation so that it can continue its Sunday celebrations, and those
religious and laity who lead their brothers and sisters in prayer exercise in a praiseworthy way the common priesthood of
all the faithful based on the grace of Baptism. But such solutions must be considered merely temporary, while the community
awaits a priest. ************ The sacramental incompleteness of these celebrations should above all inspire the whole community
to pray with greater fervour that the Lord will send labourers into his harvest (cf. Mt 9:38). It should also be an incentive
to mobilize all the resources needed for an adequate pastoral promotion of vocations, without yielding to the temptation to
seek solutions which lower the moral and formative standards demanded of candidates for the priesthood. *************. When,
due to the scarcity of priests, non- ordained members of the faithful are entrusted with a share in the pastoral care of a
parish, they should bear in mind that as the Second Vatican Council teaches no Christian community can be built up unless
it has its basis and centre in the celebration of the most Holy Eucharist. They have a responsibility, therefore, to keep
alive in the community a genuine hunger for the Eucharist, so that no opportunity for the celebration of Mass will ever be
missed . . ."
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