Why some P.E.I. priests are burned out and stressed out

A P.E.I. priest is asking for help as he and other priests juggle multiple parishes and responsibilities, which he says is leading to burnout and stress.

Father John Molina raised the issue with his congregation after a recent meeting of priests from across Atlantic Canada.

"The trend is more or less the same, priests have two, three parishes," Molina said. "Those that have one, they will have a big parish. Besides that, some of them, like me, will have some other things to do, like administration."

He says the workloadis taking its toll across the region.

"Talking with these priests, some of them were tired, some of them were worried," he said. "We recognize that we are normal, flesh and bones, and we get weak and tired."

Molina himself has a busy schedule.He's a parish priest at three Catholic churches on P.E.I. He's also chancellor for the diocese and a judge at the marriage tribunal.

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"I think that is the life of any priest now on P.E.I.," said Molina. "We have different things to do, administration, pastoral work, and there are some things we do behind the scenes that nobody notices."

Molina says he shared his concerns with his parishioners because he believes they can help.

"I think the first solution will be to recognize our own situation, our own circumstances, we cannot be alone," Molina said. "We need people, the community to surround us and help us in our ministry."

"They are more aware of our situation and they know that sometimes they could kick in on our work and we are grateful for that."

Parish pressures

Bishop Richard Grecco agrees that Islanders have a role to play in supporting the priests and their workloads.

"Many of my priests have threeor fourparishes, each parish has its own kind of set up of committees, so instead of having one set of committees, you're having three and four," Grecco said.

Grecco says having multiple parishes can also mean more administration and less pastoral work.

"You like to have most of our time given over to doing ministry work, working with the people," Grecco said. "When you have more than one parish, you seem to be doing the books, the papers, the employees and I think some guys find that stressful."

One of the keys, says Grecco, is finding what are called lay associates, parishioners who take specialized training offered by the church.

"We encourage priests that much of the administration could be done by competent parishioners," Grecco said. "I think you'll find that those who are less stressed are the ones who have competent lay associates doing that kind of work."

New recruits

Grecco is also hopeful that some help is on the way, including a priest in training from P.E.I. who is at the seminary now and will do an internship on the Island in the fall.

There is also another missionary from India coming to the Island in May, bringing that number to nine. It's one of the ways Grecco has been trying to fill the parish positions, since 2014.

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"There is a shortage because we aren't getting enough vocations from our own parishes so we are bringing in missionary priests to make up for that shortage," Grecco said.

Molina hopes he and his colleagues can find more work-life balance.

"I think it's essential, sometimes we have to say no, sometimes we have to say I could do that a little bit later, we have to balance," Molina said.

"Everybody has to know that we are not angels or saints, we are real people."

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