KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Kansas City Star
By HELEN T. GRAY
The Kansas City Star
Monsignor William Blacet rises early to start his prayers. He celebrates Mass every day at Our Lady of Good Counsel. He hears confessions and gives counsel. He conducts weddings and funerals.
He cruised past his 90th birthday in December.
“I was not ordained to retire,” explains the oldest pastor in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph. “As long as I can do the duties of pastor, that’s what I want to do.”
But is the spirited and beloved priest at the Westport church a poster child for the aging Roman Catholic clergy? Nationally, the average age of all priests is now 63, up from 35 in 1970, according to a study of the widely acknowledged problem. In the Kansas City area, that number is only slightly better. …
The upheaval to which Offutt referred includes the trauma of the sex abuse scandals that have rattled the Catholic hierarchy from Boston to Los Angeles. Recently, Bishop Robert W. Finn was founded guilty of failing to report suspected child abuse regarding a priest and sentenced to two years probation.
But it is more than just the black eye from pedophile priests.
“There are things going on that I don’t understand,” Offutt says. “The emphasis on the good life and sensuality and the decline of the family unit.”
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