The Challenge of Priestless Parishes: Learning from Latin America

Contrary to popular belief, Catholicism has existed at various times for decades or centuries without priests. This has been especially true in Latin America, where clergy were absent due to wars, expulsion, or inability of the organization to provide priests. This collection of essays traces the origins of priestless regions of the Catholic Church in five Latin American countries and demonstrates that the situation was far more common than previously described. Further, given the priest shortage as a megatrend in the church today and the centrality of the Latin American church, where the priesthood now thrives, to Catholicism today, what can the worldwide church learn from this history? The book offers thoughtful reflection on this issue.