Parish priests wear many hats in a given week: they are homilists, sacramental celebrants, office administrators, fiscal overseers, volunteer recruiters and events logistics managers.

Seminaries endow aspiring pastors with the wisdom to execute the theological aspects of their vocational role. But the ordained learn skills such as directing employees and formulating a parish financial plan on the job, as no tailored resources offer such expertise.

Leah Perrault seeks to change that paradigm with a new training program called Leadership & Administration for Parish Priests.

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The Saskatchewan-based Catholic writer, Register columnist, speaker and ministerial consultant is launching a 10-month pilot version of her initiative on Aug. 18 with a cohort of eight-20 priests. She says congregants and pastoral staff in her network have expressed a need for priests to be outfitted with this expertise.

“People are incredibly generous,” said Perrault. “The lay people will say ‘we love our pastor, but he doesn’t know how to chair a meeting or he does not know how to read financial statements. We’re having conflict in our parish over this skillset that we assume he has that he does not.’ ”

Perrault began her professional career with an eight-year tenure as director of pastoral services for the Diocese of Saskatoon (2007-15) and then transitioned to leadership roles with Emmanuel Care (2015-18) and St. Paul’s Hospital (2018-2021) before her current job as executive director of Southwest Homes in Swift Current, Sask. She said the breadth of her working experience gives her a “unique ability to translate the best practices of leadership and administration, which are largely the purview of the secular world” into a theological and Church context.  

Priests enrolled in the pilot must complete at least eight of the 10 scheduled sessions to qualify for a certificate. The skills and traits developed through the Leadership & Administration for Parish Priests program are:

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• Administration as Ministry;
• Leadership for the Church and the World;
• Leading through Change;
• Time and Project Management;
• Collaborative Ministry, Trust and Relationships;
• Effective Communication;
• Conflict Management and Resolution;
• Human Resources and Management of Employees;
• Financial Literacy and Planning; and
• Recruiting, Retaining and Supporting Volunteers.

Following the Aug. 18 debut, the monthly two-hour classes — except during December — are slated to be hosted on the last Sunday of the month during the evening. Perrault, and potentially some guest speakers, will present the subject matter before facilitating a discussion on the content. In every class, the priests will receive resources about practically applying that night’s teachings to parish ministry.

During the 10-month pilot, each priest can book three 30-minute coaching sessions with Perrault to work towards accomplishing their unique leadership and administration goals.

An online info session about the program was held June 21, and a second was to be held July 11. Participants acknowledged the need for such a course right now, said Perrault, and particular enthusiasm was expressed about the strategies they will learn to troubleshoot conflicts effectively.

“When we don’t resolve (conflict) well at a personal or organizational level in the Church, the stakes are really high,” said Perrault. “It’s not just that two people may not like each other any more and are unwilling to work together, but we know that people are leaving their Church because conflict doesn’t get resolved properly.”

Perrault said it is important to recognize priests may “feel vulnerable” when they step forward to request this education because it could be perceived as them struggling to execute their duties.

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“I don’t want it to be that way,” said Perrault. “All of us can use ongoing professional development in our careers.”

For more, see http://leahperrault.com/priest-leaders/.