NEW YORK, NY April 28, 2005 —The average Catholic congregation in the U.S. is getting older. One of the challenges facing Pope Benedict the 16th and American Church officials is to reverse the trend. Research shows getting young Catholics involved during their college years, before they drift away, is crucial. In an effort to do that, one local bishop has adopted a controversial policy: He has fired several nuns and is replacing them with young “peer ministers,” just out of college.

REPORTER: When Sister Kathy Riordan learned she would no longer be ministering to college students, it took her by surprise.

RIORDAN: I was very upset and very shocked at finding out that I was going to lose my job...I still can't get over that feeling.

REPORTER: Neither can her supporters. A group of them stands outside the diocese of Rockville Center, next to a Long Island Railroad station, quietly holding signs that say, “Save Our Sisters.” They come from Hofstra University, SUNY-Farmingdale and NYIT -- the New York Institute of Technology. These are three of the ten local schools at which the Long Island Diocese sponsors Catholic student centers. At all three, Bishop William Murphy has fired the nuns who are the campus’s Catholic leaders -- effective next fall. Instead, the diocese wants energetic young “peer ministers” to invigorate students’ spiritual life. Keasha Guerrier, a senior at NYIT, says she can’t imagine a more vibrant campus minister of any age than Sister Katherine Hickey.

GUERRIER: She has a little office in the student center, but at any given moment you’ll see her in the administration building, you’ll see her in the pool room, you’ll see her all over the campus meeting people, where they are, and I think that’s what we need.

REPORTER: Not according to the diocese. Spokesman Sean Dolan says Sister Katherine and the other two nuns, quote, “are not achieving what we need to achieve.” He says only a fraction of the area’s 50-thousand Catholic undergrads regularly attend church or participate in organized activities. Younger role models could help change that, Dolan says.

DOLAN: College-age students will open up more and be more willing to talk to someone who’s closer in age to them.

REPORTER: Many disagree. Ingrid Galarza, a junior at SUNY-Farmingdale says she would rather seek personal advice from someone who isn’t a contemporary.

GALARZA: They might think once you go in there, you’d be more open-minded, ‘cause they’re your age, but I think it’s the opposite. If I have a problem, if I have an issue, if I have a concern – I’m go ing to want to speak to someone who’s elderly and wise and knowledgeable.

REPORTER: The diocese says there will be veteran spiritual counselors supervising the newly minted “peer ministers.” They will be priests, rather than the nuns who currently serve as “campus ministers.” According to the spokesman, the diocese “studied” different models, before making this youthful shift. But experts say research does not find one age group ministering or evangelizing more effectively than another. Ed Franchi, the head of the Catholic Campus Ministries Association, says the most successful Catholic student centers integrate advisors, instructors and clerics from different ages and backgrounds.

FRANCHI: Peer ministry is a trend, but it’s not a trend that normally leads to people losing their jobs…Peer ministry is successful when those who are the peers doing the ministry are supervised by those who are experienced, well-trained, credentialed campus ministers.

REPORTER: People like to think that religious organizations behave more humanely than, say, business corporations, when it comes to restructuring. Not necessarily. Michael Galligan-Stierle is the head of Higher Education and Campus Ministry at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

GALLIGAN-STIERLE: There is always difficulty and pain…Sometimes you come in and clean house, and it’s the best thing in the world. Sometimes you clean house and it’s detrimental , and the center doesn’t rebound for 10 years. And why does one work and the other not?...I can’t see a pattern.

REPORTER: The diocese seems to have been caught off-guard by the support for the nuns, and their refusal to go quietly. Bishop Murphy has sent a new emissary on fact-finding missions to the schools that will be affected, if the nuns are dismissed. One of them says she may find herself able to relate to students better than ever before: she may soon be assembling a resume and figuring out what to do next.