These are very challenging times, for America’s parish priests.

Declining numbers of experienced priests, a shortage of new vocations to replace them as they retire, the forced consolidation of parishes in many dioceses due to diminished church attendance, heavy administrative responsibilities and isolating living conditions are among the serious hardships our priests experience on a continual basis. These issues are compounded by the diminished public esteem for the priestly vocation that is an inescapable consequence of the sexual-abuse scandals of recent decades.

But this situation shouldn’t be regarded by Catholics as a cause for alarm or despair. Instead, it’s a call to action.

Most of today’s priests are good and holy men, who strive faithfully to serve Jesus and his bride the Church as sacramental ministers. And what our clergy need most is support, both from each other but equally from the lay Catholics who benefit so greatly from the sacrifices our pastors accept cheerfully as a necessary aspect of their priestly lives.

A recent example of this kind of support took place in the Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts, via a special consecration to St. John Vianney that Bishop Edgar da Cunha organized for his priests and seminarians on Aug. 4, the saint’s feast day. The Curé d’Ars, as the famed 19th-century French priest is known, is both the earthly model and the heavenly patron for parish priests.

Like his clerical brethren of today, Father Vianney was no stranger to hardship. As Matthew McDonald’s Register article about the event notes, he “overcame poverty, persecution, conscription, opposition from his father, and learning difficulties to become a priest — only to be sent to a remote village in southeastern France where most people didn’t know much about the faith and didn’t much care about it, either.”

The saintly priest overcame all these obstacles and became a renowned pastor, whose witness of faith resulted over time in a church that was packed every Sunday and whose exceptional gifts as a confessor drew penitents from all over France.

A casual observer might be inclined to believe that he must have employed unusual techniques to accomplish this. Nothing could be further from the truth. St. John Vianney relied on the same instruments that have always centered successful pastors of parishes: prayer, fasting, preaching the Gospel, and living out their priestly identity by accompanying their entire flock through all the joys and travails that are part and parcel of every human life.

But like everybody else, our priests also need the support of other people. They are men, not machines. That’s why a communal consecration like the one in Fall River, organized on their behalf by their diocesan spiritual father Bishop da Cunha, can provide so much support and solace in terms of reinvigorating pastors so that they can continue to carry out their crucial mission of the salvation of souls at this undeniably challenging moment.

Of course, Fall River is not the only diocese that is taking steps to assist its beleaguered priests. An array of related efforts is underway across the nation, including the Companions of Christ association of diocesan clergy that was founded in the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis.

The lay faithful also have a crucial role in terms of assisting our overstretched pastors. The greatest service pastors deliver to their parishes is through their sacramental ministry. While the laity can share in this burden to some degree, through serving in various capacities at Mass, including as lectors and ushers, where they can really make a difference in terms of lightening the pastoral load is by stepping forward as volunteers whenever possible.

One final point: Despite the challenges that are necessarily involved with the parish priesthood, it’s not at all the case that it is painful and unsatisfying. Instead, just as with the vocation to marriage and family life, it’s a joyful calling that generates a host of fulfilling experiences.

But along with the joy, there definitely are difficulties — so let’s do whatever we can to support the holy priests who do so much for all of us.