The Shortage.... Priests

[Bruce S]

Would anyone take a look at this and comment?

I don't want to defend this site, just found this page worth thinking about.

http://www.cta-usa.org/cfd/glance.html

Are these accurate?

Can this be reversed if true, how, and what is the answer?

[cmotherofpirl]

It depends on your area.

In my younger days, our small city and surrounding area had about 15 Catholic Churches, each with two or three priests. Most of these Churches were less than 1/2 mile from the next. We are now down to 4. In our case, we have gone from a superabundance to just about right. Remember many of the priests we had were immigrants from Ireland and other Catholic countries.

Edited December 28, 2003 by cmotherofpirl

[foundsheep]

Priesthood was really encouraged back in the Day. I dont see that anymore.And from the times it was really encouraged those people are getting really old and retiring with not enough to replace.

[IXpenguin21]

i think there is an equally great call to EVERY vocation, not only the priesthood. we need more healthy Catholic marriages and stronger Catholic families as much as we need priests in their parishes. more people answering the call to have holy marriages turns into more children born into solid Catholic families, who will have a greater apreciation for the faith, who have a greater chance at answering their call to the religious life. "As the family goes, so goes the Church, and so goes human society as a whole." -John Paul II

[CatholicAndFanatical]

My spiritual couselor, who is in charge of the vocations for my diocese, once told a group I was in. That God has called enough Priests to serve His Church. But it is the young people who do not answer the call that makes the Church suffer. God cannot make you take His call, but he can nag you with it in the hopes that you answer it and follow His will.

The youth of today are so set on the materialistic things of the world that they dont want to answer the call they feel towards the Priesthood.

I agree with IX, foundsheep and the others here, it starts at home, in a good Catholic family. Steady in their faith and love for Christ and His Church. Ask any Priest, I bet almost all of them will say that their family was close, intimate with Christ and always prayed together and attended Mass regularly.

God Bless,

CatholicAndFanatical

[Theoketos]

Ahh the contraceptive mentallity, how it ails us all!

It can be reversed, it is!

We need men to be manly, to encourage boys to be men, to be manly priests, to totally give themselves as Christ did for the Church!

[Theoketos]

Check this out...

[hyperdulia again]

what is manly? you mean killin' bugs, scratchin', burpin', and cussin'?

[traichuoi]

Check this out...

i've been there...in that chapel...

they have a beautiful campus

anyways, our pastor's homily today was about the "priest shortage." he said that the priest shortage is very evident in america and western europe. however, in other countries it is in abundance. he said that if you study the patterns of how many priests are ordained (which i haven't done), he says that it is very much like a roller coaster. he said that it's good to pray for vocations, but we must not fear, God will provide.

also, check out this website from the Seattle Catholic and tell me what you think:

http://www.seattlecatholic.com/article_200...t_Shortage.html

this is a quote from the site:

Many seminarians are dismissed for what is judged to be undue "rigidity" on such "issues" as homosexuality, the "ordination" of women and married clergy. This is all done under the guise of necessary "psychological evaluation" to determine whether an individual is considered "fit" for the priesthood. This practice is justified as a measure to catch perverts and pedophiles but is more often used to screen out orthodox Catholics, often completely ignoring any homosexual tendencies.

[JP2]

The shortage is bogus and the world wants us to buy into it to think that we are in dire straits.

The plain truth of the matter is that while some Dioceses are having problems, several have experience a re-emergence of vocations. Look at Denver and St. Louis as inspiring examples--all you have to do really is look at the Archbishop to see what shape the vocations are in.

As for the other side of the coin--the real growth is coming from Orders. One great example is the Legionaries of Christ. These guys talk the talk and walk the walk. Their formation period is 12 years (almost unheard of) and they mean business. These guys are set on winning the world for Christ but many Diocese think they are too orthodox(a joke when youthink about it)--they only teach the truth but how many Catholics today want to hear that Contraception is a sin???

Mark my words, these guys and others like them will turn the tide and turn on the New Evangelization the Holy Father has spoken of.

God Bless!

JP2

[JP2]

BUMP

And a big boo-yahhhh for my boys the Legionaries of Christ!!!

JP2

[M.SIGGA]

What Cmom said is absolutely right. The media tends to lump the Church, but because it's so big it needs to be looked at in separate parts. The Church in America has always been an immigrant and mission church, and many of American priests and seminarians came from Catholic countries in Europe.

The secularization of American and West Europe has been the cause of a lack of orthodox spirituality for Catholics and Protestant denominations. This effected the priesthood in the 1960-1980s, but a re-birth of orthodoxy occuring in Christianity as a whole is ending the declining trends in Protestantism and Catholicism. Seminaries are slowly filling back up with priests, and Evang. Protestant churches are gaining numbers too.

What is not talked about very much is the Christian Boom that is occuring in Asia, Africa, and returning to Latin America. The seminaries and convents in those underdeveloped non-secularized nations are booming with life and the Church is even growing faster than militant Islam in many countries.

Instead of Ireland, Italy, and Eastern Europe, most immigrant and missionary priests are comming from India, Western and Southern Africa, Vietnam, and S. Korea. There is also underground evangelization happening in Islamic countries that are East of the Middle East. The Church is also booming in China, and the Communists don't understand that banning non-Communist Christianity is only causing it to grow more numerous and in greater numbers.

[littleflower+JMJ]

if God can mulitple fishes and loaves of bread to feed thousands, his people....im sure this is no problem in His book ^_^

pax christi

+JMJ

[JP2Iloveyou]

I just glanced at the numbers, but I'm pretty sure some of them are incorrect. It looked like some of them were quite a bit lower than actual. Anway, the good news is that there are many more seminarians today than in years past and I think that on the whole, seminarians are more faithful to the Church and have a true desire to be ordained and to serve than even a few years ago.