For New York Archdiocese’s One New Priest, a Lonely Distinction

New York Times ^ | June 12, 2012 | Sharon Otterman

[C19fan]

On June 3, the Rev. Patric F. D’Arcy’s first Sunday officiating at his new parish as a newly ordained Roman Catholic priest in the Bronx, he offered Mass in crystal-clear Spanish in a packed sanctuary. Later, at a lunch celebration, his new parishioners welcomed him with trays of rice, beans and roasted chicken, and a white cake adorned with golden icing. It was a festive event — a thanksgiving for the blessing of a new priest — that would normally take place in early June in at least several of the 370 parishes in the Archdiocese of New York. But this year the New York Archdiocese has ordained only one new priest, Father D’Arcy. It is the first year that has happened since the archdiocese opened its seminary more than 110 years ago.

[C19fan]

I live in Richmond, VA and my wife went to the ordination mass a few weeks ago and there were four new priests from the Richmond diocese. There are plenty more to come. The family and I were visiting beautiful Charleston, or as I learned Chuck's Town by the locals hee hee, and visited the Catholic Cathedral and it seems they have the plenty of seminarians. The irony for me is the traditional stronghold of American Catholicism in the Northeast is dying but the faith appears to be fruitful below the Mason-Dixon line.

[Fido969]

Well, the New York Times is nursing its fantasy that religion in the US is dying.

[Gay State Conservative]

You just *know* that the NY Slimes is quietly (or not so quietly) rejoicing at the fact that NY has *one* new priest.IMO,Christ would either want *all* of His vicars to be able to marry or none of them able to do so.Today in the US (and other Western countries,I suspect) there are more than a few former Anglican priests who,having converted to Catholicism and vowed obedience to Rome,are now serving as Roman Catholic priests while being married.I could go on but won't.I simply don't understand it.Fifty years from now we might have 300 priests in the entire country the way things are going now.

[IronJack]

In other news, the New York Times celebrated the addition of two new subscribers today, more than doubling its circulation, which has been declining at double-digit percentages since the Carter administration. The good news slightly offsets the loss of more than five million subscribers over the last 20 years.

[married21]

Meanwhile, in Nigeria, the seminaries are overflowing and each priest is educated at a fraction of the cost here, and they all speak English.

Bring ‘em over!

(Our parish has one. He is morally serious, scholarly, and sings beautifully.)

[Hieronymus]

Canon Law requires that seminarians have two years of philosophy and four years of theology, but for years priests were being cranked out with five, essentially by only having one year of philosophy. A few years back, this was stopped—last year’s ordination class was the last one to get out of Dunwoodie with one year of philosophy, and so the class this year was very small—four—because the people who would have been ordained this year had to spend an extra year on philosophy.

At least two of the four had done their philosophy elsewhere—my alma mater in fact—which is why the glitch didn’t cause them a problem. One of them is a former student of mine, whose ordination I was priviledged to attend three weeks ago.