Posted on 06/09/2008 11:15:40 AM PDT by VidMihi
Monday, June 9, 2008 Americans need not, no, do not, apply. The news from Chicago reports the ordination by Cardinal George of eleven new priests for the Archdiocese, none of whom were born in this country. Fifty-one years ago, 45 new priests were ordained for the Archdiocese, virtually all of whom were natives of the Chicago area. One wag commented that “priesthood is a job Americans won’t do today.” Another replied, “Not true. Those who can’t make it in the competitive job market can become priests as late vocations and be secure for life, especially nice if they are gay“.
Some will respond with individual examples, here and there, of good young American born priests being ordained, but these are few and far between and do not reflect the overall situation. All this in spite of constant urging over the past 20 years to pray for vocation . What’s going on? One must wonder if the Catholic people really care as more and more born Catholics depart to other churches because there are no priests to serve them.
Most Catholics have two to three kids.
If a family has only one son, there is a strong incentive to discourage a vocation.
Back when there were three, four, five sons in an American Catholic family, parents actively encouraged vocations.
Running the churches Americans don’t want to run.
Several were home-schooled with a love of our faith.
This with much encouragement from our Bishop Doran.
God Bless Bishop Doran and the clergy of the Rockford Diocese.
Lurking’
Back when people were still concerned they might go to hell, having a priest in the family was like fire insurance. It didn’t guarantee you’d get into heaven, but hey, it couldn’t hoit!
I’ll take an orthodox foreign born priest over a homegrown like Pflakel any day. And, I doubt anyone is leaving the RCC because there is a “lack of priests.”
They may be coming here for the money. There should be a rule in place that no candidate for the priesthood can transfer from a less econonomically developed country to a richer country. That would sort out the wheat from the chaff.
And, I doubt anyone is leaving the RCC because there is a “lack of priests.”
Catholics have been "voting with their feet" by leaving the Catholic Church in droves over the past 40 years. It has not slowed down. And it is likely to accelerate over the coming decades as more and more priests are replaced with female "pastoral administrators." The average Catholic parish will more and more resemble the average Episcopal parish, not only in theology, but also in the number in attendance in the pews.
There are plenty of Americans being ordained. Just a lot more men from Africa and Asia, that’s all.
25 ordinands in our local archdiocese
98 altogether countiing those from other countries.
So we should have denied the many good priests who came from impoverished Ireland in the last century or come from Poland today? And no American-born priests are in it for the money? That is just silly.
Not at the Latin Mass parishes.
Men who come from poor countries are "chaff" and men who come from rich countries are "wheat"?
I don't think Our Lord would agree with you. "You cannot serve both God and mammon" doesn't fit well with your elitism.
To say people are not leaving the Church is to deny reality. Evangelical churches where there are many active ministers are growing while one third of born Catholics have left, -no priests, close parishes - no parish, no Mass - No Mass, no people.
Salvation's statistic must be from a diocese in Disney's Fantasyland
I never said people were not leaving the Church. I said they are not leaving because of a lack of priests. There are growing numbers of Latin Mass locations that offer real Catholicism and holy priests. In my opinion, many people leave the Church because they don’t want to abide by the “rules.”
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