Posted on 04/24/2012 6:57:40 AM PDT by marshmallow
Positive data compared to the rest of the western world where seminarists are less and less numerous. On the other hand, their numbers grow in Asia, Africa and Oceania
After the storm created by the abuses scandal, the resurfacing of the Church in the United States has begun. With the closure of the “horrible decade” 2001-2011 (afflicted by a series of financial and reputation disasters) the US Church shows clear signs of recovery. In the last year there have been 467 sacerdotal ordinations and, poignantly, the Boston seminary (diocese-epicenter of the pedophilia-scandal) has become the symbol of the rebirth. This year, Cardinal Sean Patrick O' Malley, sent by the Pope to Boston to enact “purification” and to reconstruct the local Church from the foundations, had to reject some applications to the seminary because there were too many. The Wall Street Journal also documents this unexpected “boom” with a broad inquiry into the “victorious Catholicism” and attributes it to the traditional character of the Catholicism of the new Episcopal leadership, the so-called Ratzinger-like “creative conservatives”.
The US positive vocations data is in counter-trend when compared to the general vocation crisis in the rest of the western world. In 2011, more than half of the ordinations in the United States have involved young people between 25 and 34 years of age. In the US, the ordinations of young clergymen have increased for the fifth consecutive year. The group of US neo-clergymen includes various refugees from lands where Christians are persecuted, military veterans and ministers who are converted from other religions. The most recent data from the Pontifical Yearbook and from the Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae show unequivocally how the universal Church is growing thanks to the Third World. In the last five years, the number of philosophy or theology students in diocesan or religious.........
(Excerpt) Read more at vaticaninsider.lastampa.it ...
My parish pastor, he is in his late 40’s, became a priest in his 30’s. He is truly a blessing.
I think that your pastor is an example of the recruiting model, i.e. men who accepted the call later in life. The old model, i.e. teens who felt or thought they felt the call, worked when the seminaries had more rigor in whom they would select.
In the 70’s, when I was temporarily in the seminary, they were taking practically anyone (including me!!!) because of a potential shortage of priests. I’m not saying that that caused all of the problems, because it clearly didn’t, and a host of great priests came from that model, but I do think the later-in-life model is a good one.
I think that your pastor is an example of the new recruiting model, i.e. men who accepted the call later in life. The old model, i.e. teens who felt or thought they felt the call, worked when the seminaries had more rigor in whom they would select.
In the 70’s, when I was temporarily in the seminary, they were taking practically anyone (including me!!!) because of a potential shortage of priests. I’m not saying that that caused all of the problems, because it clearly didn’t, and a host of great priests came from that model, but I do think the later-in-life model is a good one.
Including lots and lots of draft dodgers.
The same thing will happened after the convents get cleaned up. They will be bulging with women who want to serve in the medical, catechetical or teaching areas.
Just watch.
Need some good news? Lots of vocations!
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This would have been after the draft ended.
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