Posted on 07/10/2014 1:40:34 PM PDT by NYer
When I say this is a prophecy I don’t want to suggest that I have had some sort of supernatural vision. This is not a prophecy in that sense, but a prophecy because prophets not only sometimes have supernatural revelations, but they are people who are also able to see the big picture, understand the times and circumstances and know the past so they can therefore predict the future.
So here is my prediction: the vocations crisis in the Catholic Church in the United States is over.
Here’s why: Fifty years after the revolution of the Second Vatican Council we are moving on from the tensions it created. Those tensions existed because Catholics kept comparing the pre-Vatican II church to the post-Vatican II church. The ones who did this most were the folks who went through the Vatican II revolution. The Vatican II modern Catholics–for their whole life–could not help but compare the “new” church to the “old” church. Everything was viewed through that lens. A pope, bishop, priest or theologian was therefore either “conservative” and “pre Vatican 2″ and trying to turn the clock back or they were “liberal” in favor of the “Spirit of Vatican 2″ and progressive.
To be blunt, those people are old. Not only are they dying out, but their ideas are dying out. Their places are being taken by a younger generation of Catholics who do not remember the Vatican 2 wars. The old folks would like to brand the young Catholics as “conservatives” or “traditionalists” or even “arch conservatives”. Some of them are, burt most of them are not. They are young. They’re smart and they simply want to be Catholic. They’re not buying into the whole liberal agenda, but most of them also don’t care that much for the traditionalist agenda.
These are the young people who are filing traditional religious orders with young vocations. These are the young men who are going to seminary, and the reason their numbers will continue to grow is because of several other factors.
First, cultural Catholicism in America is dying. People aren’t Catholic now because they’re Irish or Italian or Polish. They’re Catholic because they believe the Catholic faith. While cultural Catholicism continues to die out committed Catholicism will continue to rise. Cultural catholicism doesn’t produce vocations. Committed Catholicism does.
Second, faith is always stronger under fire. At this time American Catholicism is in too many places fat, lazy and complacent. The American culture, however, is moving very rapidly to an aggressively atheistic stance. The Catholic Church will increasingly be in the firing line over a whole range of moral, political and financial issues. As it becomes difficult and dangerous to be Catholic the complacent and comfortable Catholics will quietly slip away. They are doing so already.
Third, as it becomes difficult and dangerous to be Catholic more young men will stand up to be counted. Men like the militant aspect of being a priests. They want to stand up for what they believe in without compromise. They want to fight the good fight with all their might. The Church militant will make a come back and an increasing number of men will step forward to be engaged in the spiritual battle.
I believe all this will take place. We are seeing it start to happen even now. This, however, will not be a return to the days of Bing Crosby priests, happy nuns and a faux 1950s “leave it to Beaver” Catholicism. The Holy Spirit never moves back. Always forward. In the coming crisis it will be, as emeritus Pope Benedict has predicted, a leaner, stronger church.
When I say the vocations crisis is over I don’t mean that we will necessarily be flooded with many priests.
But we will be supplied with good, courageous and strong priests.
Good observation! Ethnic parishes are a thing of the past. The problem still plagues many of the Eastern Catholic parishes that try to maintain their ethnic heritage. Unless they adapt, their doors will also close.
Benedict XVI: The days of culturally transmitted Catholicism, or what some might call Catholicism by osmosis, are over and done with.
Perhaps as well as good, committed priests, this new Church Militant will also have proofreaders!
Plus also too is the cultural Catholicism that is based on because of one’s parent’s or grandparent’s side of the family, besides ethnic in the USA is dying too.
It will be because of a PERSONAL decision to follow the Lord.
I don't know if this priest gets out much, but those divisions are still quite firmly in place.
...a younger generation of Catholics ... don’t care that much for the traditionalist agenda.
These are the young people who are filing traditional religious orders with young vocations.
Uh... Huh?
I had a good friend consider entering the Catholic priesthood in the 1980’s - but found it full of effeminate, emotional lefties.
So he joined the US Marine Corp instead.
How Being A Marine Helped Me Learn To Live As A Gay Man (VIDEO)
I find his comments about us pre-V2 Catholics to be insulting.
Well, Father, I may be old, but I know how to proofread my work.
I pray he is right about an increase in priestly vocations, though.
He’ll be back because the seminaries have been reformed.
The purging of the seminaries has been done.
A man applying to be a priest now must undergo a battery of tests, among them a two-day psyche test. Parents, priests who knew them, friends are also interviewed. Then the applicant goes through additional interviews.
You can thank Pope Benedict XVI that this was put in place after he sent emissaries to inspect all seminaries.
Has your denomination’s seminary undergone similar changes? There are more abuses by ministers of non-Catholic sects than there are of priests.
And, of course, we all know that teachers top the list.
What he is saying actually makes sense:
1) “...a younger generation of Catholics ... don’t care that much for the traditionalist agenda.”
He is saying that the young devout Catholic want to be Catholic without a “traditionalist” label. They often share many of the same beliefs about tradition (e.g. liturgy, sacraments, scripture) held by Traditionalists, but they don’t want to be segregated into ghettos of Catholic life (i.e. Latin Mass parishes which often don’t feel like they really belong to a diocese).
2)”These are the young people who are filing traditional religious orders with young vocations.”
These traditional minded young Catholics are joining traditional religious orders because they are serious, devout, and hard core. They are not joining them merely because of Latin Mass, or (if it’s a convent) because the nuns wear a habit.
You can see this actually working out this way: I have encountered a number of recently ordained priests who are learning how to say the old Mass. These are DIOCESAN priests. They didn’t join a Latin Mass order. They are just diocesan priests who want to offer the Latin Mass in their parish. They are traditional minded, without having segregated themselves in Latin Mass ghettos.
This coming from a person who was very small, born at the end of the 50’s and a few short years before VC II. The ones who will have to as time goes on, and once the elderly parents are burried and we begin to face own aging, health issues, and mortality, being Catholic will take on a whole new meaning.
Also look for more men who are older, above 25, to have later vocations. The 3 most recent parish priests I have had or have now, including the newest one, being a priest for just a little over 1 year, he is my age.
Let’s hope that’s truly the case. I will admit that I see less of “Father Friendly” and his easy going “everybody gets to heaven” mentality. But it could just my diocese that was brought into line by the austere Bishop Samuel Aquilla.
Which is exactly what we need at this time. My b-i-l is a priest and he's had several young men who he has mentored in the Seminary. A couple didn't finish, because they realized the vocation wasn't for them, one has stepped back to make sure it's what he wants, but he's had several who have gone on to be strong, good priests, because they modeled themselves after him. He also an EXCELLENT homilist!
As a Catholic, I don’t share the optimism that the new priests have strong faith. In my experience dealing with priests under 60 years of age, they tend to have a liberal worldview that prevents them from condemning any behavior at all.
I’ve never heard them even criticize their brother priests who raped minors.
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