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[Catholic Caucus] Modern US Religious Vocations PlummetingTraditional liturgy flourishingReligious vocations across the United States are plummeting, a new report shows, with 87% of religious communities reporting nobody taking perpetual (lifelong) vows in 2023. Fewer individuals are entering the age range typically associated with discerning a religious vocation.Compounding the issue, aging religious communities are increasingly faced with the challenge of sustaining their ministries while also providing care for their older members. The dwindling number of younger members entering these communities exacerbates the difficulty of providing this care.Tradition on the RiseStill, some traditional organizations dedicated to the priesthood are demonstrating greater success...

[Catholic Caucus] The Future of the Catholic ChurchIn a radio address back in 1969, a young German theologian named Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI, saw hard times ahead for the Catholic Church. It will “become small and will have to start afresh more or less from the beginning,” he predicted, and the process would be painful. But though smaller, the Church of the future will have been “re-shaped by saints” to become a beacon for people seeking answers to questions of meaning, for which the arrogant secularism of those dark times will have no reply.While the saints whom...

[Catholic Caucus] Number of Priestly Ordinations in Free FallA recent piece at the SSPX site deals with the “vertiginous” drop in priestly vocations in France, in particular, Switzerland and elsewhere in Europe. The figures they used are from the French bishops conference and other non-SSPX sources.The numbers are dreadful, even for a pessimist.The results will be disastrous, given the present madness about synodality (“walking together-ity”).This vertiginous drop in the number of ecclesiastics leads to abuses that the next synod on synodality is very likely not to sanction, and perhaps even to condone. To compensate for the lack of priests in...

Even with college application season in full swing, many families are questioning whether a four-year degree is still worth it. Some experts say the value of a bachelor’s degree is fading and more emphasis should be directed toward career training. A growing number of companies, including many in tech, are also dropping degree requirements for many middle-skill and even higher-skill roles. ... Still, 44% of all job seekers with college degrees regret their field of study. Journalism, sociology, communications and education all topped the list of most-regretted college majors, according to ZipRecruiter’s survey of more than 1,500 college graduates who...

CTECH's grand opening ceremony drew hundreds to the brand-spanking new facility on Thursday. The crowd had a chance to tour the building and listen to Mike Rowe's take on why the rest of the country can learn from the example of community partnership demonstrated by Hobbs.Opening video

Vocations Vanishing Under Francis Vatican stats show few answering call to priesthood or religious life VATICAN CITY (ChurchMilitant.com) - The number of Catholics entering the priesthood and religious life during the Francis papacy has plummeted, according to Vatican statistics. The Pontifical Yearbook 2020 reveals that in 2018 there were nearly 2,400 fewer men studying for the priesthood worldwide than in 2013. Africa is one of the few areas that has experienced an increase in vocations since 2013 While the number of Catholics increased worldwide by 75 million over that five-year period, men studying for the priesthood declined on all continents except Africa,...

[Catholic Caucus] Thank You, Abp. Viganò A reflection from Fr. Paul Kalchik A year ago, Abp. Carlo Maria Viganò issued a letter to the Universal Church, and promptly went into hiding, his letter confirmed and validated in numerous ways over the ensuing months. Francis’ papacy continues on unchanged and the "homosexual current" in the Church maintains control.  For myself as a priest, as the victim of priest homosexual abuse, Abp. Viganò's letter prompted me to write my own letter to Pope Francis; this letter has been left unanswered, although it was made public.  As the victim of priest homosexual abuse, Abp. Viganò's letter prompted me to write my own letter to Pope Francis.Tweet It...

Recent Interview: Francis decimates vocational integrity Numerous media outlets, both religious and secular, are publishing excerpts taken from a soon to be released book-length interview of Francis the Loquacious entitled, The Strength of the Vocation.The headlines and most of the commentaries – even from some of his most vocal critics – are focused on how Francis is holding the Catholic line on homosexuality. The fact of the matter is, however, he is doing no such thing.Remember who we are dealing with here. (HINT: It’s not the Vicar of Jesus Christ, but rather the Archservant of the Adversary.) As such, whenever...

Experts testifying before Congress don’t typically start by describing the insights they’ve gained from a backed-up toilet. But when Reality TV star Mike Rowe appeared before the Senate committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation in 2011, he detailed two incidents involving malfunctioning commodes. When he was 12, he saw everything that went down the toilet reappear “in a rather violent and spectacular fashion,” Rowe recalled. His grandfather—Rowe describes him as a blue-collar magician who “woke up clean and came home dirty most of his life”—quickly ascertained the problem. What followed was an entire day of digging in the front yard,...

I recently came across an interesting datum about the priest shortage in this country, especially in the large archdioceses. It seems that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles ordained only seven men in 2017 for well over 4 million Catholics. That reminded me of the kind of vocation data that have plagued the large archdioceses of South America for centuries. So I looked into our other large archdioceses, and I must say the picture is rather stunning.Take the five largest: Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, New York, and Houston. In 2017, these five ordained a total of 33 men to serve a...

“It’s Not About Me”: National Vocation Awareness WeekKathleen Beckman “This is not about me. My vocation story is all about God.” These words of Bishop Michael C. Barber, S.J., were spoken at a Magnificat Prayer Breakfast that I attended in Oakland, California. His testimony, along with nineteen other clergy is now published in a new book titled, Holy Orders: A Collection of Inspiring Clergy Testimonies.Bishop Barber’s vocation story is filled with surprising twists and turns in a tumultuous time of the Church. He was faithful to what the Lord asked along the sometimes-confusing way. In the end, he was ordained...

Many students believe that the next natural step after graduating from high school is to go off to college. Secondary education has become such a common transition that many parents begin saving for college tuition as soon as their children are born. Although college can be the next chapter in a student's education, many teenagers still choose to attend trade school. Television personality Mike Rowe says the country is in the midst of a skilled labor shortage because workers lack the necessary training to fill the hundreds of thousands of available jobs. Lack of information may drive the notion that...

ROME, June 23, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) -- Vocations to the priesthood have continued a downward trend since 2012, according to data recently released by the Vatican’s Central Statistics Office. “There is a continuation of the decline which has for some years characterized priestly vocations,” the Statistics Office, which operates under the Vatican Secretariat of State, stated in its 500-page Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae that covers up to the year 2015. One metric for measuring the health of the Church is the number of new vocations to the priesthood to serve the Church’s 1.28 billion Catholics worldwide. A shortage of priests jeopardizes the...

With all the hullabaloo on this topic, I have tried valiantly to avoid having a knee-jerk opinion on altar girls. Now, however, I have actually spent some time thinking about it. And I do have an opinion, based on my personal experience both as a Catholic mother and REGINA’s Editor. I raised a son and a daughter in the Catholic Church in Connecticut in the 1990’s and 2000’s. My daughter had zero interest in being an altar ‘server’ and I was somewhat dubious about then-popular claims that serving the altar would somehow prepare her to have a successful career. In...

For five years, Omar Fernandes worked as a member of the ground staff at the Mumbai airport. The end of each day was marked by coffee and conversations with colleagues. "Most of the men I worked with were in their 40s and 50s," says the 30-year-old. "They would talk about how miserable they were at work, how they were struggling to provide for their families. It seemed like such a hard life." These conversations began to crystallise his resolve to become a priest. It's something he'd been thinking about for four years already. "I was 24 when I got my...

Pilgrims fill St. Peter's Square for Pope Francis' Wednesday general audience on Oct. 15, 2014. Credit: Bohumil Petrik/CNA. Washington D.C., Jun 12, 2015 / 05:11 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The global Catholic population is growing – so quickly, in fact, that priest and parish numbers cannot keep up, says a new study on trends in the worldwide Church. And this poses a challenge: With an overall growth in the number of Catholics, especially in Africa and Asia, but not enough growth in the number of parishes and priests to supplement it, there are fewer opportunities for Catholics to receive the sacraments...

Is There a Vocation to the Single Life? I Think Not and Here’s Why By: Msgr. Charles PopeThere are some today who think that the Church should give greater recognition to the “call” to the single life. And therefore when we pray for  vocations to the priesthood, religious life, and marriage in the Prayer of the Faithful (or at other times) some will say, “Why don’t you ever pray for those called to the single life or mention the vocation to the single life?” Here in the blog, too, when I write about vocations there are usually some who comment...

Thirteen years ago Jim Cardosi’s wife, Cindy, discovered she had little time left to live.In 2002 she experienced symptoms resulting from a neurological illness that by 2005 would be identified as frontotemporal dementia or Pick’s Disease, which Cindy developed in her mid-40s.She required full-time care, so Jim retired from the military. They raised five kids together and built their lives around each other.Jim’s faith kept him poised throughout the illness, and he felt the call to the priesthood before her death. He cared for Cindy until her passing in July 2008 at 51 years old in their Jacksonville, Florida home.“I...

It is a common notion that the number of priests has plummeted in this country. Many speak of the halcyon days when there were four and five priests per parish, and the seminaries were packed. And while some of these memories are accurate, they are drawn from a time in this country that was very brief.The fact is, the number of priests per parish spiked sharply after 1950 and has now leveled back to the levels of 1950 and before.Note the graph at the upper right from the Center for Research in the Apostolate (CARA). It depicts the number of...

Celebrating the Year of Consecrated Life Australian Bishops Release Pastoral Letter on Calling to Religious Life Rome, February 27, 2015 (Zenit.org) Father John Flynn, LC | 456 hits A pastoral letter to commemorate the Year of Consecrated Life dated February 26 was published this week by the Australian Catholic Bishops Commission for Church Ministry.“We welcome the invitation of Pope Francis to make this a year of thanksgiving and of deeper reflection on the calling of the consecrated men and women among us,” it stated.“Australia is blessed to have had so many religious sisters, brothers and priests living and ministering...