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Benedict Hit Key Reason Why Church Has Lost Its Vocations And Emptied Its Pews
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buffalo
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1st Commandment - Thou shalt not have strange gods before me - we are worshipping the false god of science and therfore ourselves. It is Adam and Eve and the apple all over again.
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Genesis315
Guest
This is sad–priests have become social workers who aren’t allowed to marry. How appealing is that to young men? 
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demerzel85
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Its not about appeal, rather its challenge. Being an Alter Christus requires one to be a real man. Jesus Christ is the fullness of it all.This is sad–priests have become social workers who aren’t allowed to marry. How appealing is that to young men?
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Genesis315
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That’s exacly my point. Men want to be real men–they want to offer the sacrifice of Christ, they want to participate in true manly spritituality, they want to be the spiritual shepherd to their flock, they want to be fathers to their people. The modern priest has been emasculated by various lay groups. Social workers do not have the fullness of it all.
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demerzel85
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Amen brother
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Friar_David_O.Carm
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Priests have never been allowed to marry within the Catholic Church.This is sad–priests have become social workers who aren’t allowed to marry. How appealing is that to young men?
The Church has not lost its Vocations, Vocations are booming in the Third World and they are also growing in the West within the more orthodox dioceses and religious communities.
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tkdnick
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That was a great article!
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Niz
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Not just priests but men in general in our society these days…Society has thoroughly distorted what it is to be a Man and what it is to be a Woman.
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jimmy
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Not only that, we are following the false social gospel. It is a gospel that says the most important thing is that you help the poor in Asia if you live in the US. It ignores the personal relationship with Christ and with God. It is the worshiping of the human person.
I am glad to see the pope speak out about this. It is something that I have been struggling with for a while. He also said something several months ago that was good about prayer being the most important thing; moreso than the social aspect of the faith.
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jimmy
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Its vocations are way down. They may have risen in a few dioceses in the west but on the whole they are down.
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Friar_David_O.Carm
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Yes, in the west they are down but…
Look at the history of the Church and this sort of thing can be seen.
It just means that those of us who are entering the religious life and/or priesthood have to work harder as well as try to foster more vocations.
But there is no easy answer to increaseing the numbers.
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tkdnick
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I would say this is somewhat true for the West. However, as a whole universal church, I do not see a crisis in vocations. Africa and Latin America in particular seem to be growing areas of vocations.
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mchale
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I think we need to take this article very carefully. For one, it excerpts the Pope far too much as opposed to just letting the Pope speak. Personally it raises alarm bells to me that they might be hearing what they want to hear the Pope say as opposed to what the Pope actually said. It is absolutely true that materialism is the root problem with Western Culture at the moment. It would however be I think a mistake to ascribe the problems of the church to science.
I think it would be also a mistake to think that a new emphasis on the Gospel relieves us of the responsibility to the poor. A full understanding of the Gospel I think makes our concern for our brothers, in any country, second only to that of our love for God. Only when the that concern precedes God is it wrong.
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Bill
I think it would be also a mistake to think that a new emphasis on the Gospel relieves us of the responsibility to the poor. A full understanding of the Gospel I think makes our concern for our brothers, in any country, second only to that of our love for God. Only when the that concern precedes God is it wrong.
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Bill
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Jeanette_L
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I think that the point he is making is that the balance is off. The relationship with God always comes first, and then the works for the poor proceed out of that love for God.
Our culture has made the works themselves the god of this age. They have made community service the end in itself, not God. And this has all been the fruit of the worship of Science, that we are our own saviors.
Our culture has made the works themselves the god of this age. They have made community service the end in itself, not God. And this has all been the fruit of the worship of Science, that we are our own saviors.
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prv
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Other than laicized ones, of course. But point understood. As far as vocations in the Third World, well, perhaps we can encourage legal immigration and incardination of those over to America.
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prv
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A sad and untolerable state of affairs
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DonProfondo
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The point is, that if a man wants to be a social worker, he can get an MSW and still get married.
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jimmy
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The west contains about 95% of Catholics though so if vocations are down there then it pretty much means they are down on the whole. The US is one of the top 3 countries for vocations but it is hurting for priests.
I don’t know how it is over history, I just know how it is now. How to foster more vocations is a hard question to answer. First thing I would say is that priests need to give more of a spiritual type homily. The homilies I have heard have normally been rather shallow.
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jimmy
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Yes, that is what it seems to be. Mother Theresa is praised because she helped many people, but the Carmelite, Carthusian, or Trappist monk or nun who spends most of his time praying is ignored and looked at as an escapist. Prayer should always come first and works of mercy should proceed from that.
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