"Crisis of Vocations?" Nothing New

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Pariah_Pirana

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I chuckle when I hear doomsday predictions from the “crisis of vocations” the Church faces today in the USA, given the history of the Church in this country:

“My daily burdens are truly greater than my strength, owing to my not having more than three priests to help me in this city” – Bishop John Connolly, New York’s first resident bishop in 1816.

“I scarcely have time to take my meals and very little rest at night, with a population of 25,000 people and seven priests only to share in my labors.” – Bishop John Dubois of New York in 1827
 
Amen, Amen I say to you…It is good to hear this isn’t a new problem…but I will tell you what is a ever more important problem facing The Church today…and that is out of control clergy and lay people butchering the mass and committing liturgical abuses on exponential levels…
 
The clergy in general is not out of control. Abuses are not on exponential levels.
Prefect of The CA Congregation for The Doctrine of Faith
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I find this especially offensive.
 
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dumspirospero:
Amen, Amen I say to you…It is good to hear this isn’t a new problem…but I will tell you what is a ever more important problem facing The Church today…and that is out of control clergy and lay people butchering the mass and committing liturgical abuses on exponential levels…
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And extremely poorly catechized…
 
What crisis? Seattle has 35 seminarians, and 10 men on waiting lists. Our seminary program is full.
 
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Brain:
What crisis? Seattle has 35 seminarians, and 10 men on waiting lists. Our seminary program is full.
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No offense, but what is seminary like in Seattle? Some places are notorious for putting out heterodox priests. I’m not saying Seattle is this way, I’m just curious…
 
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Brain:
What crisis? Seattle has 35 seminarians, and 10 men on waiting lists. Our seminary program is full.
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Quite true. Just ask someone like Bp. Fabian Bruskewitz if his diocese (Lincoln, Nebraska) is experiencecing a “crisis of vocations.”
 
I agree, especially after reading the Holy Father’s book, Milestones: Memoirs, 1927-1977 where he discusses his experience as a newly ordained parish priest:

“I had to give sixteen hours of religious instruction at five different levels, which obviously required much preparation. Every Sunday I had to celebrate at least two Masses and give two different sermons. Every morning I sat in the confessional from six to seven, and on Saturday afternoons for four hours. Every week there were several burials in the different cemeteries of the city. I was totally responsible for youth ministry, and to this I had to add extracurricular obligations like baptisms, weddings, and so on. Since the pastor did not spare himself, neither did I want to…”

WHAT AN EXAMPLE!
 
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Fortiterinre:
I agree, especially after reading the Holy Father’s book, Milestones: Memoirs, 1927-1977 where he discusses his experience as a newly ordained parish priest:

“I had to give sixteen hours of religious instruction at five different levels, which obviously required much preparation. Every Sunday I had to celebrate at least two Masses and give two different sermons. Every morning I sat in the confessional from six to seven, and on Saturday afternoons for four hours. Every week there were several burials in the different cemeteries of the city. I was totally responsible for youth ministry, and to this I had to add extracurricular obligations like baptisms, weddings, and so on. Since the pastor did not spare himself, neither did I want to…”

WHAT AN EXAMPLE!
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I’m glad we have examples like this – particularly when I see my pastor chatting with tourists in the parish garden while a laywoman is inside the church “presiding” over a communion service…
 
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Fortiterinre:
WHAT AN EXAMPLE!
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And yet some people STILL wonder… “umm, wouldn’t it, like, you know, be cool if priests could be, you know, like, MARRIED, and stuff?”

:banghead:
 
Yeah, no sweat unless your parish is stuck with a communion service several times a month and your diocese has single (as in one) priest roaring over the highways trying to serve three or four rural parishes in a cluster arrangement. New York in the 19th century was already a hell hole for Catholic Immigrants and now we look back and think how wonderful a bargain that they were forced to get along with so few priests.Chuckle away and enjoy your self proclaimed wisdom while the sheep slip through the fence to find other shepherds. Es ist verschamt!
 
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rwoehmke:
Yeah, no sweat unless your parish is stuck with a communion service several times a month and your diocese has single (as in one) priest roaring over the highways trying to serve three or four rural parishes in a cluster arrangement. New York in the 19th century was already a hell hole for Catholic Immigrants and now we look back and think how wonderful a bargain that they were forced to get along with so few priests.Chuckle away and enjoy your self proclaimed wisdom while the sheep slip through the fence to find other shepherds. Es ist verschamt!
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It’s still laughable to hear the dooms-day predictions – as if the Church has never been in a worse position then it is today.
 
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Pentecost2005:
And yet some people STILL wonder… “umm, wouldn’t it, like, you know, be cool if priests could be, you know, like, MARRIED, and stuff?”

:banghead:
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Not really, but that’s up to the Church, not me. Keep in mind we still wouldn’t have married bishops. The best response I have ever read for people such as them came from ABp. Tim Dolan of Milwaukee:

zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=40383

When all is said and done, those people who believe that married priests (or “female priestesses”) would end the “crisis of vocations” are people who have not thought-out the problem…
 
Pariah Pirana:
I chuckle when I hear doomsday predictions from the “crisis of vocations” the Church faces today in the USA, given the history of the Church in this country:
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If you do the math, in 1965 there was 1 priest per 778 Catholics in the USA, while in 2004 there were 1485 Catholics for each priest. Combine that with the fact that their average age (now 61) has been and continues to increase, the gap is only expected to widen between priests and Catholics for the forseable future.

These numbers are from the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown U, the most authoratative source for complete US Church statistics, here is the link cara.georgetown.edu/bulletin/index.htm

But then again what reason is there to worry?
 
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Catholic29:
If you do the math, in 1965 there was 1 priest per 778 Catholics in the USA, while in 2004 there were 1485 Catholics for each priest. Combine that with the fact that their average age (now 61) has been and continues to increase, the gap is only expected to widen between priests and Catholics for the forseable future.

These numbers are from the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown U, the most authoratative source for complete US Church statistics, here is the link cara.georgetown.edu/bulletin/index.htm

But then again what reason is there to worry?
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And that 778 Catholics/priest metric was the product of HUGE numbers of vocations following WWII.

There is always reason to be concerned about vocations. This issue needs far more attention then it receives today. However, to assume the doomsday whine is to be ignorant of history.
 
To “Pentecost2005” - would you please enable your private message box? This is done through “Profile” in the banner area.
 
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rwoehmke:
Yeah, no sweat unless your parish is stuck with a communion service several times a month and your diocese has single (as in one) priest roaring over the highways trying to serve three or four rural parishes in a cluster arrangement. New York in the 19th century was already a hell hole for Catholic Immigrants and now we look back and think how wonderful a bargain that they were forced to get along with so few priests.**Chuckle away and enjoy your self proclaimed wisdom while the sheep slip through the fence to find other shepherds. Es ist verschamt! **
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You need to dig a bit deeper…

Take a look at what happened to the Church when the training/selection of priests was changed due to the “vocations crisis” caused by different plagues in Europe over the ages. The results were horrible…
 
Pariah Pirana:
And that 778 Catholics/priest metric was the product of HUGE numbers of vocations following WWII.

There is always reason to be concerned about vocations. This issue needs far more attention then it receives today. However, to assume the doomsday whine is to be ignorant of history.
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Being ignorant of history as I am, I do know that when the number of Shepherds dwindle, there are many others out there in our predominantly Protestant land more than willing to take there place. Keeping in mind that the majority of US Catholics are for the most part ignorant of the most basic tenets of their faith, a hook from a next door Evangelical preacher would be very enticing to them, particularly when there are no priests in town.

However, to be ignorant of the present is to invite doomsday…

:whistle:
 
Pariah Pirana:
Quite true. Just ask someone like Bp. Fabian Bruskewitz if his diocese (Lincoln, Nebraska) is experiencecing a “crisis of vocations.”
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Lincoln, to my understanding, has no real crisis.
 
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