How is your diocese handling the priest shortage?

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In our diocese we just plan how to restructure everything to accomodate the decreasing number of priests. We try to “Sing a new church into being” as we rearrange the deck chairs on the ecclesiastical Titanic to the strains of “Gather us In.” One recent effort involved having one of the very few dioceses with a lower priestly vocation rate than we have come and put on a workshop telling us what they were doing to promote priestly vocations.
 
This is sarcastic, so please take it as such…

You’ve hit the nail on the head. The entire priest shortage is caused by the existance of the “hymn,” and I use that word very loosely, Gather Us In. That song is the root of all evil in the Western Church. :banghead:
 
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MusicMan:
This is sarcastic, so please take it as such…

You’ve hit the nail on the head. The entire priest shortage is caused by the existance of the “hymn,” and I use that word very loosely, Gather Us In. That song is the root of all evil in the Western Church. :banghead:
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I am ashamed to admit, I have a bit of fondness for “Gather Us In”,
if only for the parodies it has inspired:

Gather Us In (to the IHOP)

Gather us in, the eggs and the pancakes.
Gather us in, the bacon and ham.
Make us to be a well balanced breakfast
Nourished with orange juice that came from a can.
 
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Crumpy:
The previous bishop seemed content to let the number of priests dwindle down.Oh, by the way, he was strongly in favor of ordaining female priests, and said so every opportunity (I witnessed one such). And, he promptly shut down the permanent diaconate program, although we seem to have some deacons out there.My non-scientific estimate is that all the DRE’s are women, and all of the pastoral administrators (where there is no priest) are women, and that 85-90% of the lay ministers are women.Also, it was common until just a couple weeks ago, to have lay people preaching in the parishes, even when a priest was physically present. The late bishop was, in my opinion, actually anti-clerical. He specified that at his funeral, using a loophole in Canon Law, that lay peope distribute communion, even in the presence of an overwhelming number of priests and bishops.Priests were referred to as sacramental administrators.
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Code: 
 This sure sounds like the Diocese of Saginaw and
 former Bishop "Ken."
 
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TraderTif:
My diocese seems to be in an extreme priest shortage…So, I’m curious about how your diocese is handling the priest shortage (or even if you have one).
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Code: 
 We have a nun in charge of closing or grouping
 parishes based on the declining numbers of current
 priests and those coming. i know of other dioceses
 bringing priests from other flourishing areas like
 Africa, but our bishop seems content on the 
 shrinking plan - real positive huh. Many priests
 now handle multiple parishes in a diocese which
 is very remote and sparsely populated. As they
 age, the priests will find it more and more difficult
 to travel to cover other parishes.
 
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MikeDunphy:
I am ashamed to admit, I have a bit of fondness for “Gather Us In”,
if only for the parodies it has inspired:

Gather Us In (to the IHOP)

Gather us in, the eggs and the pancakes.
Gather us in, the bacon and ham.
Make us to be a well balanced breakfast
Nourished with orange juice that came from a can.
Click to expand...
Yep, and the shortage is in large part due to all that hugging like a bear from the other parody, not to mention (my favorite) the Thanksgiving parody…Although the IHOP one is in my top 5.

http://www.mgilleland.com/music/moratorium.htm
 
Yes, when the priest shortage was first looming, we had Bp EDIT come and tell us how it was the movement of the Holy Spirit and how women priests were on the horizon. That’s when lay pastoral administrators were first proposed to us.
 
Everyone here has hit the nail on the head. As a young man who is planning to enter the seminary I feel the same ideas that you express. I don’t want to go to a parish where there is no sense of sacredness. Thats partly why I plan to join the Institute of Christ the King (also because I love the Mass of Trent). In the traditional orders, the average age of the priest is around 33. I hope and pray that this is a sign of things to come.
 
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SummaTheo:
Everyone here has hit the nail on the head. As a young man who is planning to enter the seminary I feel the same ideas that you express. I don’t want to go to a parish where there is no sense of sacredness. Thats partly why I plan to join the Institute of Christ the King (also because I love the Mass of Trent). In the traditional orders, the average age of the priest is around 33. I hope and pray that this is a sign of things to come.
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As do I!👍 You and your vocation will be in my prayers!
 
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TraderTif:
My diocese seems to be in an extreme priest shortage, and I opened up my morning paper to see that 1/3 of the priests are over age 70! As they retire, the rest of the (already overworked) priests are being reshuffled. And I noticed that they’re going to group priests into 2 and 3, and have them serve several parishes. (I’m wondering if they will house them together, as it seems that would save some money).

They said that my parish will be clustered with 5 others, and be served by 2 or 3 priests. (Gosh, I hope it’s 3, because I don’t think 2 priests could handle 6 churches that far apart!!) :eek:

So, I’m curious about how your diocese is handling the priest shortage (or even if you have one)…

Tif =8-)
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Right now, our archdiocese has 22 vacancies – and 10 priests to fill them. We do the “cluster” thing as well, retired priests help out, etc. Milwaukee has suffered greatly in the past from a lack of vocations.

HOWEVER, this year we ordained our largest deacon class in years (5) and all will be ordained priest in May. Furthermore, the incoming classes at the seminary over the last couple of years have been quite large. It has a great deal to do with an enthusiastic, conservative archbishop, and the people he has surrounded himself with who are very supportive of vocations.

I believe that the shortage in this archdiocese will only last another 10 years or so.

Blessings,
 
Our small diocese recently started our own seminary, we have 26 in the pipeline, and our parish is doing its share, one of our own will be ordained in May.
 
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TraderTif:
My diocese seems to be in an extreme priest shortage, and I opened up my morning paper to see that 1/3 of the priests are over age 70! As they retire, the rest of the (already overworked) priests are being reshuffled. And I noticed that they’re going to group priests into 2 and 3, and have them serve several parishes. (I’m wondering if they will house them together, as it seems that would save some money).

They said that my parish will be clustered with 5 others, and be served by 2 or 3 priests. (Gosh, I hope it’s 3, because I don’t think 2 priests could handle 6 churches that far apart!!) :eek:

So, I’m curious about how your diocese is handling the priest shortage (or even if you have one)…

Tif =8-)
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There is not a shortage of priest, only people who want you to think there is and will go to any extreme to motivate the situation to promote there agenda.
 
G&S:
Yes, when the priest shortage was first looming, we had Bp EDIT come and tell us how it was the movement of the Holy Spirit and how women priests were on the horizon. That’s when lay pastoral administrators were first proposed to us.
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Bishop EDIT likely destroyed many a vocations with his heterodoxy. It is a shame. EDIT. Just think of the countless young men who, because of such talk by bishop EDIT, smited out any tug by the HS to answer the call.

I know Bishop EDIT is gone, but it for the life of me I cannot fathom on How he proclaimed the right to speak on behalf of the Church Universal acting almost as an infallible Pontiff saying such things like it is gods will that there is a priest shortage> ARRRRGH!! :mad: :mad: :mad:
To be honest with you I think it will take several generations IF EDIT the diocese ever recovers from his legacy.
 
Well, here in the Grand Rapids Diocese, there doesn’t seem to necessarily be a priest shortage, but in this particular deanery, the Diocese appears to be unwilling to cut loose priests from multiple-priest parishes in the city of G.R. itself to staff our deanery.

What we have here is the now-trendy “clustering” arrangement where they have six parishes staffed by three priests. It is a frustrating arrangement because you’re never quite sure which parish is going to be open for Mass, confession, etc., and you never know who the priest is going to be. (Under my breath, I have often used another word for this arrangement, “cluster-” being only the first half of the word. You can fill in the rest.)

Personally, to my own way of thinking, what they should really do is close three if not four of these parishes, and merge the congregations. But, they’re trying to please everybody, and thus we have the “clustering” jazz.

(shrug) We endure what we must, I suppose.
 
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OutinChgoburbs:
Diocese of Joliet doesn’t seem to be doing much, nor does Belleville.
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Belleville currently has 6 seminarians spread through 8 years of seminary (4 college, 4 theology). In 9 years (according to a priest of the diocese), its present pool of a little over 70 priests in active parish work will age out to about 40. Serving two parishes is the norm for my area of the diocese, and I know one priest who serves 4 (granted two are very tiny, but still, come on!). The bishop recently brought in two Nigerian priests (which really ticked off the diocesan priests because he likes to act without even telling them what he’s doing) and has closed 3 parishes with talk of more on the block. I moved here just after the previous bishop was reassigned, so I concede a possibility that the state of the diocese as I found it represented an improvement over its former state, but based on its condition at the time (and still now), I never would have moved the bishop to the even greater responsibility of an archdiocese given the sorry state of the diocese he left.
 
Today for a family St. Patty’s party(decided that missing benediction and Lenten devotions was too important)My ancestry hails from The Beavers. Ever been to Beaver Island? We used to stay at the convent there for our vacations. Nice little church. (but the priest is a heterodox)
 
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proud2bcatholic:
As do I!👍 You and your vocation will be in my prayers!
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Summa, let me clarify for your pm. My quote “As do I” was in reference to your quote “I hope and pray that this is a sign of things to come.” I apologize for the confusion. I am actually getting married this June.
 
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proud2bcatholic:
Summa, let me clarify for your pm. My quote “As do I” was in reference to your quote “I hope and pray that this is a sign of things to come.” I apologize for the confusion. I am actually getting married this June.
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Sorry about that. :o I will still pray for your vocation to the married life.
 
My parish is Franciscan, therefore we don’t depend on the diocese for priests. We have two fabulous priests and I pray that we should never have to depend on the diocese for a priest. 😃
 
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decn2b:
I know Bishop Untener (Calling Him Ken is not respectful regardless of whatever he thought) .
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True, I lowered myself too much in my sarcasm. I apologize.
 
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