How would a worldwide abundance or even an overabundance of priests impact the Church?

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I think Christians tend to focus on numbers in these forums. The biggest religion, the highest attendance etc.

Go read the first post,i was replying to that. you mentioned the number of priests and not the quality and how they can affect the church. The impact these priests will have on the problems we have is very dependent on the quality on them, rather than the number.
 
Clearly BOTH are important. But this thread isn’t about the “quality” of priests. It’s about the number of them.
 
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It would hopefully mean priests’ being less thinly spread. I think having more priests involved in public life could be a way to evangelize and catechize. Realistically though I don’t think it would instantly raise the numbers but could longer term.

For smaller rural areas it could be a blessing, in the villages my in laws live the dioceseses have had to effectively abandon them due to not having enough priests to travel and provide a mass.
 
Not the Council itself… Rather, the ‘spirit’ that followed the Council that actually went against many of the declarations of the Council.
 
My friend have you ever read the Post Vatican II documents?

Being a lifelong Catholic I’m hesitate to enumerate all the changes not pre-approved or desired by Rome. I’d rather not do so on a public forum.

God Bless you,
Patrick
 
PJM said:
My friend have you ever read the Post Vatican II documents?

Being a lifelong Catholic I’m hesitate to enumerate all the changes not pre-approved or desired by Rome. I’d rather not do so on a public forum.
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Yes, I have read the postconciliar documents, hence my comment. The “spirit” of V2 was used as license to do a great many bad things that had nothing at all to do with V2.

I can actually remember people in my parish using that excuse to do terrible things. Today that excuse “the spirit of Vatican II” is hardcore verboten. I don’t think I’ve heard anyone dare mention it in 10+ years.
 
Well, one thing for sure is that the physical availability of clergy to the rural areas would be mitigated. That’s a good thing if one believes reasonable physical connection to a pastor is a desirable situation. Since I have always belonged to a larger parish this has not been an issue.

Regarding Deacons, good question. The ArchDioceses of Indiana were some of the last to ordain Deacons. Now we have dozens of them. Is this good? I think so, but there also are times where it is clear that they are not seen as the same shepherd as a priest. My best friend was just ordained with twenty others in Indianapolis this last June. I know that he will be a great minister in the faith…so using him as my guidepost I think we are better for it. But why Indiana waited so long before ordaining deacons could well mean that there was resistance by the hierarchy.

The issue of shortage is tactical in nature…it depends. A large parish’s pastor’s calendar is truly an awesome undertaking. Our Pastor retires in one year and the size of our parish (1,700 families) has always allowed for us to have one pastor and one (usually newer) priest-in-training. The priests also serve our 250 student grade and middle school. So, while I can see that dedicated pastors shepherding well run parishes are certainly making a difference, the actual call to be Catholic is a call to Service through ministries. It is those ministries, again if engaging appropriately that can effect attendance with their evangelism and opportunity for those who have strayed away to serve.
 
I went to two high schools; one an archdiocesan, the other a Jesuit.

At the former, I had both priests and sisters teaching; some better, some average.

At Jesuit, we had priests and Misters (scholastics), and again, some excellent, some average.

The bottom line was there was no fooling around; we were there to learn and they to teach.
 
otjm said:
The bottom line was there was no fooling around; we were there to learn and they to teach.
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I think that discipline in the public schools was a lot stricter back in the day as well. Perhaps not as stern as that in the Catholic institutions, but you still got swatted when you got out of line, and I think there is a lot to say for the old school teaching methods.
 
Oh, but Johnny or Suzie might have a damaged psyche if they are required to be civil!!!
 
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