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blessedtoo
Guest
How awesome! Thanks for this encouraging information! Let’s pray for all those who feel the call!
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BarbaraTherese
Guest
Great news!
I hope the same will happen for us in Australia on the Papal visit for World Youth Day!!! We have a dreadful shortage of priests…really dire. How wonderful it would be if the ‘holy tsunami’ of priestly calls would flow on to us…more religious too would be a wonderful, awesome blessing.
Lord please hear our prayers.
Blessings…Barb
I hope the same will happen for us in Australia on the Papal visit for World Youth Day!!! We have a dreadful shortage of priests…really dire. How wonderful it would be if the ‘holy tsunami’ of priestly calls would flow on to us…more religious too would be a wonderful, awesome blessing.
Lord please hear our prayers.
Blessings…Barb
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m134e5
Guest
I am glad people are showing an interest in vocations, but I hope they aren’t confusing a call to grow deeper in communion with God with a call to the priesthood. Still, if they are accepted- even if they don’t become priests in the end, I imagine they will be better men for having spent time in the seminary (and will be able to guide those who are called).
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Donna_Mc
Guest
It’s always uplifting to read a story like that, thanks!
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jimcav
Guest
That is great news indeed!
As a neigbor of the NYC diocese and a member of the Brooklyn Diocese of NYC, we too are facing a critical shortage of priests here also, and I’m quite sure the Popes visit to St. Josephs was aimed to get our youth to at least contemplate a vocation to the priesthood. Unforunately, He is probably the first person to speak positively about the prieshood to these young people, This is a big city that seems to frown upon the religous, and celebrates the secular, unreligous of our community, the very things that our Holy Father has warned us against. So the youth here face alot of doubts and frowns as to whether or not to go for the priesthood or not.
Hopefully, his visit will energize the youth, and show them that the priesthood is very much a viable and extremely worthy path to follow…
As a neigbor of the NYC diocese and a member of the Brooklyn Diocese of NYC, we too are facing a critical shortage of priests here also, and I’m quite sure the Popes visit to St. Josephs was aimed to get our youth to at least contemplate a vocation to the priesthood. Unforunately, He is probably the first person to speak positively about the prieshood to these young people, This is a big city that seems to frown upon the religous, and celebrates the secular, unreligous of our community, the very things that our Holy Father has warned us against. So the youth here face alot of doubts and frowns as to whether or not to go for the priesthood or not.
Hopefully, his visit will energize the youth, and show them that the priesthood is very much a viable and extremely worthy path to follow…
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Lepanto
Guest
Did anybody catch this line?
“For the first time in 108 years, the seminary had been preparing for a year with no students.” :nope:
“For the first time in 108 years, the seminary had been preparing for a year with no students.” :nope:
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BarbaraTherese
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Good point! And even if they are confusing a call to grow deeper into communion with God with a call to the priesthood, this hearing of the call to deeper communion is awesome of itself and a great blessing. I am confident those actually called will be sorted in the seminary and for those not called the experience of seminary life will enrich them. I hope all this applies in Australia here with the Holy Father’s visit on WYD and we have increased interest in the priesthood as a vocation.
Anyone know if there has been a parallel increase of interest in religious life for women?
Blessings…Barb
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chicago
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Yes. I honed in on that citation. And I wondered why in the world such a significant Archdiocese doesn’t have a more significant seminarian population.
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BarbaraTherese
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jimcav
Guest
Like I touched on in my other post, NYC a large and very diverse city.
It’s a place that can be very hard to live a good, moral, Christian life because there are so many distractions here. No lifestyle seems to be condemned, no lifestyle is to outlandish, and God is rarely spoken of in public. The only lifestyle that seems to be frowned upon is the Christian or Catholic lifestyle, which almost always seems to be fair game. This is the media capitol of the world, and we all know the agenda they are pushing these days, so New Yorkers are inundated and brainwashed daily with so much immorality that it no longer seems immoral.
This is also a city where money and power rules. People here have alot of opportunity to make alot of money and become very successful, so vocations to the austere priesthood pale in comparison and don’t have much of a chance in grabbing somebodies attention.
But once in awhile, hope reigns supreme, and our Holy Fathers visit gave us that hope, as we see young aspirants look to the priesthood once again. He brought young aspirants to the priesthood “out of the closet” so to speak, and He gave them all a very appealing message that even this big, crazy city couldn’t muffle. Even the often jaded media were won over by his presence here!
So lets pray for this wonderful and historic seminary and hope that our Holy Fathers message will be heard…
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Illini
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Code:
I think the writer meant "no new students." There are 23 on ordination track in the next four years.
Still, no new students is not a good thing.
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johnnydigit
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how inspiring! no wonder JP2 visited everywhere… it works!
yes, even seminary time is great discernment time. don’t worry, they’ll end up where they’re supposed to be. every Catholic is called to seriously discern the religious life. unfortunately, most just assume it’s not for them and run for their lives from it.
yes, even seminary time is great discernment time. don’t worry, they’ll end up where they’re supposed to be. every Catholic is called to seriously discern the religious life. unfortunately, most just assume it’s not for them and run for their lives from it.
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BarbaraTherese
Guest
…and some ponder that it could be for them, while the Orders run for their lives
…
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Andy_K
Guest
Seriously?
And I thought my archdiocese had a dearth of vocations…
A city of 7 million people…and not one thinks that they have a calling to the priesthood. Amazing.
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Eden
Guest
Great news! And don’t forget we have WYD in Sydney, Australia coming up in July which could well bring a tsunami of seminary and religious life applications in dioceses all around the world. 
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BarbaraTherese
Guest
Hoping and praying!Great news! And don’t forget we have WYD in Sydney, Australia coming up in July which could well bring a tsunami of seminary and religious life applications in dioceses all around the world.
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chicago
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Don’t forget that New York City is broken up by the Archdiocese of New York and the Diocese of Brooklyn. I’d be interested to see the numbers from Brooklyn (which I believe still has a minor seminary, BTW.) I’d also be interested in seeing what is (or was previously to the pope’s visit) coming behind this year from the college level programs which I believe New York has.Seriously?
And I thought my archdiocese had a dearth of vocations…
A city of 7 million people…and not one thinks that they have a calling to the priesthood. Amazing.
That said, yes, it is still pathetic. A major Archdiocese with such a significant Catholic identity ought not to have such a dearth of vocational candidates. That’s a serious issue and failure of solid recruitment.
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Joannm
Guest
The Brooklyn diocese (and the diocese of Rockville Centre) share a seminary on Long Island. What you call the minor seminary is actually now called a Residence. Men who are lacking the theology or philosophy credits to begin the major seminary live at the Residence while taking theology and philosophy at St. John’s University nearby. It used to be a regualr minor seminary where the guys would get their BA but not anymore. BTW the Diocese of Rockville Centre is ordaining 9 men this year. I am going to ordination tomorrow morning at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in NY. A classmate of mine is being ordained by Cardinal Egan for the congregation of the Idente Missionaries.
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JReducation
Guest
There is another factor that has to be considered in that diocese. They have a lot of competition from religious. There are many religious communities. Right now the numbers are showing that more men want to be religious.
In our diocese of Miami we have many more religious men and we do priests. We have more and more parishes taken over by religious, because the diocese cannot keep up with the demand. Our diocese has an average of 10 to 15 ordinations a year, but religious have an average of 40 ordinations a year. Like NY, Chigaco and Boston, we have many religious communities and orders to choose from. Now we have many religious communities from abraod that have come as missionaries and their lifestyle is very attractive.
Our young men seem to be attracted to the Brotherhood because of their life of prayer, community, penance, and devotion to the poor. Many young men do not like parish life.
Some of our young men want to do both. They want to be religious and priests, but they do not want to serve iin parishes and be attached to a bishop or a diocese. They like the idea of the freedom comes with religious orders, especially international orders.
We have a large number of Brothers of the Poor here. There are more men entering them than entering the priesthood.
This same phenomenon is happening with the Christian Brothers in Africa and South America. They are taking in many men.
As we become more and more of a mission country, we will be seeing more religious than priests. It seems that every time a country or region is in need of spiritual renewal, new religious congregations, societies and orders are born. This seems to be true for men and women.
If we look, the number of new religious communities of women in the USA is rising very quickly.
Look at communities such as the Franciscans of the Reform, the Brothers of the Poor, the Brothers of Charity, the Franciscans of the Eternal Word, the Capuchins, the Dominicans and the monastic communities of men and women. They are growing in numbers. It’s the number of secular priests that is moving slowly.
However, by the time of John Paul’s death, secular vocations had double since he first became pope. His visits to the youth around the world did stir up vocations to the secular priesthood, just not as many as those to the religious life.
And now there are also societies that are neither religious nor diocesan. They are secular priests who follow a particular mission and spirit, such Opus Dei and the Society of St. Peter.
Let’s thank God that we have vocations, whether they be priests or brothers.
JR
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