Poll: Increase in seminarians?

[Illini]

chicago:

Illini, is your number for Joliet counting just those in major seminary or college seminary also? I’m aquainted with one of your guys who’s at St. John Vianney in the Twin Cities.

 I do count college seminarians. They're listed on [www.vocations.com](http://www.vocations.com). I have seen Chicago ordain 14 or 15 each of the last two years. Is that enough to replace those retiring?

-Illini

 

[Franze]

Pandora:

Franze forget Boston. ArchBishop O’Mally wrote a very long letter in the Pilot last week about vocation’s. My office is around the corner from St. John’s Seminary and the have’t seen any increase and I doubt they will. Bishop Lennon has the whole Archdiocese man as hell at him. ArchBishop O’Mally has a very hands off approach to the church closing and Lennon is so antagonistic that people here are madder than when the scandal broke. He has sent letter’s to parishes that at meeting he said he has no idea what we are talking about. At our meeting he walked out on us when we produced a letter that was sent that contridicted what he was saying at the meeting.
I atend the most conservative Parish in the diocese which is closing. We have in 15 years produced 4 ordained priest’s and 4 current seminarian’s. We also pray every Sunday after Mass for vocation’s about 2/3 stay to pray. No other Parish does this. If you want priest’s you have to pray for them. Irate Catholic’s aren’t inclined to pary after Mass if they even attend. Now one would think if your Parish is producing priest’s we wouldn’t be closed but that is the failure of Bishop Lennon he just doesn’t care. Have you ever heard anything so dumb as to close a Church that has a steady stream of vocations. Could it be that only one has become a diocesian priest and the rest have gone to TLM order’s, mostly FSSP. Collect $200 and pass GO!!!
At the 7pm Mass on the Fast of the Immaculate Conception over 30 man stayed to pray together as member’s of the HNS. As I turned and looked back I thought how many vocations are out there. Now it will all be lost. They are trying to break up our community. This is the ADOB for you. Way to go Bishop Lennon.
Kathy

This is very very sad, I have to pray for your diocese, is very sad

 

[Franze]

In my diocese we have had the last year 18 ordinations, but I don´t know ten years ago.

 

[netmilsmom]

JNB:

Assumtion Grotto isint doing too badly in vocations either from what I understand.

TRUE, but you know, they are evil traditionalists. LOL!!!
How come you live in OH and know about the Grotto? I never heard of it when I lived in Cleveland.

 

[JNB]

netmil(name removed by moderator):

TRUE, but you know, they are evil traditionalists. LOL!!!
How come you live in OH and know about the Grotto? I never heard of it when I lived in Cleveland.

Fr. Perricone(sp) is known nationally, due in no small party to Michael Rose, and the Grotto is known nationally for its liturgy and music. Here in Columbus I go to a parish similar to the Grotto ran by Dominicans, though it has less Latin and the priest faces the people.

 

[mpav]

I don’t know about the diocese, but my parish, Our Saviour in Manhattan had none ever (50 years in existence) now we have four.

 

[jlw]

INRI:

Recommended reading: Good Bye, Good Men by Michael Rose. I know that the National Catholic Register ripped into Rose a little bit for some of what he wrote in there about the American Seminary in Louvain, Belgium, but if even half of what he documents there is true, you will be scandalized. And you will know exactly why some dioceses don’t get vocations and why the sex abuse scandal happened. Rose wrote most of the book before the big scandals broke.

I second that recommendation

 

[Mernpap]

I live in a fairly liberal diocese with a priest shortage and problems recruiting vocations. The few vocations being answered that I know of come from very traditional Catholic families that live their faith in their homes. These young men are not choosing to become diocesan priests, but instead are going into very traditional religious orders. My own sons have already decided they do not want to be diocesan priests for fear of getting stuck with weak bishops as bosses. They are considering the Fathers of Mercy at Auburn, KY. After one of my sons protested he wouldn’t become a diocesan priest, I asked him if he would reconsider that decision if Fr. Gerald Baker were to become a bishop. Fr. Baker is a very faithful priest, a good strong man. My son enthusiastically replied he would be happy to be a diocesan priest under the authority of Fr. Baker.

Every time I meet a particularly strong priest, I pray that they may become a bishop. We need great bishops to lead the Church. It seems that we have a few too many wimps working in diocesan offices. As long as the bishops are not strong enough to be counter-cultural, non-politically correct voices of the truth, we’ll have Catholic marriages using birth control and killing off the vocations they are called to produce. When our priests are killed in their mothers’ wombs, the whole Church suffers.

The solution to the shortage of priests is the Holy Spirit. I pray the Holy Spirit will put a fiery passion in the hearts of our bishops to boldly proclaim the teachings of the Church, to require the priests under their authority to teach the Catechism correctly in homilies, to regularly call the faithful to practice obedience to Church teachings, and to encourage frequent (at least monthly) Confession. Only God has the power to make this happen.

Where the Holy Spirit lights a fire, there will be zeal. There will be priests.

 

[Fortiterinre]

I suspect there is an ongoing increase in religious order vocations that does not always get counted in seminarian statistics. Especially on the Eat Coast where the diocesan priesthood has taken a beating, I hear of increases in religious order vocations. It is great to read of so many increases of all kinds in this thread. P.S., from watching I have to say I am impressed with the Fathers of Mercy!

 

[Kevin_Walker]

There has been a noticible and substantial decrease in the amount of seminarians in the Boston area over the past ten years.

A downtown Boston Church just ordained one Priest this year as compared to twenty-five Priests ten years ago.

And I have noticed various diocese having recruitment drives and gift incentives to have someone enter the seminary.

 

[otm]

The seminary for our Archdiocese has expanded and is almost completely full, and may try to expand further; however, we serve a number of other diocese’.

 

[puzzleannie]

each year I take a summer institute at a prominent, very orthodox Catholic university, and then a directed retreat for a week at a good retreat center. This always gives me a chance to meet several seminarians, newly ordained priests, and those discerning vocations. I also get a chance to meet with some priest friends, one of whom has written several books about seminaries and the priesthood. What I am stating is also his conclusion: that a healthy young man wants to be assured he will not be thrown into a lavender mafia for his seminary formation. In dioceses that have changed their policy on where they direct candidates to exclude seminaries which have become notorious for promoting the gay agenda, the number of seminarians is growing.