Priest Vocation Shortage: A Self-Inflicted Wound

[Angel_Bradford]

Quite simply, we have a shortage of priests because the family has made the Church secondary in their lives. The parents are making going to Mass optional and letting school activities, scouting, and sports become more important than church activities. I teach the Confirmation class and, at the beginning of the school year, the requirements for Confirmation were sent home to every parent; I had a mother call me and wanted to know what was the minimum her son could do and still be Confirmed. I had other students ask for permission to miss class because of soccer tournaments. I can’t tell you how many of the students or their parents don’t even attend Mass. Their parents drop then off and pick them up…end of story.

My pastor asked the scout master how/when the scouts went to Mass when they were on a camping trip, scout master told Father that they has a devotional service. Father told him that was not acceptable since there were two Catholic churches within 23 miles of the campgrounds. He offered to go himself or send a PV to the campgrounds to say Mass for the scouts on Sunday morning. Another option was to have Mass at the Church when they came back Sunday afternoon.

One of the parents stopped Father after Mass and asked him why he was doing this and he explained the obligation to attend Mass. The parent, a cradle Catholic who’s parents were very devout, said, “Father, I think you got that wrong”…And you wonder why we have a shortage.

 

[jimcav]

Quite simply, we have a shortage of priests because the family has made the Church secondary in their lives. The parents are making going to Mass optional and letting school activities, scouting, and sports become more important than church activities.

While I agree completely, I don’t think this problem is “simply” from one source. It’s a multifaceted problem IMHO…

 

[mikeeh]

I was perusing some blogs recently when I came across this commentary by Anthony Esolen about the priest shortage. It gave me food for thought. A self-inflicted wound? Maybe so.

The Catholic Church’s Priest Shortage: A Self Inflicted Wound.

(Don’t shoot yourself in the foot!)

There’s definitely a lot of factors that has led to priest shortages in certain places, particularly in western nations. People are choosing to have less children which results in parents being less motivated in helping their sons become priests. Parents often have a desire for grandchildren which priests are unable to fulfill. Men (and women) are told they must go off to college to experiment and try new things, then get a well paying job. Then there is all the stuff in society now. Fancy cars, big screen televisions, luxury condos, the latest fashion trends. We are told that our life is defined by what we have.

 

[mikeeh]

It’s not about the altar girls.

It amazes me how often “altar girls” figure in discussions like this. So a young man who might otherwise be considering the priesthood is turned-off because girls carry the processional cross and bring cruets to the altar? Clearly that role is less liturgically involving for both boys and girls than it once was in the era of Latin responses and the male-only sanctuary.

Altar girls in and of itself is not a problem, but it is one of the small steps that have added to the bigger problem. Remember, the role of the altar boy was the first step in a young mans life to see if he had a calling to the priesthood. I think that role is certainly diminished by the addition of girls in the sanctuary. Like the addition of a female in an infantry squads tent, it changes the dynamic completely.

I agree altar girls are not the problem, but having only altar boys helped make it a unique experience for boys. There are quite a few articles online that indicate that boys no longer want to become altar servers because they think it’s for girls. While it might not be a good idea to just kick out all the girls at once, it might be time to develop them in different ways. Start with having boys and girls serve a different Masses. And maybe let the boys only wear the black cassocks.

 

[mikeeh]

Male attendance was much better when the Mass was “authoritarian” and a male environment. Since it has been watered down, and lost it’s traditions, male attendance has dropped. Men like tradition. They like to do hard things. They like to walk in the footsteps of past generations. Deep down, they desire knighthood and chivalry, but are denied that now. Men have little need for emotion and personality driven Churches.

That’s a huge point. I was at Mass once when almost all of the EMHC were all men. And I started thinking how cool it would be to have all men serving at a Mass. All the EMHC, the readers, the altar servers, and the hospitality ministers would be men/boys. It would look like a seminary. Tradition is what holds cultures together. I’ve heard it is bad to be a cultural Catholic, but traditions and culture help define who we are and if we’re not given that we lose much of who we are.

 

[Tomdstone]

I think that if they allowed married priests, it would attract more to the priesthood.

 

[Michael19682]

It is the disenfranchised. Those who cannot become priests in the Catholic Tradition are one group ruining I mean targeting would be priests. Its pornography. Its the global shifting of people in large scale immigration. Its poverty and wealth both. Its rivalry between other churches and the Catholic Church. Its rivalry between Catholic parochial schools and public schools. Its the influence of “alternative” spiritualities. Its yoga, Buddhism, and the new age. Its complacency. Its psychiatry. It’s fear. It’s delusion.
“and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

 

[Sarcelle]

That’s a huge point. I was at Mass once when almost all of the EMHC were all men. And I started thinking how cool it would be to have all men serving at a Mass. All the EMHC, the readers, the altar servers, and the hospitality ministers would be men/boys. It would look like a seminary. Tradition is what holds cultures together. I’ve heard it is bad to be a cultural Catholic, but traditions and culture help define who we are and if we’re not given that we lose much of who we are.

My parish is like that. The greeters, EMHC, readers and altar servers are all men.

 

[Sarcelle]

I did read your posts, but I know there are confused men out there, men that never had good role models growing up and men that take their faith a little less seriously than we do, who are also reading.

Chivalry. I still open doors for ladies. Respect them as persons - complete persons, not just for their looks. And I think the biggest problem facing men is the “no rules” or “anything goes” thinking the media is feeding us daily. Immoral? What’s that?

If we want to call ourselves civilized, we had better be civil, in public and private.

This day and age means the media: most books, movies and TV shows, are not your friend. They model immoral behavior, especially regarding men and women.

And celebrities? Do they have no shame? No mothers or fathers who taught them how to dress? And some of them make it a point to “pose” somewhere.

Ed

Our culture is devolving into a culture of narcissism and rudeness. Narcissism and rudeness are now the virtues of this age of reality shows and selfies.