Vocation Shortage?

[Jared123]

We as Catholics constantly read and hear about the Priest shortage in the United States. This may be true in most dioceses but for the Diocese of Lincoln (Nebraska), I am happy to say it isn’t the case. This year alone we have a class of 19 young men entering the seminary. We have a total of 52 young men in the seminary studying to be a priest for this Diocese.
How can this Diocese constantly be producing so many vocations and consistantly being in the top 3 dioceses acoss the nation in priest per capita?

The answer is very simple…keep your diocese orthodox and young men across the nation as well as young men in your diocese with desire to become a priest in your diocese. Allow your diocese to become watered down and good luck finding young men to devout their lives to the Church.

A few of the things you will find here that you more than likely won’t in other dioceses are:
No alter girls allowed. The Lincoln Diocese is the only diocese left in the nation that doesn’t allow alter girls. In my parish alone we will consistantly have 5-8 young men/boys serving on the alter for mass. Usually two of these young men will be in high school and members of the Bosco society. The young boys look forward to serving mass, not as something they have to do, and more importantly, not something the girls do. We currently have two young men from our parish in the Seminary.
Catholic Schools both Elementary and High School are found throughout the diocese. Each high school has Priests teaching religion as well as Nuns who also teach. And yes the Nuns wear habits. Catholic school is affordable to all. The elementary school in my town of 3,800 people cost $500 a year per student. The high school cost $1,000 a year per student. If a family has more than 3 children enrolled, they get a cost reduction.
Our Bishop is as Orthodox as it gets, and is a strong leader. Just the type of Bishop that a Priest would want to serve under. He doesn’t cave in to secularism, or lukewarm Catholicism. www.dioceseoflincoln.org

 

[freudmacher]

The answer is very simple…keep your diocese orthodox and young men across the nation as well as young men in your diocese with desire to become a priest in your diocese. Allow your diocese to become watered down and good luck finding young men to devout their lives to the Church.

It used to be hard to become a priest. They made it easier and more comfortable and no one wants to do it. They took away the cassock, the “specialness” of the priesthood and no one wants to do it. They took the Priests and Nuns away from being teachers and no one wants to do it. They took away the reverence and no one wants to do it. A few diocese keeps this stuff and blooms into a beautiful diocese that continues to grow and the ‘changers’ scratch their heads in confusion. Pope Benedict XVI talks about logic in religion, seems like these ‘changers’ need to use logic in all aspects.

Thank you for your post, this is hope that it will all be good again someday. Thank goodness it is His church, so it will be good.

 

[Jared123]

It used to be hard to become a priest. They made it easier and more comfortable and no one wants to do it. They took away the cassock, the “specialness” of the priesthood and no one wants to do it. They took the Priests and Nuns away from being teachers and no one wants to do it. They took away the reverence and no one wants to do it. A few diocese keeps this stuff and blooms into a beautiful diocese that continues to grow and the ‘changers’ scratch their heads in confusion. Pope Benedict XVI talks about logic in religion, seems like these ‘changers’ need to use logic in all aspects.

Thank you for your post, this is hope that it will all be good again someday. Thank goodness it is His church, so it will be good.

I couldn’t agree more with your post. Being a priest in the Lincoln Diocese is a very special honor. The young men and boys truely look up to the priests in our parish. We currently have 3 priest in our parish serving 800 families. One of our priest just turned 30 years old. It’s very inspiring to go to mass and see a 30 year old priest saying mass and how the alter boys look up to him as a role model. In our high school we have 7 priest (who come from smaller towns that don’t have a Catholic School) and teach classes. The principle and superintendant are both priest. The high schoolers are surrounded by priest as well as nuns. I don’t think there are many Catholic High schools left that actually have priest teaching in them. And our Priests also wear Cassocks.
I am not trying to say that the Lincoln Diocese is so much better than any other place, I am just pointing out that there is a place were Catholicism is flourishing and not dieing off as others would want you to believe.

 

[mahalia]

What a joy it is to read such beautiful testimonies!
My prayer tonight goes to Lincoln, Nebraska! I will pray for your community, to stay in this way and for other communities around to become more like yours.
Indeed, I have also noticed, the more orthodox a parish is, the more vocations there are.

 

[Jared123]

What a joy it is to read such beautiful testimonies!
My prayer tonight goes to Lincoln, Nebraska! I will pray for your community, to stay in this way and for other communities around to become more like yours.
Indeed, I have also noticed, the more orthodox a parish is, the more vocations there are.

Thank You! My prayer tonight goes to Zagreb, Croatia.

 

[ljprevo]

I can honestly say that at our parish we don’t allow altar girls either. We in retrospect are a small parish and we have a ton of altar boys.

Have a look at this picture of one of our masses and see how many altar boys we have

grottophotos.com/albums/grottophotos/Assumption/2006/Diane/Resized_A06_IMG_1111-57.jpg

 

[Jared123]

I can honestly say that at our parish we don’t allow altar girls either. We in retrospect are a small parish and we have a ton of altar boys.

Have a look at this picture of one of our masses and see how many altar boys we have

grottophotos.com/albums/grottophotos/Assumption/2006/Diane/Resized_A06_IMG_1111-57.jpg

This picture is awesome. Tabernacle is front in center, as it should be, altar rails still in place, and lots of potential vocations serving. It doesn’t get any better than that.

 

[Lepanto]

God bless the Diocese of Lincoln and Assumption Grotto parish in Detroit!

 

[Genesis315]

Good bishops lead to good priest, and good priests leads to vocations. When I was a kid, we got a new pastor who renovated our modern style church into something that looks very Catholic, who was very frank, openly chastizing people for leaving after communion or not showing reverence or any sense of sacred at Mass–he also got rid of a lot of liturgical goofeyness that was there before him. He also instituted Adoration and he preaches and asks for prayers for vocations quite often.

And guess what, we currently have four seminarians from that parish, and we’ll probably be adding another in the near future ( ).

 

[Tim_Kirchoff]

Just over a year ago today, the announcement came that Quigley was closing

 

[chicago]

Just over a year ago today, the announcement came that Quigley was closing

Not to turn this into a Quigley thread. (Quigley having been the longstanding minor - high school - seminary for the Archdiocese of Chicago which closed this past June.) But I do find it notable that since the announcement, there has been a certain amount of talk and effort in the Archdiocese to find other ways of reaching out to boys and young men in order to establish relationships and foster vocations. The irony is that discussion of such is often preceeded by saying something to the effect of, “In light of us no longer having Quigley…” Of course, the reality is that this sort of particular outreach, exposure, and nurturing being promoted is crucial in attracting potential priestly candidates. But, then, there must also be a more formalized way of helping them to develop and be nurtured. Absent the minor seminary, all we have which remains is a new high school discenrment group program (akin to something which was tried and failed in the past) that doesn’t have the same intensity. It should be noted, then, that it isn’t about either/or but both/and. A need exists to take those steps which will attract, interest, and support/foster vocations on a more individualized basis and particular degree in the parishes. But there must also be a way in which to help the discernment along and enable the vocations which do exist to mature among the supportive environment (and challenging grind) of others who are also exploring this as a possibility for their life in reponse to the Lord’s call.

 

[Jared123]

Not to turn this into a Quigley thread. (Quigley having been the longstanding minor - high school - seminary for the Archdiocese of Chicago which closed this past June.) But I do find it notable that since the announcement, there has been a certain amount of talk and effort in the Archdiocese to find other ways of reaching out to boys and young men in order to establish relationships and foster vocations. The irony is that discussion of such is often preceeded by saying something to the effect of, “In light of us no longer having Quigley…” Of course, the reality is that this sort of particular outreach, exposure, and nurturing being promoted is crucial in attracting potential priestly candidates. But, then, there must also be a more formalized way of helping them to develop and be nurtured. Absent the minor seminary, all we have which remains is a new high school discenrment group program (akin to something which was tried and failed in the past) that doesn’t have the same intensity. It should be noted, then, that it isn’t about either/or but both/and. A need exists to take those steps which will attract, interest, and support/foster vocations on a more individualized basis and particular degree in the parishes. But there must also be a way in which to help the discernment along and enable the vocations which do exist to mature among the supportive environment (and challenging grind) of others who are also exploring this as a possibility for their life in reponse to the Lord’s call.

Our local Catholic school has a John Bosco club. Quite a few Catholic boys are members of the group. They have regular meetings and help serve with mass. We currently have two young men in the seminary who were members of this group. Not to bad considering I live in a town of 3,800 people and there are probably 350 boys and girls in the high school.

 

[Tim_Kirchoff]

Our local Catholic school has a John Bosco club. Quite a few Catholic boys are members of the group. They have regular meetings and help serve with mass. We currently have two young men in the seminary who were members of this group. Not to bad considering I live in a town of 3,800 people and there are probably 350 boys and girls in the high school.

Why can’t we all live in Nebraksa?

 

[debraran]

My Dominican parish is doing well in CT. They mentioned having about 15-19 men going into their seminary in Washington DC. We have 3 priests at our church and many rotate through and I think we have 2 retired priests that live in the priory.
Our parish is very orthodox, no alter girls or boys either, we have so many college/seminary students that fill in those positions. This is the only parish I’ve been in that doesn’t have anyone"bring up the gifts" either, no one seems to feel left out though. Confession is daily, 3 masses a day, a wonderful gift to our area.

I don’t think it’s just being orthodox though, I think it’s bringing a dignity to the mass, a reverence and a love, that is lost in some churches. It’s hard to explain, but you can go by the rules, have “fire and brimstone” homilies, but if there isn’t love, if there isn’t a love that parishoners see, they wont want to “be one of them”.

 

[Pius_X]

No alter [sic] girls allowed. -snip- The young boys look forward to serving mass, not as something they have to do, and more importantly, not something the girls do.

How is doing something because they can and girls can not a good reason? I am an altar server and have no problem serving with girls. I also look forward to serving mass, and not as something I have to do.

I thought that the purpose of serving was to serve God at his table, as a mirror of the gathered assembly, not because it is a men’s club.

 

[Jared123]

Why can’t we all live in Nebraksa?

I encourage people to move here all the time, but realize few will. However, I am amazed how we do have new families moving to my home town each year specifically for this diocese and the Catholic schools. Catholic school is $500.00 for elementary, and $1,000 for high school per student. This also isn’t considered a tuition but rather a donation to the parish so it is tax deductable. I don’t know of anywhere else in the nation that offers this.

 

[Jared123]

My Dominican parish is doing well in CT. They mentioned having about 15-19 men going into their seminary in Washington DC. We have 3 priests at our church and many rotate through and I think we have 2 retired priests that live in the priory.
Our parish is very orthodox, no alter girls or boys either, we have so many college/seminary students that fill in those positions. This is the only parish I’ve been in that doesn’t have anyone"bring up the gifts" either, no one seems to feel left out though. Confession is daily, 3 masses a day, a wonderful gift to our area.

I don’t think it’s just being orthodox though, I think it’s bringing a dignity to the mass, a reverence and a love, that is lost in some churches. It’s hard to explain, but you can go by the rules, have “fire and brimstone” homilies, but if there isn’t love, if there isn’t a love that parishoners see, they wont want to “be one of them”.

This is wonderful and I hope it keeps spreading throughout the east coast.

 

[Jared123]

How is doing something because they can and girls can not a good reason? I am an altar server and have no problem serving with girls. I also look forward to serving mass, and not as something I have to do.

I thought that the purpose of serving was to serve God at his table, as a mirror of the gathered assembly, not because it is a men’s club.

I’m not saying it is right that young men/boys view serving in this light, however it is a reality.

I am glad that you understand the meaning of serving mass and hopefully you are considering a vocation to the priesthood.

 

[Pious_Mat]

Isn’t our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary in your Diocese? I don’t know how far away Denton is from Lincoln, but regardless, the FSSP must have a presence in your Diocese, which is always a good thing. I ask because Our Lady of G. is the seminary I am thinking of applying to, and then travelling the world looking after FSSP parishes at which I’d be assigned, although after hearing this account of life in Nebraska, I’ll probably never want to leave!

 

[Jared123]

Isn’t our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary in your Diocese? I don’t know how far away Denton is from Lincoln, but regardless, the FSSP must have a presence in your Diocese, which is always a good thing. I ask because Our Lady of G. is the seminary I am thinking of applying to, and then travelling the world looking after FSSP parishes at which I’d be assigned, although after hearing this account of life in Nebraska, I’ll probably never want to leave!

Denton is very close to Lincoln. I believe you are talking about the only seminary in North America that is training Priest in the Latin Rite? Maybe I am wrong, but know that young men come here from all over the world to attend the seminary in Denton. Our Bishop is very big on saving the Latin Mass and knows to do so you need Priest who are trained in this. A little side note is that the Lincoln Diocese is the entire south half of the state of Nebraska. Geograhpically it is a very large diocese, but has a rather small population of Catholics. Also another bit of trivia for you, our Bishop (Bishop Bruskewitz) brought Scott Hahn into the Catholic Church. He was a parish priest in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at the time.