Where are the American born priests?

[Glennon_P]

For sure and my question is how much do we blame waning attendance for the closings and how much of it is just normal migration patterns (i.e. Rust Belt to Sun Belt, etc.)?

Don’t know…as someone famous once said, “That’s above my pay grade”. I’d guess probably about 50/50 but it’s going to depend on each individual location.

 

[Tacorock1]

As the OP of this thread, I was reminded that I am grateful to have priests that perform the sacraments faithfully.
I pray that there is massive Holy Spirit led revival in the Catholic Church from the Pope to the pew where I sit.

 

[twf]

Yeah, much of Kerala is First World in terms of standard of living… foreign priests aren’t just trying to escape poverty. Geeze.

My first priest who received me into the Church was from Kerala.

 

[jack63]

I started another thread similar to this several months ago about foreign priests and and gave a link to an article about the subject. It is an interesting thread that talked about the steady decline priests in the US and Europe. It talked about ordaining older married men as solution. Africa has about 1 priest to every 5000 lay people. The article I referenced asked a good question “Why take a missionary priest from a region where there is 1 priest per 5000 lay people and send him to a region where there is 1 priest to 2000 lay people?”

In the many places where I attend mass, I’ve seen and heard priests from Nigeria and other places pretty regularly. I’ve always had a good experience with them. They are good and holy men. I just don’t think bringing priests from abroad is a viable long term solution at all.

So where are the American born priests? Perhaps many are married Deacons who are waiting for a rule change so that they can accept the call to become a priest.

Importing foreign priests is not the answer. The Catholic Church's vocations crisis: LaCroix International Article Vocations

First, my experiences with priests from Africa and elsewhere have been positive. In the US it is hard not to run into them sometimes, and I have no complaints and only positive things to say with my individual interactions with them and their homilies. However, this article raised some issues from the larger view that I think are worth discussing. Basically, the point of the article is that, except for some stand-out regions in Africa, there are not enough priests in Africa and most of Africa…

 

[PetraG]

“Why take a missionary priest from a region where there is 1 priest per 5000 lay people and send him to a region where there is 1 priest to 2000 lay people?”

I don’t know. Maybe it is a mutual aid situation, where they need the help of material donations from the more-economically-developed parts of the world to keep their seminaries open at all? Certainly the dioceses in the United States are in a constant state of fund-raising to pay for seminarian education.

The other possibility, of course, is that when someone feels a call to be a missionary somewhere else, outside of his homeland, that’s where he’s going to go. As for us, we don’t just need priests in the sense of bodies to fill out the chasubles. We also benefit from an infusion of the particular riches of faith that come to us in these priests and immigrant parishioners who grew up in other Catholic societies. We have a lot of immigrants, period, in our area, not just immigrant priests. They’re very devout and a great source of spritual riches, even if it takes awhile for their English fluency and pronunciation to develop.

 

[jack63]

As for us, we don’t just need priests in the sense of bodies to fill out the chasubles. We also benefit from an infusion of the particular riches of faith that come to us in these priests and immigrant parishioners who grew up in other Catholic societies.

I hear what you are saying here, and to some level I agree. At a smaller scale, you would be right, and I would agree. However, in some areas of the US and some communities about 1 in 4 priests are from another country. At this scale, I don’t personally believe it is about infusion of faith from another country, it is just about having a celibate man to fill the role of a priest.

We have a lot of immigrants, period, in our area, not just immigrant priests. They’re very devout and a great source of spritual riches, even if it takes awhile for their English fluency and pronunciation to develop

My major concern here is that he foreign priest don’t speak the same language as the immigrants. This makes it harder for many of the immigrant parishioner’s fluency to further develop. For example many of the immigrants are Spanish speakers while many of the foreign priests are from Africa.

 

[vsedriver]

it might have more to do with where you live. Our diocese have had very good seminarians and have been turning out wonderful priests. But we are mostly a rural/agricultural area and farm families tend to have more children.

The less children in a society the less available people there are for vocations. When populations hit 0 or negative growth then you will see more and more immigrants, including immigrant clergy.

 

[vsedriver]

But before I got sick and now that I’m back, there hasn’t been one Mass where requests for money was not made. However, a big part of that problem is the Bishop himself.

when my elderly mother went in the hospital I called our parish priest. He beat me to the hospital and gave her the anointing of the sick. A week later I called him to give her the last rites. He came right away.

People sometimes assume the priest knows who is sick or in the hospital. He might never have known. How large is your parish?

 

[TheLittleLady]

This.

Back pre-Hippa the hospitals would let the parishes know of Catholic patients who were admitted. Now, doing so is a HIPPA violation.

It is imperative to call the parish office and let them know when you or a loved one is admitted to the hospital.

 

[PetraG]

I hear what you are saying here, and to some level I agree. At a smaller scale, you would be right, and I would agree. However, in some areas of the US and some communities about 1 in 4 priests are from another country. At this scale, I don’t personally believe it is about infusion of faith from another country, it is just about having a celibate man to fill the role of a priest.

My major concern here is that he foreign priest don’t speak the same language as the immigrants. This makes it harder for many of the immigrant parishioner’s fluency to further develop. For example many of the immigrants are Spanish speakers while many of the foreign priests are from Africa.

There are many places in the United States that are de facto mission fields. We haven’t had enough vocations to the priesthood and the religious life to have our own sons and daughters fulfill those needs for us.

In the meantime, we have to be thankful that someone is willing to move here and give their lives and their pursuit of holiness on our behalf. They’re not just filling out chasubles. Most are really giving their lives for us, in answer to a call from God to follow in the footsteps of Christ Our High Priest.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

The parish is very small.

Jim

 

[TheLittleLady]

Wow, I counted, our Diocese has more 20 Seminarians right now.

 

[jack63]

It’s great that some dioceses have many seminarians. However, it’s important to understand whether there are major universities or colleges in these dioceses. If a specific diocese has an order of magnitude more qualified men for the priesthood, they likely will have and order of magnitude more qualified seminarians. The same can be said for a specific parish. I’m for far more likely to look at the quantity of qualified men as the cause for many seminarians than whether the diocese is more traditional, more open minded, or doing something else that is “hard to explain” to attract seminarians.

 

[adamhovey1988]

I’m in my early thirties, and I love meeting priests that are a little bit younger than me, because as weird as it sounds, I know they’ll be more orthodox than a lot of the older ones. I’m very glad that my Parish, currently has two seminarians, that doesn’t seem like a large number, but that’s two more than they would have if they had none. One is to be ordained a deacon next month, and he will be ordained a priest next year. When he was talking to the church, he told people that we don’t need more priests in the Church, he said we need more holy priests in the Church. I’m glad he added that, because I think a lot of people would have been really angry if he didn’t use that word , but he’s right. It’s not enough for a man to be ordained a priest, if he does not have any intention of living out that Priestly vocation, and I’ve seen this firsthand.

 

[TheLittleLady]

Mine is a small, Southern Diocese, Catholics are the minority by far. Every State in the US has a University, our state would likely not be many “dream school” lists. Being aware of Vocations, the challenge for young men to begin discerning ought happen far before University.

Our Diocese makes a big deal out of Vocations. When a High School senior decides to enter the Discernment House there is a “signing day” just like the hoopla for HS seniors signing college contracts.

 

[HopkinsReb]

I know a lot of 20-something Catholics—I mean the ones who attend Mass every Sunday and Holy Day.
No, the EF is not currently likely to become anything like as widespread as the OF. If in 20 years it is even 1/2 as available in our diocese as Masses in non-English languages like Spanish or Vietnamese, I would be astonished.

I don’t need the EF; just give me the OF celebrated well. I quite like having the liturgy in the vernacular. I also quite like smells and bells and reverence.

I’m a 28-year-old convert-in-progress from Anglicanism.

 

[PetraG]

I don’t need the EF; just give me the OF celebrated well. I quite like having the liturgy in the vernacular. I also quite like smells and bells and reverence.

I’m a 28-year-old convert-in-progress from Anglicanism.

I would rather we have both available, as they each impess the mystery of the Most Holy Mass on the faithful in different ways. Having said that, I think you are in the clear majority and, in the United States, are likely to remain so. Latin is a beautiful and powerful language, but it is still a foreign language. For all our “melting pot” self-image, we’re not a nation that is just full of people who want to learn to think in a second language. Some might call that sad, but it is what it is.

 

[PetraG]

Only the traditional seminaries are doing well.
Something like half of seminarians in the U.S. want to learn the EF. I think in twenty years it will probably be just as widespread as the OF in America honestly. Millenial Catholics want tradition and beauty.

Even if half the priests know the EF, the math does not work out for the EF to be just as widespread as the OF. Even if 100% of the priests know how to offer the EF and want to do it, there is a big difference between every parish having a Mass in the extraordinary form available and most parishes having as many EF Masses offered as OF Masses (which is what “just a widespread” would actually mean).

I think I will see Masses in modern languages other than English being just as widespread as in English before I see the EF become as widespread as the OF. The language barrier for both is somewhere between substantial and extraordinary. (Even the EF has a homily in the vernacular, so it isn’t as if it can really become the universal Mass for people of every mother tongue, which would have been convenient…)

I could see chant of the Ordinary of the Mass coming back in a far more substantial way, but time will tell.

 

[Prodigal1984]

Only the traditional seminaries are doing well.
Something like half of seminarians in the U.S. want to learn the EF. I think in twenty years it will probably be just as widespread as the OF in America honestly. Millenial Catholics want tradition and beauty.

This already happened in the 60s and 70s. Polish, Italian, French, Spanish, and even a Portuguese mass used to be offered in my area. As more people who were immigrants learn English or forget the language of their ancestors it becomes less of a necessary thing.

 

[PetraG]

This already happened in the 60s and 70s. Polish, Italian, French, Spanish, and even a Portuguese mass used to be offered in my area. As more people who were immigrants learn English or forget the language of their ancestors it becomes less of a necessary thing.

True, but there are parishes in my area at which the children learn their catechism in English (because they are accustomed to it as their school language) but learn their prayers in their parents’ mother tongue. It is a connection to the Faith as it exists in their parents’ or grandparents’ home country.