Why Do So Many Priests In America Come From Other Countries?

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**WHY DO SO MANY PRIESTS IN AMERICA COME FROM OTHER COUNTRIES? **
My son asked me this question when we were leaving Mass. Why do so many priests in America come from other countries? Is it our “ME” culture? Is it because we are so occupied with all our possessions and “toys”, so many superficial things that occupy our time and “fill” our lives? Is it , “we are not a religious nation?” What is the problem? Do Americans revere movie stars, rappers, singers and professional athletes above all. Doesn’t our younger generation look-up to and respect priests? Don’t they consider the priesthood a noble endeavor? You would think sense we have the most, we would be the most great full and want to give the most back, maybe not. I sure hope this trend doesn’t continue. Please pray for our priest.

Yours in Christ,
 
I think we are just in a slow cycle right now, in years past we were the country sending many missionarys overseas. I pray the pressence of these lovely missonaries from other countries will inspire new ones here.

Linda H.
 
This is a good question. I always assumed there was a shortage of vocations here, but a surplus in other countries, in particular Africa.

However, someone trotted out the stats on this (maybe Deacon Ed), and as I recall there is an even lower ratio of priests to faithful in Africa.

So the question becomes more complicated. I suspect that there is encouragement for this influx of foreign priests due to the disproportionate share of Vatican income produced in the US. I think the US accounts for 6-10% of Catholics worldwide, but a much higher percent of contributions.

Simple concern for the most equitable distribution of priests to faithful in the near future might suggest against sending priests to the US from areas even more underserved. However, a cost-benefit analysis makes the US a worthwhile area to invest these “resources” because the return can fund the Church’s work not just in the US but around the world.

I apologize for my shaky stats - I’ll dig up the actual cites tomorrow or the next day if nobody does so by then.
 
From our vantage point of history, it may seem out of place to have ethnic priests here. But, in the days of the great immigrations from European countries, I think it was considered an advantage to have ethnic priests assigned to ethnic parishes.

This being Black History Month, I should remember the first African American priest who was assigned in the Chicago archdiocese – but I can’t remember him by name. He was educated in the Vatican, where he was accepted in that environment along with priests from everywhere. But, when he came to the U.S., he ran into the prejudices that were so overwhelming at the time. Thank God he hung in there. I’m sure we’ll hear about him again this year.

We had a lot of Polish priests who barely spoke English, years ago. Quite a run on them when we had a Polish-American bishop.

We should celebrate our cultural diversity.

Anecdote: We had a African (not African-American) priest at the neighboring parish. He was well traveled and had met Mother Theresa, maybe more than once. He was a Franciscan, and his name was Fr. Francis, at that. What an honor. I arrived early for Sunday Mass, and I idly watched him walking around the church before Mass. For some reason, the word u r i n a t e came into my mind rather strongly and I tried to shake it out. Why was I thinking of that? He gave his homily and threw in some African wisdom and a saying, “it’s not the worst thing in the world if your child u’s on your arm.” Go figure. Some people do not believe in ESP, but there it was.
 
many of the foreign priests currently serving in this country are here on student or other temporary visas for advanced study in this country, or to learn English. they assist in parishes, hospitals or other ministries while they are here, because they have to have a job to stay here. We have many priests here from Africa, India and of course Mexico, who are a blesssing because they are generally young, very well formed in the faith, devout, orthodox and clearly in love with what they are doing and in love with Christ and His church. Plus they have beautiful accents, and have taken time to learn Spanish in addition to several other languages which most of them also speak.
 
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puzzleannie:
they are generally young, very well formed in the faith, devout, orthodox and clearly in love with what they are doing and in love with Christ and His church.
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Yes, I agree. My diocese has several Vietnamese priests, my own parish had an Indian pastor, and there are Indonesian and African priests here as well.

And as mentioned in another post, there was a period where the diocese was full of priests from Poland, though they’re gone now. I liked that because I grew up in a Polish parish in Brooklyn, NY, and learned all my prayers in Polish (I didn’t know how to say the Our Father and Hail Mary in English until I went to high school!) and found it most nostalgic to have the opportunity to go to Confession in Polish after more than 40 years.
 
One more contributing factor is funding. Many of the seminarians are from foreign countries. The seminaries in their home country may be full or not able to financially support more students. There is capacity here in terms of space and money. US seminarians take on foreign students without the same financial committment that they would ordinarily receive from the sending dioceses. In return, the seminarians serve in the US at least before priestly ordination, including their years as transitional deacons. Some return to their home countries, others stay but either way its a Win-Win.
 
In Britain, a high proportion of priests are Irish. The impression I get
is that it is getting more difficult to recruit, as few people are willing to make the sacrifices required, and even amongst Catholics materialism is increasingly rampant. Who wants to live a celibate life, with few material possessions, in a draughty presbytery?

As an outsider I think the Church needs to seriously rethink the requirement for chastity, which I understand isn’t a “dogma”.
Either that or allow women some greater role in the church,
even if not permitting them to adminster sacraments.

In England considerable resentment was caused by
the ordination of married priests who left the Church of ENgland
after their schism over the ordination of women.
 
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