Scott1
Well-Known Member
The number of ordinations in many American dioceses has risen to its highest figure since the Second Vatican Council.
In the archdiocese of Chicago, 16 men were made priests in late May. The smaller archdiocese of St Paul and Minneapolis ordained 15 last Saturday, the largest figure since 1963, well above the annual average of between five and eight.
Fr Thomas Wilson, vocations director for the Twin Cities, attributed the increase partly to regular prayers for vocations, through the vocations prayer written by the archdioceses Archbishop Harry Flynn, and partly to the revival of eucharistic adoration chapels. Since the mid 1990s, the number of chapels has nearly doubled and the number of seminarians has increased by 70 per cent. It is not a coincidence. Where Jesus abiding presence in the Eucharist is appreciated and adored by his people, the gift of the priesthood from which it comes is understood and appreciated, and vocations flow from that, he said.
Fr John Ubel, rector of the archdiocesan seminary, pointed to the words of the funeral homily for John Paul II, preached by the then Cardinal Ratzinger, that the Church is alive, and the Church is young. One of his ordinands, Fr David Hennen, said: Vocations to the priesthood are becoming more prominent. Priesthood is looking very inviting for a lot of guys right now.
In the United States the shortage of priests remains so severe that there are now almost 1,400 Catholics for every priest. Some of the pressure on priests is relieved by importing clergy or ordinands from New Europe or the developing world: thus the Chicago ordinands included 10 men from Poland, Mexico, Ecuador and the Philippines. It is becoming especially attractive to import priests from Africa, where vocations are exploding, although not quickly enough to keep pace with conversions (in Africa there are 4,700 Catholics per priest). The Ghanaian Cardinal Peter Turkson, Archbishop of Cape Coast, was in the United States this week for the ordination of a Franciscan friar; his archdiocese, which numbers only 300,000 Catholics, produces up to 20 ordinands a year, and he regularly sends priests to the West. It is true that the Church in Africa is thriving, he told Baltimores diocesan magazine. But we also have had a certain type of catechesis that is not too deep. Traditional cultures and values are not radically transformed by the values of the Gospel. We need a more deeply rooted experience of conversion. He pointed to the example of Rwanda, which was supposed to be 80 per cent Catholic, but they forgot they were Christian. Evangelisation needs to be radical so that traditional values are challenged and transformed.
www.thetablet.co.uk
In the archdiocese of Chicago, 16 men were made priests in late May. The smaller archdiocese of St Paul and Minneapolis ordained 15 last Saturday, the largest figure since 1963, well above the annual average of between five and eight.
Fr Thomas Wilson, vocations director for the Twin Cities, attributed the increase partly to regular prayers for vocations, through the vocations prayer written by the archdioceses Archbishop Harry Flynn, and partly to the revival of eucharistic adoration chapels. Since the mid 1990s, the number of chapels has nearly doubled and the number of seminarians has increased by 70 per cent. It is not a coincidence. Where Jesus abiding presence in the Eucharist is appreciated and adored by his people, the gift of the priesthood from which it comes is understood and appreciated, and vocations flow from that, he said.
Fr John Ubel, rector of the archdiocesan seminary, pointed to the words of the funeral homily for John Paul II, preached by the then Cardinal Ratzinger, that the Church is alive, and the Church is young. One of his ordinands, Fr David Hennen, said: Vocations to the priesthood are becoming more prominent. Priesthood is looking very inviting for a lot of guys right now.
In the United States the shortage of priests remains so severe that there are now almost 1,400 Catholics for every priest. Some of the pressure on priests is relieved by importing clergy or ordinands from New Europe or the developing world: thus the Chicago ordinands included 10 men from Poland, Mexico, Ecuador and the Philippines. It is becoming especially attractive to import priests from Africa, where vocations are exploding, although not quickly enough to keep pace with conversions (in Africa there are 4,700 Catholics per priest). The Ghanaian Cardinal Peter Turkson, Archbishop of Cape Coast, was in the United States this week for the ordination of a Franciscan friar; his archdiocese, which numbers only 300,000 Catholics, produces up to 20 ordinands a year, and he regularly sends priests to the West. It is true that the Church in Africa is thriving, he told Baltimores diocesan magazine. But we also have had a certain type of catechesis that is not too deep. Traditional cultures and values are not radically transformed by the values of the Gospel. We need a more deeply rooted experience of conversion. He pointed to the example of Rwanda, which was supposed to be 80 per cent Catholic, but they forgot they were Christian. Evangelisation needs to be radical so that traditional values are challenged and transformed.
www.thetablet.co.uk