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General interest

Demographics Is Destiny?

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I recently came across this article in The Baltimore Sun entitled “Catholics look to younger students to stem priest, nun declines.” What struck me was that the profiled fifth-graders “were so unfamiliar with a nun’s habit and veil” that they referred to a nun as “the lady in the blue dress.”

Unfortunately, the author eventually trots out the usual “mainstream” explanations for the shortage of priests and religious, such as the sex scandals, the male-only priesthood, and mandatory celibacy, without going deeper.

This shortcoming was adroitly exposed by Terry Mattingly on his blog:

“One of the major problems these days is that millions of Catholic parents are no longer sure if they want their sons and daughters to surrender their lives to the church.

“This is the factor that the Sun continues to miss in its coverage of stories linked to Catholic statistics–such as struggling parishes, closing schools and, yes, the declining number of priests. A key fact: Birth rates for most white American Catholics now resemble those found in liberal Protestant churches.

“I dug into this a few years ago in a pair of Scripps Howard columns that shipped with this title: ‘Fathers, mothers and Catholic sons.’ The key interview was with the progressive Catholic academic Father Donald B. Cozzens, a former seminary vicar in Ohio and author of the influential 2000 book, The Changing Face of the Priesthood.

“The bottom line: How many Catholic young people will even considering entering religious life if this step is actively opposed by their fathers and mothers?

“In the past, when large families were the norm, it was a matter of pride to have a son enter religious life. But what if most Catholic families contain only one son?

“’When it has become normal to have two children or less, you are not going to find many parents who are encouraging a son–especially an only son–to become a priest,’ said Cozzens. ‘They want him to get married, to have grandchildren and carry on the family name.

“’So there are fewer sons and there are more mothers who are asking hard questions.’

“Grandchildren or no grandchildren? . . .

“Once again, demographics is destiny. I would also note that, especially in Catholic pews, demographics are often shaped by doctrine.”

Read the entire article here.

Papal Address

Called to Service

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Last week Pope Benedict XVI presided at Vespers at the Vatican basilica for the opening of the academic year in pontifical universities. His homily focused on priestly ministry, in the light of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Pontifical Work for Priestly Vocations by Venerable Pius XII. The Holy Father reflected on the reading from the First Letter of Peter, which he said “invites us to meditate upon the mission of pastors in the Christian community.”

The Holy Father emphasized three essential qualities of a priest: “the aspiration to collaborate with Jesus in spreading the Kingdom of God, the gratuitousness of pastoral commitment, and an attitude of service.” A priest, he stressed, must sacrifice himself for the Church, making himself available to be “seized by Christ.”

The priests administer the sacraments, but do not control them, the Pope said. “They cannot dispose of them as they please.”

Pope Benedict also noted that “we must never forget that we enter the priesthood through the Sacrament of Ordination. This means opening ourselves to the action of God by daily choosing to give ourselves for Him and for our fellow man. . . . The Lord’s call to the ministry is not the fruit of any particular merit, it is a gift we must accept and to which we must respond by generously and disinterestedly dedicating ourselves, not to our own project but to that of God, that He may dispose of us according to His will, even though this may not correspond to our own desire for self-fulfillment. . . . As priests, we must never forget that the only legitimate ascension towards the ministry of pastor is not that of success but that of the Cross.”

News

Springfield’s Seminary Numbers at 25-Year High

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Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Diocese of Springfield

The State Journal-Register reports that the Diocese of Springfield, Illinois now has 20 seminarians, the most it’s had in over 25 years. The article includes some sobering facts to counter this news, including the approximately 50% attrition rate of seminarians and how even that number doesn’t quite keep pace with the needs of a diocese that has 131 parishes as well as various college, prison, and hospital chaplaincies.

Still, the news is encouraging and is further evidence of a stabilizing of priestly vocations in the U.S. after the decline of the 1970s and 1980s. Further, the Diocese of Springfield is bouncing back from the 1990s, when it underwent some significant scandals even before clerical sex abuse became a national story.

Yet the new generation is undaunted. As one of the current seminarians noted: “[By wearing the collar], people may immediately make assumptions about you that might be very bad. I know this is not about me. I know I’m not going to fix any huge problems on my own. But I can be, for the people God sends me to, an expression of the love God has for them.”

Amen to that.

Men's communities

Maryknoll Celebrates Centennial

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As reported by Catholic World News, the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers celebrated their 100th anniversary at an October 30 Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick was the principal celebrant, and Father Jan Michael Joncas–the composer of “On Eagle’s Wings”–composed a special musical Mass setting for the anniversary.

The Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers were founded by the U.S. bishops in 1911 as the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America. The average member is now 74 years old; according to various editions of the United States Catholic Mission Association’s handbook, 158 Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers now serve abroad–down from 279 in 2004.

Despite the many successes of devoted Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers over the past century, the community has been criticized in recent decades for adopting an overly politicized approach to missionary work.

General interest

In Praise of Our King

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As a gift to God for His goodness, and in response to many requests, the School Sisters of Christ the King have recorded a CD called “In Praise of our King.” The recording contains portions of the liturgy of the hours beautifully chanted by the sisters.

The CD is available, free of charge, upon request. They may be contacted at School Sisters of Christ the King, Villa Regina Motherhouse, 4100 SW 56th Street, Lincoln, NE 18522-9261.

While you’re at it, you might want to include with your request for the CD a tax-deductible gift to the sisters–not only to offset the cost of the CD, but even more to support the sisters and their apostolic works.

This relatively young community already staffs seven Catholic schools in the Diocese of Lincoln, but needs contributions to continue to train young sisters for this work.

General interest

All Saints Sisters of the Poor

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Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien erected the All Saints Sisters of the Poor, a women’s religious community based in Catonsville, Maryland, as a Catholic diocesan institute last week–fittingly on the Solemnity of All Saints–at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore.

The Holy See recognized the All Saints Sisters of the Poor as a diocesan institute–a religious community that reports to the local bishop–within the past few weeks.

The sisters were formerly an Episcopal religious community. They were received into the Catholic Church in 2009 along with their chaplain, Fr. Warren Tanghe, after a seven-year discernment. They took private vows when they entered into full communion with the Church, but were able to  profess public vows during last week’s celebration. They are now “official” and can accept new members.

The American branch of a society founded in England, the All Saints Sisters of the Poor came to Baltimore in 1872 and have been at their current location since 1917.

In addition to devoting their lives to a rigorous daily prayer regimen, the sisters offer religious retreats, visit people in hospice care, and design religious cards to inspire others in the faith.

General interest

Bishop Slattery on Consecrated Life

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Last week, the National Catholic Register published an interview with Bishop Edward Slattery, who has served as Bishop of Tulsa since 1994.

While the entire interview is worth reading, I thought our readers would be particularly interested in his comments on the decline of religious communities in recent decades and what must happen to turn things around:

You’ve expressed your concern about the decline of religious communities in the past 40 years. What do you think caused it?

Sometimes Vatican II is blamed for it, but I think it has to do with a change in our culture and the West. We have become secular, self-reliant and independent.

In the 1960s, we had the war in Vietnam, the civil-rights movement, and a society that was increasingly disillusioned with people in authority. Protests arose emphasizing that people were being denied their rights–and, sometimes, they were–and the themes of responsibility, obedience, loyalty, and fidelity were forgotten. We lost an important balance we needed.

Also, as technology improves, people become more and more comfortable and expect to be comfortable. We take for granted the gifts God has given us and think we’re entitled to them.

These prevailing attitudes then affect all of us, whether we’re a religious, bishop, priest, married, or single person. It’s just a matter of time before some religious say, “I’m going to change the way I’m living and re-interpret the meaning of poverty, chastity, and obedience.”

But for us to have a conversion of heart, we need examples. We need religious. We need reformation of the religious and consecrated life because the Catholic Church is searching for men and women who can lead us by example. That is what has been lacking in the past 40 years, as many religious left the religious life or changed to a lifestyle which is, unfortunately, even more comfortable than the average person. Sometimes I think some religious have lost their identity.

The charisms of poverty, chastity and obedience are something that all of us need to embrace, but the religious are the ones who lead us in this. They help us to stay focused on Christ in another world, another kingdom, and not the kingdom of this world.

How should we respond?

We should start with prayer. That’s where everything starts. We don’t start by talking about ourselves or even examining our consciences. We start by prayer, on our knees. We come to the Lord and ask him to let us see ourselves as he sees us. He’s the only one who can. God knows each one of us perfectly, and if we’re seeking self-knowledge, we must go to him.

Once we do that, we receive his help and a certain joy because we open our hearts to being honest. We allow ourselves to see and accept what is true about ourselves and about others in light of the Gospel. But without prayer, that can’t happen.

Once we become men and women of prayer, everything else will fall into place. But we have to put in the time. You have to schedule prayer. You have to make sure that you pray every day, and as often as you can. Become a man or woman of prayer. When we do this, we will begin to discover ourselves, perhaps for the first time.

Cloistered life

Why Monks?

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Last week Catholic Online published a delightful piece by Fr. Dwight Longenecker on the vocation to monastic life. Here is a sampling:

“Now the thing I have always loved about the monastic founders–whether it was St Anthony of Egypt or Pachomius, or Benedict–is that they didn’t set out to start a ‘movement.’ They just did what they had to do.

“They were faithful to their vocation and calling. That others joined them, and that a movement developed was not only an unexpected growth, but often an unwelcome one at that. . . .

“You thought monks were just cutting themselves off–doing something radical and a little bit misanthropic. In the meantime they were doing something beautiful for God.

“Hidden away in the desert, they are cultivating the power of prayer and planting the seed of God in the world.”

Liturgical Year

St. Martin de Porres

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Today is the feast of St. Martin de Porres, one of the most beloved saints in the history of the Church. I thought I would share with readers the following excerpt from the homily of Blessed John XXIII on the occasion of St. Martin’s canonization in 1962, taken from the Office of Readings for today:

The example of Martin’s life is ample evidence that we can strive for holiness and salvation as Christ Jesus has shown us: first, by loving God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind; and second, by loving your neighbor as yourself.”

When Martin had come to realize that Christ Jesus suffered for us and that he carried our sins on his body to the cross, he would meditate with remarkable ardor and affection about Christ on the cross.  Whenever he would contemplate Christ’s terrible torture he would be reduced to tears.  He had an exceptional love for the great sacrament of the Eucharist and often spent long hours in prayer before the blessed sacrament.  His desire was to receive the sacrament in communion as often as he could.

Saint Martin, always obedient and inspired by his divine teacher, dealt with his brothers with that profound love which comes from pure faith and humility of spirit.  He loved men because he honestly looked on them as God’s children and as his own brothers and sisters.  Such was his humility that he loved them even more than himself and considered them to be better and more righteous than he was.

He excused the faults of others. He forgave the bitterest injuries, convinced that he deserved much severer punishments on account of his own sins. He tried with all his might to redeem the guilty; lovingly he comforted the sick; he provided food, clothing and medicine for the poor; he helped, as best he could, farm laborers and Negroes, as well as mulattoes, who were looked upon at that time as akin to slaves: thus he deserved to be called by the name the people gave him: ‘Martin of Charity.'”

The virtuous example and even the conversation of this saintly man exerted a powerful influence in drawing men to religion.  It is remarkable how even today his influence can still come us toward the things of heaven.  Sad to say, not all of us understand these spiritual values as well as we should, nor do we give them a proper place in our lives.  Many of us, in fact, strongly attracted by sin, may look upon these values as of little moment, even something of a nuisance, or we ignore them altogether.  It is deeply rewarding for men striving for salvation to follow in Christ’s footsteps and to obey God’s commandments.  If only everyone could learn this lesson from the example that Martin gave us.

St. Martin de Porres was born in Lima, Peru in 1579 as the illegitimate son of a Panamanian mother and a Spanish father.  Having inherited the dark color of his mother, he was rejected by his father and was therefore raised in poverty.  He entered the Dominicans and became renowned for his countless works of charity. St. Martin was the friend of another great Dominican Saint from Peru, St. Rose of Lima, and his bishop for a time was St. Turibius of Mogrovejo.

General interest

Project Andrew . . . for Parents

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Project Andrew, named for the apostle who invited his brother Simon (Peter) to come meet Jesus (see John 1:40-42), has become a popular vocation-related events for potential seminarians. While the format varies from diocese to diocese, the idea is to have young men “come and see” by spending an evening with the bishop, sharing a meal, discussion, and prayer.

The evenings encourage young men to actively seek out what God wants of them (maybe priesthood, maybe not), and then challenge them to be heroically generous in embracing and living out this vocation. In that sense, it’s about discernment, not recruitment.

Given that context, I wanted to share this article from my own archdiocesan newspaper regarding a Project Andrew event here in Kansas City. What I found to be particularly valuable was the addition of a parent component, as parents of the young men in discernment are invited to hear from parents of some current seminarians.

While the Church extols the great gift that vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life are to Catholic families, the fact is that many parents are opposed to this way of life for their children. There may be fears of “losing” their children or they may simply harbor misconceptions about the priesthood, consecrated life, or the Church in general–just the sort of things that dialogue and friendship with other parents could help resolve.

As Catechism, no. 2233 provides:

“Parents should welcome and respect with joy and thanksgiving the Lord’s call to one of their children to follow him in virginity for the sake of the Kingdom in the consecrated life or in priestly ministry.”