Posted on 10/19/2005 8:11:23 PM PDT by NYer
VATICAN CITY, OCT. 19, 2005 (Zenit.org).- A Ghanaian cardinal expressed his willingness to share priests with countries suffering from a shortage of vocations, as an act of thanksgiving for the missionaries who evangelized his lands.
Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, archbishop of Cape Coast, spoke of dioceses such as his own, which has a full seminary -- more than 400 candidates for the priesthood.
He revealed that his country is already sending priests to Canada, the United States, Germany and the Netherlands.
The 57-year-old cardinal took part in a meeting with journalists Tuesday in the Vatican press office. He was accompanied by a spokesman from the Synod of Bishops.
The cardinal warned that, when it comes to placing priests in dioceses in need of them, "one must take into account cultural differences, which might be a problem."
As a solution to the problem, he gave the example of the U.S. bishops, who are preparing a reception center for foreign priests, in which they will learn the culture and customs of the country.
Lessons from Europe
Asked if Ghana had more priests than it needed, the cardinal answered: "No, we do not have more than we need. … It has never happened in the history of the Church, but we share what we already have."
"It's just a way of reciprocating," he added, recalling the missionaries who evangelized Africa.
Cardinal Turkson continued: "We need to learn a lesson from Europe. Europe had a lot of vocations, but what went wrong in Europe? We should learn from all of this and try to avoid the same type of mistakes."
The Ghanaian prelate added that "we've got a good number of priests," but this does not mean that all have the desired formation.
"The biggest problem is the formation of priests," he said. "If we did not take it seriously, their formation would be very mediocre."
Beautiful!
20 years ago, my LI parish, St. Francis of Assisi, invited a Nigerian priest to spend the summer. What a holy man! He would spend 20 minutes in deep prayer before the Tabernacle, before vesting for Mass. His eyes bore directly to one's soul.
That summer, I traveled to Assisi and asked each of the priests if there was something I could bring back for them. Each one submitted a request. When it came time for the Nigerian priest, his eyes pierced mine and he said: "Whatever God intends for me".
Once in Assisi, I picked up the items each priest had requested but when it came time for Fr. Damian, I found myself in prayer, pleading with God to "show me what Fr. Damian needs". I circulated through that store for more than an hour until something glinted in one of the showcases. Without even inquiring, I asked the sales person to wrap it up. When I handed it to him, he immediately blessed it and then held it close to his heart.
May the US be blessed with many more like Fr. Damian.
What a beautiful story! How fortunate you were to meet Fr. Damien and travel to Assisi as well. We need more Fr. Damien's to be sure. It has brought a tear to my eye. Some people I know are not pleased when 'foreign' priests come to serve and help locally, but I cherish every minute of every Mass I've been priveleged to attend where they have preached. Their faith is alive and real and contagious.
I know I've mentioned him here before, but at our parish for several summers in a row, we were blessed to have the services of Fr. Peter. He came to help out in the summer, help our local priests, and give them a chance to make their retreats. He was much like you describe Fr. Damien. Very quiet, piercing eyes, devout faith. He was calm and patient and he seemed to actually radiate holiness. He came from Liberia. He spoke of the things we hadn't heard in a while, things like sin and holiness and reverence, and also of the rebel fighting in Liberia and the attacks on people during Sunday mass. One summer he didn't come. He told us that might happen. No one's heard from him since. Fr. Peter was a very special priest and I think fondly of his visits and keep him in my prayers.
It's amazing how if you stop and take the time to pray, God will so often show you the way.
Our Thai priest has gone home to be the head of his order's seminary there (he's a Redemptorist Father). We miss him like mad. He was the sweetest man, he heard my first confession.
"Cardinal Turkson continued: "We need to learn a lesson from Europe. Europe had a lot of vocations, but what went wrong in Europe? We should learn from all of this and try to avoid the same type of mistakes."
In my view, a more relevant question for Americans is to ask what has gone wrong and what has gone right with vocations in the U.S.? There are diocese where there are sufficient vocations and others where there are few if any. Diocese that are doing well that I've heard of are Arlington VA and Lincoln NE. What are they doing right?
Also, you'll find within diocese parishes that are generating vocations. What are they doing?
FWIW, I'm fortunate to be in a tiny parish that seems to generate vocations. I don't know what we're doing that's all that unique, perhaps it's just good fortune, but I suspect there are a couple things that are having an impact.
First, the small size of our parish and it's modest means ensures that everybody has a hand in running the parish. If you don't personally step up to the plate to do it, it just doesn't get done.
Second, and I think this is something that both the Arlington and Lincoln Dicosese have in common with us, is that only males can be altar servers. In our case, girls and women simply don't go behind the iconostasis in our church, so they would be precluded from being altar servers. In the RCC diocese mentioned, they don't allow altar girls as an administrative matter.
Having only altar boys seems an almost trivial detail, but I think it may be more important than it seems at first blush. Perhaps boys really need that experience of being altar servers and seeing themselves as being relied on and important in order to fire that spark that leads to vocations.
Kolokotronis: I'm curious. What are y'all doing over in the GOC that works/doesn't work for you?
Your description of your parish sounds like you are describing ours! Boy are you right that unless everyone pitches in, things don't get done and the bills don't get paid. But that builds a sense of community, of "ecclesia" that can be missing in larger parishes. I suppose in the big parishes, ethnic identity can sort of substitute for shared hard work and digging deep at pledge and collection time, but ethnic identity brings its own set of often serious and destructive problems. I remember when our pariush was 100% (or virtually so)Greek. Now its less than 50% Greek. Its a very different place today and seeing as we are Americans, not Greeks, a better, more Orthodox, less Greek Club place.
As for vocations, our little parish just sent one fellow off to seminary and this week our fellow Freeper Pachomi, who is home on leave from Iraq (God Bless him!)is meeting with the Metropolitan and the president of the seminary about entering with the next class after his tour is up in the war. We have fewer than 200 people including kids in the parish. Not bad.
The Metropolis as a whole is doing good, with a number of seminarians and no priest shortage. I understand the same is true around the country. A few years back there was a dearth of seminarians. I think because the final years of Archbishop Iakovos, a giant if ever there was one,followed by the exerable Spyridon lead to a sort of depression in the Church and turmoil which kept young men from going to the seminary. With the enthronement of Archbishop Demetrios, that has all changed and a new generation of mostly American born, American bred young men, many converts, have headed off to Holy Cross. They are a very conservative group and the future looks good.
I feel constrained to say that I think the option to marry and the fact that a priest can make a good living in the GOA also helps attract these fellows, not for the money, of course, but because the "pay scale" allows them to have a decent standard of living for themselves and their families.
Imagine the burden of finding "whatever God intends for me". Round and round the gift shop I walked examining different items. My mother grew impatient but I was bound and determined to "find" that gift! It was in one of the interior showcases and I had not seen it because it was covered over by a catalog. When the saleswoman who was showing something to another customer, moved the catalog, a ray of light sparked off this object. I took that as a "heavenly hint", shoved the other customer out of the way and told the saleswoman to pack up the item.
It was a silver triptych with images depicting the Canticle of the Creatures. I also picked up a bookmark with the actual prayer on it, which is as follows:
The Canticle of the Creatures
Composed by Saint Francis of Assisi
Most High, all-powerful, good Lord, Yours are the praises, the glory, the honor, and all blessing.
To You alone, Most High, do they belong, and no man is worthy to mention your name.
Praised be You, my lord, with all your creatures, especially Brother Sun, Who is the day and through whom You give us light.
And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendor; and bears a likeness of You, Most High One.
Praised be you, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars, in heaven you formed them clear and precious and beautiful.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Brother Wind, and through the air, cloudy and serene, and every kind of weather through which you give sustance to your creatures.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Water, which is very useful and humble and precious and chaste.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Brother Fire, through whom you light the night and he is beautiful and playful and robust and strong.
Praised be you, my Lord, through our Sister Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces varied fruits with colored flowers and herbs.
Praised be you, my Lord, through those who give pardon for your love and bear infirmity and tribulation.
Blessed are those who endure in peace for by You, Most High, they shall be crowned.
Praised be You, my Lord, through our Sister Bodily Death, from whom no living man can escape.
Woe to those who die in mortal sin. Blessed are those whom death will find in Your most holy will, for the second death shall do them no harm.
Praise and bless my Lord and give Him thanks and serve Him with great humility.
If he is a good and pious priest, then I care not a whit where he comes from. Bring us those priests! We need them over here!
BTTT!
What a great idea! What color are the girls' "habits"?
"Continue to pray for vocations ------- AND please pray for the housing to house them and the classrooms in which to teach them!"
Sweet!
That is a VERY clever idea! Three cheers for your priest!
"Our priest has a very unique and effective way of dealing with female altar servers. They don't wear the same surplices as the boys--they wear little habits with veils."
Many happy years, Antoninus.
I think that's a clever idea. You'd always have some parishes that would "forget" to get different garments for the girls, but it's still a good way to deal with the issue.
In our case we simply couldn't do it, but I have to admire the creative thinking that went into this pragmatic approach.
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