The Archdiocese of Washington currently has 19 priests on loan from 10 countries, among them Brazil, China and France. The Diocese of Arlington has 13 priests on loan from 10 countries, including Cuba, Ireland and Nigeria.
China and Cuba? We know about the huge problems with the communist-controlled Church in China. And wouldn't Cuba also need all the priests they can get?
Nationwide, there are twice as many priests dying or retiring as there are young men entering the seminary, according to Mary Gauther, spokeswoman for Georgetown University's Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), which studies the Catholic Church.
Uh oh, what happened to the "leveling off" that we were promised? Looks like the "Springtime decay function" is going to continue in operation for some time to come.
Last year, the Washington Archdiocese, which includes parishes in the District and in Montgomery, Prince George's, Calvert, St. Mary's and Charles counties in Maryland, reported it had 202 active priests serving in parishes, while five were ordained. Arlington had 129 priests and four ordained. Richmond had 116 priests, but had no new priests ordained, according to statistics compiled by CARA.
What happened to Arlington as the great hope of "conservative" Catholics? This diocese was supposed to be a model for the rest of the US church. It's not so surprising to see zero ordinations in Richmond, and 5 in DC is actually a surprise on the upside, but I don't see how Arlington is going to set a standard to imitate with 4 ordinations.
And a good deal of "poaching" goes on between dioceses as well as between countries. Conservatives are attracted to dioceses with better reputations, which makes their numbers look better, but which doesn't mean that they are developing their own home-grown vocations. Arlington, for example, usually gets vocations from Christendom College, where the bishop recently forbade the students to kneel any longer for communion.
2) Loverde is not Keating. And he doesn't want anyone to forget it. Unfortunately.
The problem in Arlington is the bishop there who apparently has a live-in Franciscan companion and punishes priests who blow the whistle on the scandalous doings that broke out after Bishop Keating's death. This appointment was prior to the recent wave of actually Catholic appointments elsewhere. If Christendom tudents are entering a seminary under the current Arlington bishop, they ought to know better.
As to numbers dying and numbers being ordained, what did you expect ater a generation of Jadot AmChurch bishops? My diocese (relatively small but quite orthodox Rockford) ordained 11 this year alone and has 48 seminarians. Another class of 11 will be ordained in a year or two. Many are home grown and recruited through the Knights of Columbus councils or from home-schooling famlies.
The older priests who are dying are often the aging revolutionaries. Seminary officials in most seminaries, and especially the ones in the Vatican where bishops are often prepared, are of the elder generation and complain and whine endlessly about the conservatism of today's seminarians. Brighten up. Better times are coming.
No one is bringing in priests of the Red Chinese "Patriotic" Church which is, ummmm, schismatic. The underground and actual Catholic Church in China is unlikely to be sending its priests here and, if it did, we would be privileged to be served by living martyrs in the mold of the late Ignatius Cardinal Kung who spent his final years at St. John Fisher Residence in Stamford, Connecticut, after many years in red prisons.
If the bishop of Arlington is ordering that Catholics NOT receive on their knees, he is directly defying a Vatican order that was issued about one year ago. Charlie Wilson and the St. Jose[ph Foundation in Texas will, no doubt, be happy to litigate this successfully in Canon Law courts.
Leveling off will be in 10-20 years from now Max, barring an increase or decrease in vocations.