Foreign priests want to fill a need- if Americans let them

Dallas Morning News ^ | 5/23/2005 | Joshua Benton

[sinkspur]

......When a young man is ordained in Igboland, it is tradition that his village collects money from its residents and buys him a car – an enormous gift in a poor nation. Priests can afford luxuries, like satellite television, that other Nigerians only dream of.

"When you are a priest, you don't lack," seminarian Tony Ezekwu said. "They have a high standard of living. People want that."

The promise of status no doubt attracts some to the priesthood. And some see seminary more as a path to an education than a way to answer a spiritual calling. Their view is summed up in the comment of young Bigard seminarian who said he was willing to be a parish priest when he's ordained in a few months, "but what I really want to be is a professor."

And while many priests come to America because they believe they can do good work, others come for more prosaic reasons. Dean Hoge, a sociology professor at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., estimates that a Nigerian priest's buying power increases fivefold when he lands in America.

"What is their motivation for joining the priesthood?" he asks. "In the best and most noble case, they want to serve Jesus Christ. But maybe they also want to escape the farm. I'm sure both of those are there".................

[Wessex]

"We had a Nigerian priest. He was offended at how he was treated here. He expected to be waited on. He sang very well, knew Latin, disdainful of liberalism. He liked to play with the ladies and drive a nice car."


All I can say is lock up your wives and daughters! Your sons should be safe though .....

[old and tired]

They're coming here to take the confessions that even illegal Mexican priests won't.

The funniest post I've read all week!

[Coleus]

We have one from Nigeria in town, and he's a canon lawyer too.

[Coleus]

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/religion/stories/052305dnrelpriestshortage.d42ffcd7.html

http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/735.html

http://www.wwrn.org/article.php?idd=16973&sec=4&cont=3