[Hermann the Cherusker]

Imagine that! What Priest shortage crisis? Go Philly!

Interesting to that the Progressive dioceses have always had fewer Priests. Maybe a pre-existing Priest shortage was a CAUSE of their Progressiveism after Vatican II, rather than a result.

[Hermann the Cherusker]

Ping.

We have around 1100 Priests and 282 Parishes in Philadelphia.

[GirlShortstop]

The following 15 dioceses were considered to be in the "progressive" category: Chicago, Illinois; Detroit and Grand Rapids, Michigan; Los Angeles, California; Madison and Milwaukee, Wisconsin; New Ulm, Minnesota; Phoenix, Arizona; Portland, Maine; Rockville Centre, New York; San Bernadino, San Diego and San Francisco, California; Seattle, Washington; and Tucson, Arizona.

Am I imagining things or does it seem that news related to church scandals and dissent (if not outright heresy) has a common denominator of LOCATION with this statement?

Even though I am convinced that the media's mantra is "...if it bleeds it leads", I believe that TRUTH is presenting itself, unbeknownst to the media pawns.  Sweet!

[narses]

Great article, great post, thanks. The "priest shortage" is a manufactured crisis. The goal is to ELIMINATE Holy Orders and destroy the Church. The tools are heterodoxy, what HLI called "progressive". Who is doing this? The Adversary. How? By attacking the Faith. How can we do battle? With the Faith.

"The do-it-yourself Mass is ended. Go in peace" Francis Carindal Arinze of Nigeria
"The do-it-yourself Mass is ended. Go in peace" Francis Carindal Arinze of Nigeria
"The do-it-yourself Mass is ended. Go in peace" Francis Carindal Arinze of Nigeria

[Desdemona]

And the progressive liberals just don't want to hear it.

[B Knotts]

Michael Rose got a lot of grief for pointing this out in Goodbye, Good Men, but he continues to be proven right.

[Salvation]

This is, indeed, good news.

I have been saying that the pendulum of the church has swung way over to the left and is currently hovering a little bit to the right of center on its swing to the right.

This article supports that theory in a round about way.

Anyway, a big bump for orthodoxy and vocations!

Now a question - - - - - Will the liberal fish-wrappers for the liberal dioceses carry this story??

[St.Chuck]

This is an interesting analysis. Thanks for sharing it.

For those of us who live in more "progressive" doiceses, where parishes are being closed and the priest shortage is widely lamented, this report might prove instructive were the bishop to see it.

[dangus]

Anyone know where I can get tallies of how many ordinations take plae in a diocese in a year?

[american colleen]

Hi Herman.

Articles like this intrigue me and I have cited them numerous times on FR. A discussion ensued regarding this subject on one of the blogspots last year (Mark Shea or Amy Welborn... I forget which). Anyway, there was much debate (few facts, mostly personal opinions) from the commenters until a priest (generally known as being orthodox) posted his opinion on orthodox vs. progressive ordinations and the number of seminarians in both.

He said that people widely cite Bruskewicz' diocese as one with many seminarians because it is very orthodox BUT it is because seminarians leave their own diocese to escape the progressive seminaries and attend in Lincoln or Omaha --- in other words, those men are not really from Lincoln or Omaha and so vocations are not any higher there than they are in the progressive dioceses.

I hope I explained that correctly.

He also said that the number of seminarians shouldn't be a factor because so many drop out - you should look at the number of men who are actually ordained and then see where they originated from. So... his thesis is basically that men are called from all over the place but tend (at the moment) to go to seminary in the more orthodox dioceses.

Boy, I wish I could write better!

[Rum Tum Tugger]

It seems to me that there is a flaw in this analysis.

The progressive Dioceses are almost all, if not all, located in areas that are socially and politically liberal. The orthodox Diocese are almost all, if not all, located in areas that are socially and politically conservative.

For this study's conclusions to be valid, one would need to include in the study (a) progressive Dioceses located in socially and politically conservative areas and (b) orthodox Dioceses located in socially and politically liberal areas.

If such additional Dioceses cannot be found, the conclusion that might be drawn from this study would be that ordinations are greater in socially and politically conservative areas, which is a "the sky is blue" kind of conclusion. In other words, it's not a meaningful discovery.

The ultimate conclusion that one might want to draw from this study is that if progessive Dioceses were to become orthodox, ordinations in those Dioceses would increase.

However, I don't think that such an ultimate conclusion could be drawn from this study. Given the data sampled, it might well be that even if the currently progressive Dioceses were to become orthodox, ordinations in those Dioceses would not rise to the levels of ordinations in orthodox Dioceses that are located in conservative areas because the social and political climate of an area is the most predominate factor.

Therefore, I don't think this study has much validity when it comes to drawing the kind of conclusion that folks here would like to draw (i.e., bringing orthodoxy to liberal Catholic Dioceses would attract more Priests).

As I implied above, the most valid conclusion that this study might yield is that whether a Diocese is progressive or orthodox depends on whether the area in which the Diocese is located is socially and politically progressive or orthodox. But anyone with a lick of common sense surely knew that.

[Loyalist]

Vocations PING

[Salvation]

Priests Down, Seminarians Up

Seminary Springtime: Father Darrin Connall s Big Success

In Seminaries, New Ways for a New Generation

[VermiciousKnid]

What a shocker! My diocese (Rockville Centre) is on the progressive list.

They are constantly squawking about not having enough seminarians. I wonder why.

Regards,

[Thorondir]

This means more trads and less modernists.

THANK GOD!

[old and tired]

**Imagine that! What Priest shortage crisis? Go Philly! **

We have been blessed with transitional deacons in our parish for the last three years. Each one has been absolutely wonderful.

I think these men coming in their 30's and 40's really are confident of their vocations - they've had relationships with women and realize they are not being called to the married life. The last one often spoke from the altar on the importance of prayer in our lives and avoiding the near occasion of sin. The last two have volunteered to hand out pro-life materials and voters' guides after mass with our pro-life group. We'll see about this latest one -there hasn't been an opportunity yet, but he hasn't missed a single meeting!

I pray that Rigali does not let sodomites into our wonderful seminary. He has refused to go on record one way or the other.

[ThomasMore]

I've told you before, Hermann, but for the sake of others...

I come from a small but very orthodox parish. Fruits of labors that began in 1990 are abundant. We have ordained six men, five to the priesthood and one to the permanent diaconate (over the past six years) with two more to be ordained to the priesthood in the next three years. If every parish was doing this there would be absolutely no shortage of clergy in the Church. There are many vocations to Holy Orders but we are not cultivating the fields for harvest. BTW, all these clergy I mentioned are very orthodox and faithful to Mother Church.