Friday, January 4, 2008

Vocations?

Gerald, over at "The Cafeteria is Closed," has a post about the 50% increase in vocations in the Archdiocese of St. Louis. As his title says "All it takes is a good Bishop."

What's the secret? Well, Archbishop Burke wants vocations.

Which brings me to something I've wanted to get off my chest for a while: in my opinion, lots of Catholics, clerical and lay, don't want vocations. We often hear references (never positive) to the "hierarchical church." (Which is strange, coming from Catholics, since there there is no non-hierarchical Church, as far as I can see.)

But if one finds the "hierarchical church" to be objectionable, one can't possibly want vocations to the priesthood, because as soon as one has a priest and a congregation, one has a hierarchy.

Posted by Gibbons
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Father,

I think you're on to something here. The worst are Catholic parents who give lip service to vocations UNLESS it's their son. Maybe it's because families are smaller today, maybe it's a lack of faith, maybe it's the abuse crisis, but whatever it is, parents don't seem to jump for joy when their son says "I want to be a priest."

January 4, 2008 at 3:10 PM
Anonymous said...

I received a letter from the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, a group of priests who have preserved the Tridentine Mass and continue to practice it. Their seminary is full--they have no shortage of vocations. Interesting: Raymond Burke, defender of Catholic orthodoxy, no shortage in vocations. Tridentine priests, defenders of Catholic orthodoxy, no shortage in vocations. I wonder if the same thing can be said of dioceses or orders that water down or outright reject the teachings of the Church? Somehow I doubt their non-Catholic Catholicism generates as much interest or vocations. Their version of Catholicism might fortunately be limited by their inability to propagate it.

January 5, 2008 at 12:04 PM

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