The following comes from an April 8 Inland Catholic Byte story:
Only one other time in its history has the Diocese of San Bernardino ordained as many priests as it will next month when Jose Antonio Orozco, Ken Vu, Carlos Martinez, Dominic Vu (no relation), Hau Vu (no relation) and Tomas Guillen take their vows.
Bishop Gerald Barnes will ordain the six men at St. Paul the Apostle Church in Chino Hills on May 21. The last and only other seminarian class that large came in 2008.
Welcoming six to the ranks of Diocesan priests will help to address the significant need for priests in the nation’s sixth largest diocese.
The Diocese currently has a ratio of 1 priest per 6,117 Catholic parishioners, believed to be one of the smallest nationally. The Diocese has been able to meet the spiritual and sacramental needs of its people in part through the increased presence of religious order priests here.
In fact, today there are more religious priests in ministry in the Diocese than there are diocesan priests.
The positive trend in ordinations continues next year, as five more seminarians are expected to take their vows. While this is joyful and helpful, it will leave the pipeline of seminarians less than full, notes Sister Sarah Shrewsbury, O.S.C., Director of Vocations for the Diocese. With 11 seminarians moving on to the presbyterate this year and next, that could leave less than 30 men in priestly formation, a sizeable drop from the high of 43 in 2011, and well below the goal of 50 set by the Vocations Office of the Diocese.
While parishes in the Diocese have done a great job over the past decade plus in promoting vocations to the priesthood, they must now go from “assertive to aggressive” in helping to identify and encourage those men who are being called by God to become a priest, said Sr. Shrewsbury.
“It’s a critical time,” she said. “We need to keep filling the pipeline and every parish needs to help.”
So there are 1.6 million Catholics in this diocese. Assuming no priests retire (unrealistic), the ratio would drop to one priest per about every 6,000 Catholics with these ordinations. There’s a two year slightly positive blip (but a drop in the bucket overall) followed by declining vocations as far as the eye can see? Maybe someone else should be in charge of vocations.
The next time you hear someone touting “Vocation boom! Vocation boom!” ask them for some hard numbers.
Pray for vocations.
Dave .. Your right. My pastor reviews the same math all the time. It’s probably simmilar in most dioceses. I doubt changing vocations directors will correct the problem but I don’t have an answer beyond praying which our parish does every week (for brotherhood, sisterhood and married life vocations too.) If I did have the answer, they’d probably make me a bishop..if we let girls be bishops. :-)
YES..pay for vocations!
This record, does it cover the dioceses time before Vatican II as well?
prior to the mid sixties, san bernardino was part of the diocese of San Diego. So records likely impossible to separate.
Yes, it was started as a new diocese in July of 1978.
So, how many were home-grown vocations? That’s the real story.
In my diocese in S. Arizona many of the new priests are from the Philippines, India, Nigeria, Ghana and Mexico. They are recruited from these countries to make up for the shortfall of home grown vocations. Lots of the priests of Irish descent are now retired. Are other dioceses seeing the same trend?
I hope and pray these six seminarians are true disciples of our Lord, that is to say, no gays or liberals. Time will tell.
Marlene …What possible objection could you have to a gay man who keeps his vow of celibacy being ordained? I’d be really interested to know your thinking.
The objection C&H is that gay men are incapable of being celibate. The thinking is clear, gays are abnormal and have deviant sexual desires (see documentary the Gift) and have ZERO business being the priesthood and are the root causes of sexual scandals in the Church.
And prior to the Second Vatican Council this is not much of a story, the seminaries and convents were packed. I suggest you focus on the seminaries of the F.S.S.P. – S.S.P.X. and Institute of Christ the King, they all are full and have WAITING lists of YOUNG MEN to get in, now that is a story my friends!!!
Janek, your point is well taken. The FSSP has about 75 seminarians in the U.S.. The SSPX had 46 new seminarians last year world wide. There are 3,650 seminarians in the U.S. compared to 8,325 in 1965. The total number of Priest in the U.S. is down 20, 000 since 1965. We have hundreds of parishes without a Priest to lead them. What is the root cause of this decline? I think it is more complex that to just lay all the blame on VII, but I don’t know the answer. Membership in main line Protestant denominations are down significantly as well. Maybe culture is winning!
The Culture won Bob One because the men in the Church who were in charge of help protecting the Church from the culture joined the culture. These evil men need to be rooted out, Vatican 2 is a major source of the problem but the complete one.
Bob One, the SSPX has almost 600 priests worldwide and has been encouraged by the Pope to start a seminary in Rome according to some sources. It will be truly ironic if this liberal Pope regularizes the SSPX.
According to some sources? Name them.
Anon I know this will hurt, because the Truth usually does for leftists like you
https://www.rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2016/04/pope-to-extend-validity-of-confessions.html#more
BTW the Anon I have my own sources with strong connections to Rome and the FSSP which believe regularization could happen by years end… this will hopefully seal the big mouths of the leftist on this site (like you, YFC and C&H) If it does I hope SSPX causes the liberals to leave en masse where we can then take the whole thing over.
Anon you just were proven wrong….I don’t lie…
Excellent discussion. The institutional Church is pretty much over. A few priests here and there do little to stem their suicide since implementation of Vatican II. Traditional Orders and societies, especially FSSP and SSPX, by contrast, are experiencing an enormous growth pattern. Look at the construction of the historic seminary (SSPX) in rural Virginia; it will house many, many seminarians beginning (with God’s grace) this year. The Pope is cagey, you must give him that. He wants to reestablish formal ties with the SSPX, which will suggest institutional growth and desirability to masculine young men who want to be priests and practice the True Faith.
Even if ALL the current SSPX seminarians were located in the Diocese of San Bernardino, they would still have only a minor impact compared to the need for priests.
The source of LGBT is the devil. An LGBT life style is intrinsically evil, totally against God’s design of procreation. God created man and woman to procreate in a family environment, a family environment modeled after the Holy Family although Blessed Mother and Saint Joseph remained chaste. Blessed Mother never committed one sin, not one sin. She is and always been pure of heart, body, mind and soul.
Seminarians that follow the devil choosing to be offensive to God sympathizing for or in an LGBT life style have no calling and no business to become priests.
Bob One, Your pre-Vatican II seminarian numbers seem to be on the low side and post-Vatican II seminarian numbers seem to be on the high side. I’d suggest checking Georgetown University’s library where they keep statistics. Although Georgetown University is on the liberal side and you wouldn’t might otherwise know they are supposedly a catholic university, their statistics seem to be honest and accurate, maybe wayward conclusions manyt times, but their statistics seem to be honest and accurate.
Doug, I have this bookmarked on my computer: https://cara.georgetown.edu/frequently-requested-church-statistics/
Listen to this, Anomynous who spouts off all kinds of rhetoric misleading the readers of this website regarding the true Roman Catholic faith and generally pushing for LGBT sinful life style acceptance, is asking Canisus for credible references. It is a good point, although I trust Canisus conservative position. Maybe Anonymous the LGBTr is beginning to figure some things out, i.e. don’t trust everything a modern person claims? Maybe he’ll figure out his life style is not going to get him to heaven if he continues to persist with it, doesn’t ask for forgiveness from a catholic priest, and doesn’t amend his life!
C&H,
How could one even look up to or consider credible a man who has taken a vow to follow God when his behavior is outwardly and blatantly defiant to God? Would you trust a policeman who is a know active criminal? Would you trust a doctor to save your life when you know he assists in killing patients? Where is your common-sense girl? There is a reason for some People who are lacking common-sense, that is they have lost sanctifying grace, and are now deprived of it.
‘So, how many were home-grown vocations? That’s the real story.’ NO, is NOT!!
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The church is UNIVERSAL so it that’s NOT matter where the seminarians are from. For CENTURIES, WHITE, ANGLO SAXON have come to America and Africa to Evangelize and we have welcome and ACCEPTED them with open arms.
I ask?
Why is difficult to accept the blacks, hispanics priest by white people?
Only a racialist like you think that Tony….because you have the mentality of victim hood …and actually you are wrong the majority of Catholic clergy that went to Africa and South America were NOT Anglo Saxons? Why because at the time of the Spanish Conquest, Anglo-Saxon England was protestant church of England. Most of the clerics who evangelized South America were from Kingdom of Spain and were of Mediterranean lineage. As for Africa the majority of missionaries were clearly of Irish stock (Celtic). So get your facts straight before playing the race card (again)
I say to the S.S.P.X. take the offer and go for it!! Spread the TLM to all corners of the earth open a seminary in Rome, and just let Holy Ghost do the rest!!
Tony de New York, Are you one of those racist agitators that Obama and company infiltrate amongst the general population to stir up trouble an incite violence? Sounds that way to me. A lot of people see him that way. Fortunately things appear to have toned down lately, at least from our non-credible national news sources.
On of my best friends is 80 years old, an American citizen immigrated from Trinidad in the Caribean decades ago following old immigration laws set up for our citizens own protection. He’s a Catholic priest first and foremost who says the Trident Latin Mass. He’s a patriotic American citizen second, if I may say so. His heart is what is most beautiful to me, another Christ, and his color is only an after-thought,…
‘Only a racialist like you think that Tony’ ‘Tony de New York, Are you one of those racist agitators’ PURE NON SENSE! === Is HARD for some people deal with the fact that most of CATHOLICS in the UNITES STATES are HISPANICS and other minorities.
Actually the majority of Catholics descend from Irish and other European lineage, I know being “white” is near criminal these days but those are the facts…
I thought this thread was about new ordinations, not racial issues. Perhaps the editors should consider not posting comments that don’t relate to the headline story? Just saying …
The global priest shortage was in its nascent stages already during the Second Vatican Council. That’s why Viri Probati were brought up at the Council and the Latin Rite permanent diaconate opened up to married men.
http://www.marriedpriests.com