the priest shortage

 

When I was in grade school, we often prayed for “vocations” because the Catholic church wanted more priests and nuns in its fold.

 

Over 80 million people today identify themselves as Catholics in the United States, an increase of over 30 million since 1965.

With more Catholics, there could be an assumption that the United States is overflowing with men trying to become priests.

But that is far from the truth. Instead, the number of Catholic priests in the United States has seen a drastic decline since 1965, from nearly 60,000 to 37,500 in 2015.

Not all of those early priests chose their occupation willingly. The junior pastor at St. Pascal Baylon Church was Father James Remes, whose father insisted that he become a priest. The stress of his daily responsibilities eventually drove him into alcoholism, and eventually led to Alcoholics Anonymous. When he died in 2011, his obituary (see below) mentioned that he was a good friend of Bill W. for 24 years. “Bill W” was one of the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous.

After his father passed away, Father Remes resigned from the priesthood in May of 1995. Later that year, he met Mary, and they were married in December of 1995.

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/twincities/name/james-remes-obituary?pid=154001061

After I graduated from college, I spent the summer of 1969 living in a two- bedroom apartment near St. Thomas college. All four of my roommates (Rick Simmer, John Huls, Ray Hess, and Jim Trutwin had attended the St. Paul Seminary, but Jim Trutwin was the only one who was ordained as a priest. Ray Hess got as far as being a deacon before he dropped out

After his ordination, Jim was assigned to two different congregations in northern Minnesota. At both parishes, the priest was old and conservative, which frustrated Jim. At the second parish, he met Mary, who had tried to join the convent, but was turned down. Distraught, she went to her priest (Jim) for counseling. It did not take long for Jim and Mary to fall in love, so he resigned from the priesthood and married Mary.

While he decided what to do next, he moved to the Twin Cities, and briefly lived with my parents on Third Street. While living there, he helped my dad pick out hisnew car in 1978, which turned out to be a gorgeous Cutlass Supreme, which was the last car that my dad ever owned.

Jim still felt a calling to minister to people, and eventually decided to become a Lutheran minister. He was initially assigned to a parish someplace in Missouri, but eventually talked his superiors into assigning him to a parish in the Ozarks. He spent a number of years at Kent Memorial Church, and we visited him and his family in 1985, on our way to visit our old neighbors in St. Louis. Jim served at Kent Memorial for many years, and eventually was transferred to a parish in Illinois.

The cure to the shortage of priests is obvious, but won’t happened anytime soon.

Up until about the 4^th century, women served as priests in the Catholic Church, but after that, only men could be priests (unless you count Pope Joan in the 9^th century).

Believe it or not, there ARE female priests today, and the link below goes into more details. One of our friends from A.C.C., Connie Walsh, started to prepare to be a priest. However, the administrative duties of the priesthood did not appeal to her, so she became a deacon instead.

https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=connie%20walsh

 https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2021/02/pink-smoke-over-vatican.html

 

Even though Pope Francis is more liberal than his immediate predecessor, he still does want women to be priests. However, in January of this year, he released relaxed guidelines, which allowed women to have a larger role in the Eucharist celebration.

The change comes as Francis remains under pressure to allow women to be deacons — ministers who perform many of the same functions as priests, such as presiding at weddings, baptisms and funerals. Currently, the ministry is reserved for men even though historians say the ministry was performed by women in the early church.

Francis has created a second commission of experts to study whether women could be deacons, after a first one reported on the history of women deacons in the early church.

Advocates for expanding the diaconate to include women say doing so would give women greater say in the ministry and governance of the church, while also helping address priest shortages in several parts of the world.

Opponents say allowing it would become a slippery slope toward ordaining women to the priesthood.

Phyllis Zagano, who was a member of the pope’s first study commission, called the changes important given they represent the first time the Vatican has explicitly and through canon law allowed women access to the altar. She said it was a necessary first step before any official consideration of the diaconate for women.

https://apnews.com/article/pope-francis-women-still-cant-be-priest-3bdcad94325be16ee2993f61eb17c5a0#:~:text=ROME%20%28AP%29%20%E2%80%94%20Pope%20Francis%20changed%20church%20law,continuing%20to%20affirm%20that%20they%20cannot%20be%20priests.

 

I frequently read The National Catholic Reporter, not because it is a Catholic publication, but because it published excellent commentary on a variety of subjects. The topic yesterday was the ordination of women, which you can read at the link below.

 

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/love-letter-unanswered-questions-about-womens-ordination

Even though folks who not go to church on a regular basis (like me) recognize that there is a need for mainstream churches in our society, while also recognizing that ultra-conservative followers, like the evangelicals, are a dangerous bunch of people.

Can I hear an “amen” brothers and  sisters?