Congratulations to Alex who was ordained deacon, one of seven ordinations. Alex has been to Mass here on a few occasions, he has/had a family connection with Brighton, his splendid mum goes to Mass in New Brighton at the Dome of Home, congratulations to her too.
He is one of 12 deacons ordained for the FSSP in Denton USA, all twelve should be ordained priest next year. I can't but help making a comparison with the diocese of Buenos Aires where with a Catholic population of almost 3 million only 3 priests will be ordained this year.
If vocations to the priesthood are a sign of 'good fruit' in the Church, there are inevitable questions we cannot avoid asking:
Where is the Church healthy?
Where is the Church producing fruit?
Where is the Church attracting the young?
Where is the Church making disciples?
Where is the Church undergoing true renewal?
Where has the Church a future?
What is the Church's future?
more pictures here
13 comments:
Fr.Tradition-tradition-tradition-of course!!
I understand that the FSSP will be ordaining even more deacons next year - possibly as many as 23. So there is even better news to come. Also, there are Englishmen in every year in their seminaries, so we should reap some of the harvest.
I think that the future of the Catholic Church is bleak. Grandma and grandpa who would have received authentic Catholic catechesis are on the way out, mum and dad who were not properly instructed in the Faith, parents trusting that the Catholic schools would teach and give example of orthodox Catholicism so they had little or nothing to pass on to their children whose Catholic Schools were Catholic in name only and turned out more anti Catholic adolescents. The culture supported these adolescents and over all the bishops presided; not lifting a finger to halt the rot. The Augean stables needed cleaning a long time ago and I fear that it is too late for the Faith of our Fathers. The Church will become a remnant of a few elderly because the young and their parents just don't care - the Evangelical praise and worship services welcome them with open arms. In time all that will be left of the Church will be in the history books and in Anti-Catholic literature. Yes I know that the gates of hell will never prevail and I would love this to be true. The last straw for me has been the never ending story of men who confect the Eucharist using those same hands to molest children and young adolescents, bishops who have let the wolves ravage the flock etc etc
To the first five questions, one answer: "Not here"
The history of the Church has shown that Christ alone builds and he only builds on rock, Peter's faith. He alone determines the Church's, and subsequently every bishop's and priest's fruitfulness. As for the future: well, Christ is the future, and where He is, that is where his Bride will be.
THE
BULL-DOGS
No hysterics
For the clerics
Laying
Lives for you
And lead the way
At Mass each day
Like bull-dogs
Proud the few
Of course there’s
Other soldiers
With orders
Valid too
But at the gate
To separate
St. Pie
Stands first in view
And yes today
Nice people say,
“The battle’s lost
Just try.”
But I and mine
Informed aligned…
St. Pie is
Semper-Fi!
New Seminary
http://tinyurl.com/j44kgwe
At least here in the states, traditionally-inclined dioceses do well, but so do ones with a certain charismatic bent. The Diocese of Steubenville in Ohio, home of the charismatic-heavy Franciscan University of Steubenville, turns out huge numbers of converts on a regular basis.
The key theme seems to be that churches do well when they take Catholicism-qua-Catholicism SERIOUSLY -- something traditionalists and the aforementioned certain-charismatics (not all charismatics) do.
The Church is healthy and has a future wherever it holds fast to and proclaims the Gospel.
The Church today is manifestly two Churches masquerading as one. For simplicity we could describe these two as the Church which affirms continuity and the church which takes a positive delight in affirming rupture. The Francis effect has for me rendered my soul sorrowful even unto death. The faith I have embraced with joy and delight all of my life is being dismantled and binned on a daily basis. Faithful to and guided by the Magisterium, binned. Veritatis Splendor ,natural moral law, binned. Indissolubility of marriage, binned. Perennial teaching on nature and meaning of human sexuality, binned. Proclaiming the Gospel to the whole world, binned. The words of Jesus used to perform a coup on the Incarnate Word - Be merciful cancels out Sin no more.Etc.etc. An inversion of truth and reality by the rupturers. Hermeneutic of rupture is just a shameless excuse to hide the fact that its proponents cannot ground their agenda in the Tradition. Bins exist not to be filled with precious jewels but rather with rubbish. I believe that a formal schism is the only solution.
Welsh, too, I believe!
@Long-Skirts
Keep it up please. Such condensed wisdom. Seriously!
Trouble is I can't resist trying to sing. Now Old MacDonald fits quite well? Auf Wiedersehen?
Its because I was brought up on Gregorian chant as long back as I remember.
Long Skirts, Your poetry is brilliant, and I did try it using Old MacDonald and it worked. So did Auf Wiedersehen, although I wasn't certain I had the right tune in mind.
I think some of the comments here are too pessimistic. There are good Bishops out there. On the other hand it is not that some Bishops never lift a finger but some Bishops who actively do the devil's work. I could name a few who fall into one or other category but I will not. I think one of the effects of the present papacy is that it is becoming very clear as to who amongst the Bishops, the clergy and the laity fall into either category. The fight is ongoing but the battle plan is becoming much clearer.
In 2017, the FSSP is on track to ordain 24 men to the priesthood between their Denton and Wigratzbad seminaries.
The FSSP celebrates Mass at 219 locations worldwide, according to their website. They do not publish numbers of laypeople in these parishes/communities, but it's hard to think that the Fraternity has much over 100,000 worldwide. Let's be generous and say it's 200,000.
Now compare that to Buenos Aires with its three ordinations and 3 million Catholics. Do the math.
P.S. As late as the mid-90's, Buenos Aires was ordaining something like 40-50 men per year. I can't speak to the quality of those ordinands, but whatever it was or is, there's been a severe dropoff in numbers.
Post a Comment