No Room at American Rome Seminary

Fr Tim links to a blog called the Deacon's Bench, which reports that North American College has the highest number of seminarians that it has had in the last forty years. Many bishops like to have students in Rome but I am told this rise in numbers is reflected in many other US dioceses, I must say I am surprised, I would have thought the American sex abuse scandals would still have had a negative effect.

Maybe this rise is linked to Pope Benedict's visit in April but again I would have thought most vocations directors would have wanted more contact with a young man than a few months, though they do things faster in USA than here. I think that the cause is American bishops take vocations seriously, they actually ask men if they have considered being a priesthood.

I have shown many American vocations videos and posters, they seem to encourage devotions and piety. I put up one beautiful New York diocesan video showing a Blessed Sacrament procession, with seminarians in clerical dress, and more recently of a boy about eight playing at Mass. I have even had some correspondence with young men in American Colleges considering. American bishops are teaching bishops, the newer generation are teaching from the Catechism. I can't help also thinking that in the US there is a greater variety of diocese, if you find your own "intolerably liberal", as one of my correspondents did, well there are always other bishops or diocese, prospective seminarians are willing to move.

Reading between the lines, I wonder whether one of the causes is the unpopularity of the Iraq war/invasion, it has tended to suggest that young men are capable of making life and death choices about their future, and that the priesthood is manly. The Theology of the Body, teaching on abortion and openness to life have a direct impact on the young, they are young people's issues.

I suspect too that many American Bishops take the morale of their clergy seriously, priests who are convinced of the supreme value of their sacramental ministry, tend to value and seek out vocations. In the UK too many priests tend to think they are going to be the last priest in their parish!

Angelus on Contemplatives

Vatican City (AsiaNews) – The day for those who pray, which is celebrated on 21 November, the commemoration of the Presentation of Mary in the Temple, is traditionally dedicated to remembering cloistered religious communities. The value of this day and of cloistered life itself were at the heart of the reflection of Benedict XVI before today’s Angelus, delivered to tens of thousands of faithful gathered in St Peter’s square.
This day is an “opportunity, as timely as ever, to thank the Lord for the gift of so many people who, in monasteries and hermitages, dedicate themselves totally to God in prayer, silence and seclusion.” The pontiff appealed that “our spiritual and even material support” to such cloistered communities, male and female, will not fall short, “so that they may fulfill their mission of keeping alive in the Church the ardent expectation of the return of Christ.”
The pope said that in our time, “there are not a few people who leave their professional, often promising careers, often to the surprise of friends and acquaintances, to embrace the austere, regulated life of a cloistered monastery.”
Benedict XVI cited many objections that abound in society about such vocations: “Some ask what meaning and value their presence could have in our time, when there are numerous and urgent situations of poverty that need to be tackled.” Why “close yourself” forever within the walls of a monastery and thus deprive others of the contribution of your capabilities and experience? What effectiveness could your prayers have for the solution of so many problems that continue to afflict humanity?”
The pope showed that behind apparent futility, there lay a great, effective witness for believers and non believers. Above all, people who embrace the cloistered life have understood that the “Kingdom of the heavens is a ‘treasure’ which it is well worth giving up everything for (cfr Mt 13:44)? In effect, these brothers and sisters of ours testify silently that in the midst of daily life, at times rather tortuous, the only support that never vacillates is God, the unshakeable rock of faithfulness and of love. “Todo se pasa, Dios no se muda”, wrote the great spiritual teacher, St Teresa d’Avila, in a renowned text.”
In the second place, cloistered monasteries “apparently futile, are really indispensable, like the green ‘lungs’ of a city: they do good to all, even those who do not visit them and who perhaps ignore their existence.” And this is why there is the “widespread need” to “leave the daily routine of large urban cities in search of propitious places of silence and meditation, of monasteries of contemplative life that are like an ‘oasis’ in which man, pilgrim on earth, can better draw from the source of the Spirit and quench himself along the way.”
The pope concluded his reflection by reiterating “thanks to the Lord, who is his providence, brought about cloistered communities, male and female”, asking for them and for all, “the intercession of Mary who, in commemorating her Presentation in the Temple, we will contemplate as Mother and model of the Church, who unites in her both vocations: to virginity and to matrimony, to contemplative as well as to active life.”

A Vocations video for the "Nashville Dominicans"

Wouldn't you want to join these sister? Maybe not if you were a chap. Is there something about veils and habits and thriving?

h/t to Me Monk, Me Meander

See their website