Another article slamming the Church

[LatinGuy]

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune has put up yet another ridiculous article attacking the Catholic Church.

http://www.startribune.com/opinion/commentary/109018109.html?page=1&c=y

I love how these modernists think that the measure of the Church's success is the number of people that show up every Sunday.  They also ignore that the vast majority of parishes are de facto doing everything that liberals such as the writer of the article want them to do.  How many Catholic Churches even talk about Hell and Judgment anyway?  I could almost guarantee that the ones that do aren't the ones in danger of closing.  She gets it exactly backwards: "dictatorial" and "Dogmatic" faiths are the ONLY ones doing well these days.  If people in my generation (I'm 28) are going to bother with religion at all, they will go to a church that offers substance.  If they don't want that substance, they'll stay home and watch football.  Only aging baby boomers are interested in "Catholicism lite."

[ardens]

Can you imagine an article like this telling the Orthodox Jews or hardcore Muslims that they, in effect, need to water down their religion?  :laughing:

[salus]

Be encouraged by this, the Devil and his dupes(knowingly or unknowingly) only attack the TRUE RELIGION, and the TRUE RELIGION must be stating one of their TRUTHS to annoy them. Remember when the church is attacked two things happen, it gets stronger and the TRUTH gets out to those who don't read religious stuff but this is on their internet news or newspaper.

[Unum Sint]

Be encouraged by this, the Devil and his dupes(knowingly or unknowingly) only attack the TRUE RELIGION, and the TRUE RELIGION must be stating one of their TRUTHS to annoy them. Remember when the church is attacked two things happen, it gets stronger and the TRUTH gets out to those who don't read religious stuff but this is on their internet news or newspaper.

Indeed be glad for they prosecute us for His sake.

[Cetil]

The usual media stuff with the usual rant about the declining number of vocations. The fact is the more traditional dioceses such as Arlington Virginia do not lack for vocations. Arlington as a rule has two and sometimes even three priests per parish.
And there are now almost twice as many seminarians world wide as there were when John Paul II became Pope.
These folks need to take a hard look at the Episcopal church. It has sold out to the demands of modern secularism in every way, ordaining women, tolerating homosexuality, etc. and where has it gotten them? The Episcopal church continues its decline in every statistical category.
"Average Sunday Attendance" in the Episcopal church continues to plummet despite its efforts to be competely subservient to the zeitgeist.
http://kendallharmon.net/t19/media/epis_..._notes.pdf

C.

[Augstine Baker]

fuggetaboutit, from what I've heard, Arlington doesn't have altar girls either... go figure.  I think this vocations "crisis" is manufactured.

[3Sanctus]

The fact is the more traditional dioceses such as Arlington Virginia do not lack for vocations. Arlington as a rule has two and sometimes even three priests per parish.
And there are now almost twice as many seminarians world wide as there were when John Paul II became Pope.

Do the parishes of the Diocese of Arlington really have multiple priests per parish?

I'd love to see numbers that show there are nearly twice as many seminarians now as when John Paul II began his reign, especially given the general plummeting of seminarians and priests over his reign.  Would love to be able to share those statistics with friends, to encourage my traditionally-minded friends and to rebuke the Modernists.

[Cetil]

The fact is the more traditional dioceses such as Arlington Virginia do not lack for vocations. Arlington as a rule has two and sometimes even three priests per parish.
And there are now almost twice as many seminarians world wide as there were when John Paul II became Pope.

Do the parishes of the Diocese of Arlington really have multiple priests per parish?

I'd love to see numbers that show there are nearly twice as many seminarians now as when John Paul II began his reign, especially given the general plummeting of seminarians and priests over his reign.  Would love to be able to share those statistics with friends, to encourage my traditionally-minded friends and to rebuke the Modernists.

As for Arlington do the math: 68 parishes and 6 missions served by a total of  250 priests. 37 seminarians now training. Any diocese in the USA would be thrilled with those numbers.
Worldwide the vocations picture is especially bright in the third world. African bishops wonder what to do with all the seminarians they have.
You can bet some of them will be coming to Europe and the USA. Some already are. I've met a couple of African priests here who are here because they are "surplus" back home. The problem is that in Europe and the USA the vocations picture is not good.
http://www.siena.org/February-2010/1970-...hurch.html
Overall stats for seminarians worldwide:
"The Church worldwide has been blessed since 1978 with a surge in the number of seminarians. According to data published in L’Osservatore Romano and the Vatican’s statistical yearbook (the Secretariat of State’s Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae), there were 63,882 diocesan and religious major seminarians when John Paul II began his pontificate in 1978; by the end of 2005, that number had grown to 114,439—a remarkable increase of 79.1 percent."
Currently, there are about 119,00 seminarians worldwide so the numbers continue to grow. If the USA and Europe had more good seminaries there would be no shortage.

http://insightscoop.typepad.com/2004/200...or-th.html



C.

[Unum Sint]

The fact is the more traditional dioceses such as Arlington Virginia do not lack for vocations. Arlington as a rule has two and sometimes even three priests per parish.
And there are now almost twice as many seminarians world wide as there were when John Paul II became Pope.

Do the parishes of the Diocese of Arlington really have multiple priests per parish?

I'd love to see numbers that show there are nearly twice as many seminarians now as when John Paul II began his reign, especially given the general plummeting of seminarians and priests over his reign.  Would love to be able to share those statistics with friends, to encourage my traditionally-minded friends and to rebuke the Modernists.

As for Arlington do the math: 68 parishes and 6 missions served by a total of  250 priests. 37 seminarians now training. Any diocese in the USA would be thrilled with those numbers.
Worldwide the vocations picture is especially bright in the third world. African bishops wonder what to do with all the seminarians they have.
You can bet some of them will be coming to Europe and the USA. Some already are. I've met a couple of African priests here who are here because they are "surplus" back home. The problem is that in Europe and the USA the vocations picture is not good.
http://www.siena.org/February-2010/1970-...hurch.html
Overall stats for seminarians worldwide:
"The Church worldwide has been blessed since 1978 with a surge in the number of seminarians. According to data published in L’Osservatore Romano and the Vatican’s statistical yearbook (the Secretariat of State’s Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae), there were 63,882 diocesan and religious major seminarians when John Paul II began his pontificate in 1978; by the end of 2005, that number had grown to 114,439—a remarkable increase of 79.1 percent."
Currently, there are about 119,00 seminarians worldwide so the numbers continue to grow. If the USA and Europe had more good seminaries there would be no shortage.

http://insightscoop.typepad.com/2004/200...or-th.html



C.

Actually I have read that there has been a recent up tick in seminarians at least here in the US. Specially at the more traditional seminaries.