(Note: I received the following e-mail thru "Priest-L" and asked Fr Dean's permission to reproduce it on my home page.)
From: "Fr. James N. Dean" Subject: Re: US News article on Married Priests
To: Multiple recipients of list PRIEST-L
Cry, cry again... Isn't this getting a little old?!? Did this add
anything to the previous discussion? Whining will get you nowhere...
Why are vocations flourishing in dioceses like Arlington (VA), Lincoln
(NEB), and Peoria (ILL)? The vocation director for Arlington said that
their problem is that they don't have enough beds for all the priests
that they are ordaining (about 23 in the past 2 years). Why are
vocations up dramatically worldwide over the past 20 years and still on
decline overall in the U.S.?
What do Arlington, Lincoln and Peoria have in common? They are all
faithful to the Holy Father and the teachings of the Church. Even my own
archdiocese has gained about a half dozen vocations over the past 10
years (with more on the way) because of the faithfulness of our young
clergy (and the lack of it in their native dioceses). In each of these
cases they were driven from their dioceses because they were faithful to
the Magesterium. So the heterodox dioceses cry for women priestesses and
married priests because they have fulfilled their own prophecies that
there are no vocations.
It is the same reason why many religious orders are dying and others are
not only surviving but thriving (i.e., the Nashville Dominicans - where I
have two personal friends, one who was a student here in college before she
went into the convent). They reject the authority of the pope, they toss
their habits, they live lives like sorority sisters (sometimes with very
little community life, if any) and they go the way of all flesh.
The Maryknoll seminary in NY was celebrating Mass every other day (to
physically experience the void from the Church not offering ordination to
one half of the Catholic population) when they CLOSED. Another seminary,
where I had friends attending and a priest friend teaching CLOSED just
afterwards. All the while the seminary (theologate) I was attending (St.
Charles in Philly) grew from 89 (when I started in 1987) to 160 by
1993. Go figure... any rocket scientists out there? Why did this
happen? One heterodox sister implied that it was just lucky.
As for re-instituting the laiticized (sp?) married priests... I have met
a few of them and they were almost all dissenters. Just what we don't
need is more dissent in the presbytery.
And there will be well enough orthodox Roman Catholic priests to minister to
the faithful Roman Catholics after the US schism occurs when the Call To
Action crowd finally realize that they are NEVER going to get their way and
realize that they have left the Roman Catholic Church many years ago and
finally go their own way - the way of all the other Protest-ants.
God bless you all and Oremus Pro Invicem,
Fr. James Dean
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