‘Tis the season for ordinations

17_05_05_ordination_card_01This is ordination season in many places.  I’ve been getting news about priestly ordinations and some of it is good. While my impression is that diocesan vocations are down in the last few years, some places there is growth.

In Wichita, Kansas [HERE] we read that 10 men were ordained to the priesthood, a remarkable number today for that diocese.

And since today is Memorial Day, let us not forget that Servant of God Fr. Emil Kapaun is from that diocese.

Today at the site of the UK’s best Catholic weekly we read good news for the Anglican Ordinariate. Speaking of 10 men:

Cardinal Pell to ordain 10 transitional deacons for the ordinariate

The 10 men are expected to be ordained as priests next year

Cardinal George Pell is to ordain 10 men as deacons for the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham next month.

The group includes two men who are in their fifth year of studies for the priesthood and are on course to become the first clergy who have undertaken their entire formation within the ordinariate.

The other eight men are former Anglican priests who have taken a specially designed two-year course.

It is likely the 10 candidates will be ordained to the priesthood next year. They will join 80 clergy serving 50 ordinariate groups in England, Wales and Scotland.

The ordination Mass will take place on Saturday June 17 at St James, Spanish Place. The Mass will be celebrated according to the ordinariate’s distinctive liturgy, Divine Worship. Cardinal Pell, former Archbishop of Sydney and prefect of the Secretariat of the Economy, will be the ordaining bishop and will be assisted by Mgr Keith Newton, the ordinary of Britain’s ordinariate.

The Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham was formally established in 2011. It followed Anglicanorum coetibus, an apostolic constitution issued by Benedict XVI two years earlier, which allowed Anglicans to become Catholics while still retaining some elements of Anglican patrimony.

The Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter was later established in North America and the Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross followed suit in Australia and Japan.

What is interesting to track is how many of the ordinands are from the diocese for which they are being ordained. For example, the Diocese of Paterson also ordained 10 men this year, 8 of whom are from Poland and 2 from Columbia!

At the parish where I have helped out on weekends, people are now praying a Prayer for Vocations at every Sunday and holy day Mass. HERE

Let us pray for the newly ordained and for more sound vocations to the priesthood.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

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16 Comments

  1. sekman says:

    Not only were 10 men ordained as priests in Wichita they ordained 10 transitional deacons as well.

    It’s worth noting that Wichita along with Lincoln are the only two dioceses without a permanent diaconate program.

  2. Nan says:

    Note that there were 10 men ordained on Saturday In St Paul. No idea how many the FSSP ordained but there was a new one blessing people after Mass in Sunday I couldn’t stick around for a blessing as I had to meet someone.

  3. Lisieux says:

    The FSSP ordained 7 men from their Nebraska seminary last Friday: 2 more are due to be priested in Warrington (in the north of England) on June 17th, and one more, Rev. Mr. Charles Ike, in Nigeria on August 15th. 7 deacons from the Wigratzbad seminary will be ordained on July 1st, plus two more in the autumn. So 19 altogether this year – a bumper crop, if I may be forgiven the irreverence.

  4. L. says:

    When I read about the prayer for vocations, my first thought was, “Why doesn’t our diocese adopt this practice?” since we have almost no vocations (thank God for the Indian Priests!), but my immediate second thought was, “Many of our Priests can’t say the prayers of the Mass the way they’re written, so who knows what they’d do with a prayer for vocations mandated by the diocese?”

  5. APX says:

    We just had our first seminarian from the FSSP ordained last Friday and have four more in he seminary.

  6. Red_Shirt_Hero says:

    It is sad that these dioceses don’t have a diaconate programme; vocations to the permanent diaconate don’t replace vocations to the priesthood – they aren’t mutually exclusive.

  7. majuscule says:

    Although there are only two men to be ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of San Francisco this June, one of them will be offering a Traditional Latin Mass in his home parish a few weeks later. May he have the chance to offer many many more in his years as a priest!

    (The other candidate is a good man, too. But I don’t think he is drawn to the TLM, at least at this time.)

  8. lmgilbert says:

    I too saw the story about the Wichita phenomenon: 20 priestly ordinations this year, and likely 20 next year, for a diocese of 115,000. However, I have to say that I am amazed, flabbergasted, stunned, bothered and bewildered that no one in either the national press or the Wichita has taken the trouble to drill down and find out WHY this is happening. That’s relevant, no?

    Is it because they were homeschooled, or because their parishes prayed and fasted for vocations, or because their Director of Vocations took the Dale Carnegie course on How to Win Friends and Influence People? In the name of all that is holy, why do we have to pry this information out of the Catholicjournalismsphere?

  9. lmgilbert says:

    I too saw the story about the Wichita phenomenon: 10 priestly ordinations this year, and likely 10 next year, for a diocese of 115,000. However, I have to say that I am amazed, flabbergasted, stunned, bothered and bewildered that no one in either the national press or the Wichita has taken the trouble to drill down and find out WHY this is happening. That’s relevant, no?

    Is it because they were homeschooled, or because their parishes prayed and fasted for vocations, or because their Director of Vocations took the Dale Carnegie course on How to Win Friends and Influence People? In the name of all that is holy, why do we have to pry this information out of the Catholicjournalismsphere?

  10. sekman says:

    Not going to take the bait on this comment… sure makes one wonder now doesn’t it

  11. Aquinas Gal says:

    8 were just ordained in Boston.

  12. Red_Shirt_Hero says:

    Take the bait? You noted that a diocese with a good number of priestly ordinations this year declines to accept vocations to the permanent diaconate.

    Have I misunderstood your comments, which to me imply that the permanent diaconate lowers priestly vocations?

    My sadness that a diocese can’t have both priests and permanent deacons is not an attempt at trolling, but rather than a sincere hope that the restoration of the permanent diaconate by the Church can lead to priests and deacons working together in their distrinct ministries, under their bishop, to serve and build up Christ’s people.

  13. Fr Carl Reid says:

    Please, please Fr Z stop referring to us as the “Anglican Ordinariate.” Only secular media, and questionable religious periodicals include “Anglican” in the description of the three Personal Ordinariates whose membership includes former Anglicans. Neither is it correct to refer to us as “Anglican Use.” Here in the US and Canada, we are correctly called “The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter”.

    Today in the Latin rite of the Catholic Church, there are three “forms” of the Mass: the Extraordinary Form, the Ordinary Form, and the Ordinariate Form. It is correct to observe that, according to the Apostolic Constitution, Anglicanorum Coetibus, the Ordinariate Form includes certain elements of Anglican patrimony. What is not often understood is that those elements have their roots in the Sarum liturgy – which actually makes the Ordinariate Form of the Mass the oldest of the three forms in the Latin rite part of the Catholic Church.

    I was an Anglican bishop; I am now a Catholic priest. Many of our members were Anglicans; they all are now Catholics. The lingering reference to us as Anglicans continues to cause much confusion within the Catholic Church.

    If you promise to stop referring to us as Anglicans, I promise to stop referring to you as Lutheran.

    Deal?

    [I understand your point. However, “Anglican Ordinariate” is a not entirely inaccurate moniker and I don’t think it is disrespectful. It certainly isn’t intended to be disrespectful. The Ordinariate was founded with through a document entitled Anglicanorum coetibus. It is made up of former Anglicans, including priests who were once Anglican bishops. If I am not mistaken, the Missal use by your Ordinariate is grounded in part in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. Again, unless I am mistaken, the Anglican tradition is part of the warp and weft of the identity of its members and it is consciously preserved. [I can’t off the top of my head think of anything Lutheran that I have consciously tried to maintain, although some verses of Scripture in the KJV version still come to the surface pretty easily. I’ll bet you have the same experience.] Also, you might agree that to refer to an Ordinary Form and an Ordinariate Form could be a little confusing, while Anglican Use, though not precise, is not as open to confusion. Moreover, I don’t refer to people who belong to or who frequent the churches of the Ordinariate as “Anglicans”. His dictis, I do understand your point and I am delighted at the wonderful contributions being made – especially in the matter of sacred liturgical worship – by my new Catholic, former Anglican brethren, including your reverend self.]

  14. hwriggles4 says:

    On June 3, 2017 three men will be ordained for the Dallas Diocese. I recall meeting two of them as pre theologates and both are impressive and spent their formative years in Dallas. Four transitional deacons were ordained on May 20, 2017. I pray that Dallas (and Fort Worth) continue to flourish.

    Also on June 3, 2017, the Austin Diocese will have five men ordained to the priesthood. Austin has a good following of clergy under 50 years of age, as well as solid Catholics (i.e. families with 3 or more children – I know some with 5, 6, and one with 7) thanks to the good Catholic Student Centers (mostly Texas A&M and Baylor) present within diocesan boundaries.

  15. Discerning Altar Boy says:

    His Excellency Bishop? Thomas Tobin of Providence will ordain three men on June 3rd, 2017 at the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul.

  16. Fatherof7 says:

    The Diocese of Green Bay will ordain five men to the priesthood this summer. It is the largest class in a generation. We might not be in the same class as Madison yet, but things are changing for the better under Bishop Ricken.

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