How bad is the situation of vocations to the priesthood tragic Germany?

6 Comments

1. William says:

   12 January 2018 at 10:07 AM

   There’s probably a German bishop somewhere who thinks a lack of vocations is a good thing in the hopes it’ll force Rome’s hand into married clergy, female clergy, or even abolishing the clergy, though they’ll probably call it “lay clergy” or something even more nonsensical.

   [That’s a possibility. I believe it was the LA Archdiocese one year, years ago, that didn’t have any admissions to the seminary. They declared victory, saying that that proved the effectiveness of their vocations program. There was an American bishop who said that he didn’t want to ordain more men until he also could ordain women. Vocations plummeted. That diocese hasn’t recovered from his reign of lib terror. Although libs wouldn’t see it like that, would they.]
2. Legisperitus says:

   12 January 2018 at 10:28 AM

   Hilft nur noch Tradition?
3. Iconophilios says:

   12 January 2018 at 11:25 AM

   “Priestermangel” — Well, doesn’t that just say it all?
4. Imrahil says:

   12 January 2018 at 11:40 AM

   Well, dear William, I sincerely doubt that. That is the consciousness part of it.

   Of course German bishops do apparently suffer from the problem already diagnosed by Chesterton, “what is wrong is that we do not ask what is right”; they spend, perhaps, too little thinking on the contemplation how nice it would be to have enough clergy. As it is, as far as I see, they see it as a fait accompli that there will be fewer and fewer priests; “what’s the use of lamenting? the world is as it is”, or as Hegel put it in his outrageous redefinition, “what is freedom? Freedom is the surrender to necessity”.

   So, they may dismiss the whole notion of lamenting or approving a state-of-the-affairs; which is a problem. But all the sam I’d be very surprised if they approved.

   Also, they are into female preacheresses (allowing female pastoral assistants to preach) and, it appears, in female deacons and in married priests. They are not into female priests. The reason might be that, at any rate for Germans, the “an order is an order” principle is still out and about; Ordinatio sacerdotalis outdogmatized the latter, so they obey so far. It did not 100% outdogmatize female deacons (although all its argumentation renders them impossible), so they – at least in case of some bishops now openly – do demand female deacons.

   Chances are that when you give an order to a conscientous German, he will execute it to the letter, but will also feel it as an invitation to think and do what he likes in anything that goes beyond its letter.

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6. RJBennett says:

   17 January 2018 at 12:49 PM

   I live in Germany, and I recently asked the pastor of my local parish f he would consider saying a Traditional Latin Mass. His response was, “Do you want us to go BACKWARDS?”

   Later I thought to myself, “Well, yes, I DO want the Church to go backwards. Backwards to a time when the churches were full on Sundays, backwards to a time when seminaries were bursting with candidates for the priesthood, backwards to a time when most Catholics went to Mass every week, backwards to a time when there were plenty of Catholic schools and Catholic weddings and baptisms and confirmations, backwards to a time when there was an enormous number of religious vocations, backwards to a time when people genuflected before the Blessed Sacrament instead of walking briskly past the tabernacle while carrying on loud conversations, backwards to time when everyone – priests and people – had faith in the Real Presence, backwards to a time when people – including women carrying plastic shopping bags – did NOT gather in the sanctuary around the altar for Mass.”

   No, I didn’t say any of that, but I have just translated it all into German, and I will send it to that priest in an e-mail, with a copy to the Nuncio in Berlin.

   Somewhere, somehow, it may make an impression on someone.

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