Tossati: "Priest Shortage? This Pope Gives no Incentive for Young Men"

(Rome) The question of the lack of priests, the abolition of celibacy as a prerequisite for the priesthood, and the admission of married men to the ordination of priests are now again discussed with particular insistence. In yesterday's edition of the La Vanguardia newspaper, their correspondent in Rome, Eusebio Val, published two full pages of an extensive report entitled "The Hour of Married Priests?" A reportage that allows interesting voices to be heard.

Snapshot at a priest's consecration: "Pray for priestly vocations"

La Vanguardia, Catalonia 's largest daily newspaper, also reported on the positions of two leading Vatican officials, Sandro Magister and Marco Tosatti, both of whom are critical of the pontificate of Pope Francis. Both argue that the Argentine pope really insists that the abolition of celibacy is "not a solution" for the priestly shortage, but at the same time, in his own environment, a way of overcoming the priestly shortage which forsees the abolition of priestly celibacy.

The daily newspaper cites the Vaticanista Sandro Magister statement to Pope Francis:

"He always speaks in an ambiguous way. We should not be surprised. This is his style. The ambiguity opens a gap in order to discuss something, and then, in the end, to decide in the end. "

No less critical was Marco Tosatti. Pope Francis did not contribute to the promotion of priestly vocations and correcting the priestly shortage:

"It seems obvious to me that this pope is not providing an incentive for young men (towards the priesthood). The numbers say that, and you can not discuss numbers."

Religious orders and communities, such as the Franciscans of the Immaculate or the Priestly Society of the Holy Apostles, have many vocations." But this is exactly why they "are today attacked by their bishop or the pope."

And further:

"If young men join them [communities and orders], and you have one thing over their heads, then you can not expect vocations to arise in other places."

For both Vaticanistas, says La Vanguardia , the question of how the priestly deficit can be remedied is not about "liberalizing or relativizing the doctrine of the Church, but the exact opposite." The young people who have a calling feel serious and want to be taken seriously. They do not want the same thing in the Church that they can find elsewhere. They commit themselves for a lifetime. They must do this for what is worthwhile and not merely for a general discourse of goodness and solidarity. They are looking for more and they do not find it at the moment. That seems obvious to me."

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: MiL / Blog do Fernando (Screenshot)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG

In Spain There Were 28 Percent More Ordinations in 2015 than 2014

(Madrid) In 2015 there were 28 percent more new priests ordained in Spain than in the previous year.

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In 2015 150 new priests were consecrated, while there were only 117 in 2014.These figures were announced the Spanish Episcopal Conference.

Currently, 1,300 seminarians are preparing for the priesthood. In the academic year 2015/2016 there were 270 new entrants to the diocesan seminaries.

In 2014 the number of new priests has fallen by ten percent from 2013, while the number of seminarians increased by 2.7 percent.

Among the Spanish dioceses, the archdiocese of Valencia, Madrid and Toledo stand out with numerous new priests.

"Why Madrid and Barcelona has not?", asks the well-known Spanish columnist Francisco Fernandez de la Cigoña.

"Why does the diocese Terrasa have more seminarians than Barcelona and all other Catalan dioceses together? Why does Ciudad Rodrigo have more seminarians than Salamanca, or Tuy-Vigo over Mondonedo-Ferrol? The reason is to be found not only among the bishops, if they are also to blame. There are not a few pastors who do not care about the promotion of priestly vocations.

Bishops as pastors should be aware: Without vocations and priestly ordinations without dying dioceses. One should take note in the Vatican of whether there are priestly vocations in a diocese or not. It is absurd to promote those that produce no vocations. The Church needs priests. Priestly vocations have to be a priority for a bishop."

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: InfoVaticana

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches...

AMDG

800 Years of the Dominican Order -- Varying Trends

Philippine Dominicans

(Manila) 800 years ago, in 1216,  Pope Honorius III. confirmed the Dominicans, previously founded two years before. There are completely variant trends in  the Order.

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The founder was is Spaniard, Domingo de Guzman, better known as Saint Dominic. From him, the mendicant order also received its common name. Officially, it is called Ordo fratrum Praedicatorum (OP), in English, Today, the Order of Preachers Is led, which now numbers approximately 5,900 brothers and 3,000 contemplative and 30,000 apostolic sisters, by Frenchman Bruno Cadoré. In 1959 the Order had even 9,506 brothers.

There are provinces of fading inexorably appears and.Throughout Austria, there is only one Dominican monastery. Vienna archbishop Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, belongs to this Order.

But there are still provinces that are alive and flourishing in the best sense of the word. These include the Dominican Province of the Order of St. Joseph in the eastern part of the USA. There the Immemorial Mass is also  maintained.

This also applies to the Provincia Philippinarum in the Philippines. This past Deceber 10th, 18 new novies of the Province have begun their studies at the inter-diocesan Seminary of the Pontifical and Royal University of St. Thomas in Manila.  Both facilities are run by Dominicans. 

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: OP.org

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholiisches...

AMDG

11 Priests Ordained in Winona Minnesota

Edit: the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few…

Only 11 were ordained in New York, the legacy of Cardinal Mahony can be felt as only 2 were ordained in the Taj by Archbishop Gomez, while 10 were ordained for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.


Here’s the report from a Catholic Life:

Fulfilling the mission of the Society of St. Pius X - to form holy priests - 11 new priests were added to its company on Friday, June 21st, along with one Dominican for the Avrille (France) community.

These young deacons were ordained to the Priesthood of Our Lord Jesus Christ by Bishop Alfonso de Galarreta during a beautiful 4-hour long ceremony that included the solemn Pontifical Mass. In attendance were 82 priests, many religious, and over 1,500 faithful, who travelled from all parts of the United States (and beyond) to witness this wonderful event for the Catholic Church, as well as to pray for the increased holiness of the ordinands.

Also, not to be forgotten on that day, was the ordination of 6 subdeacons to the diaconate, though they are not shown in the image gallery below.

Diocesan Seminarian Ordained in the Old Rite -- Mission to Muslims -- Sacra Liturgia Event

(Toulon) Last Tuesday Bishop Dominique Rey, the Bishop of Frejus-Toulon, consecrated a seminarian of the diocese in the old rite as deacon. The remarkable thing is that it does not concern the members of Ecclesia Dei community, but a diocesan seminarian. The Bishop of Frejus-Toulon treats the two forms of the Roman Rite, as Pope Benedict XVI had recognized, as equals.

The diaconate was held in the traditional Benedictine Abbey of Notre Dame de Fontgombault where the new deacon was trained liturgically under the direction of Dom Jean Pateau. In his homily, Bishop Rey stressed the connection between the diaconate and the Eucharistic Sacrifice. This is the fourth diocesan seminarian who has been brouight by the Bishop of Frejus-Toulon in this way to the priesthood.

In 2011, Bishop Rey caused a stir as he consecrated one of his deacons to the priesthood in the Old Rite. The Instruction, Universae Ecclesiae on the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum, states that ordinations in the ordinary form of the Roman Rite should be made. Only the Ecclesia Dei communities and other communities with explicit permission to celebrate the traditional rite are exempt. However, Rome recognized the example of the Diocese of Frejus-Toulon immediately with an indult was granted without further notice.

Bishop Rey is the initiator of the International Liturgical Conference, Sacra Liturgia, which will be held from the 25th to 28th of June in Rome. In the diocese there are also the Missionaries of Divine Mercy of Father Fabrice Loiseau, an Old Ritual Community of Diocesan Right, which was canonically erected in the diocese of Frejus-Toulon in 2005 and is under the authority of Bishop Rey. The triple apostolate of the community is: promoting the worship of the Divine Mercy of St. Faustina Kowalska, Eucharistic adoration and the evangelization of Muslims. The latter has shown itself as an apostolate community at the forefront of new Catholic communities that respond to the specific challenges of their time. [View with PicLens]

Link to Katholisches... Contact Tancred: vekron99@hotmail.com

AMGD

Modernist Monk Inflamed About His Clique Being Called out by Cincinnati Vocations Director

What a Wonderful Day for an Auto de Fe

Edit: flamers gonna flame...   Father Anthony Ruff is having a clerical tizzy meltdown over a spade being called a spade at his Pray, Tell blog.   He complains about a priest who is the Vocations Director for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, Father Martin Fox, who writes in Bonfire of the Vanities about a gathering of dissident Warlock Priests in Oregon, the Association of Catholic [sic] Priests.

What this is is a case of a "Catholic" priest complaining about a Catholic point of view described by the  good Vocations Director, and of course, the unstated and growing paranoia on the part of Father Ruff, that his cohorts of Liberalism and relativism are thinning and dying away.

 Father Ruff himself is an Old Liberal dissident of dubious orthodoxy who works at the Modernist Monastery, a hotbed of Old Liberal dissent and Gomorrist syncretism, if not manifest heresy, who has recently taken another priest to task for his tone.   Father Ruff can disparage the hierarchy, but when various organizations associated with the aging lavender clerocracy in the United States are justifiably attacked, he's beside himself and wants something to be done about the Vocations Director of the Cincinnati Archdiocese.

No one held Ruff responsible for attacking Pope Benedict's agenda for the translation of the New Mass that we know of, and no one holds Ruff or his superiors responsible for undermining the Catholic Faith, either.  So why should Father Fox be held responsible for doing what is right and doing nothing other than stating an obvious truth that this post-Vatican II crew is dying out?

Here's a sample of Ruff's simpering:


Fr. Martin Fox, writing in his personal blog, Bonfire of the Vanities, has issued a broadside against the Association of Catholic Priests and their upcoming meeting in Seattle, calling it the “Sad-funny-ironic swan-song of the ‘Spirit of Vatican 2′ crowd.”

Calling their agenda “pointless,” his dismissive remarks about the group, which has 950 members, highlight not only the generational differences between age cohorts in the American Catholic priesthood, but also the increasingly acerbic and derogatory tone that younger priests feel free to take in public when speaking about their elder brothers.[Ruff misrepresents Fox on several occasions throughout this blog entry and in the subsequent hilarity of the ensuing comments. That's not particularly brotherly.]

In fact, it would be hard to tell from Fr. Fox’s remarks that he regards older priests as brothers at all, much less valued older colleagues in ministry. They are described more as if they are either enemies or a pathetic nuisance to be gotten out of the way. Younger priests such as Fr. Fox, confident that they hold the whip hand, now seem ready to snap it — on other priests.

Continue reading at Pray, Tell...

One positive thing with this is that it shows that higher ranking clergy, including Bishops, are finally calling out the bad fruit.  If there is a gap in the "former bastion of priestly solidarity" it's only because there are too many priests who are disobedient, heterodox and frankly evil, promoting pernicious doctrines under the guise of the Catholic Church, with relative impunity I might add.

Spain: 22 Priests Ordained in Madrid

(Madrid) The 27th of April was a day of rejoicing for Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, Archbishop of Madrid. He  consecrated 22 deacons to the priesthood in the Almudena Cathedral in Spain’s capital city. This is more than in previous years. They all have a solid university education and have an average age of 29 years.

18 new priests come from the seminary of the Archdiocese, two from the Redemptoris Mater Seminary of the Neocatechumenal Way, and two of the Congregation of  Servi Trinitatis.

"On average, there are 15-18 new priests to be ordained, this year 22.  We are very happy, “ said Fr Fausto Calvo from the archbishop's seminary. In Spain currently there are 1,278 seminarians preparing for the priesthood. Which is 2.3 percent more than last year.

This increase is seen in the Church of Spain to be in direct connection with the World Youth Day 2011 with Pope Benedict XVI.,   as  Jose Angel Saiz Meneses, Bishop of Terrassa, insists. "World Youth Day is among many young people a convenient and great breeding ground for vocations that need to be confirmed after the first sign of interest. The growth and clarification of genuine vocations takes time, but the World Youth Days are for many a first hearing, “ said the Bishop of Terrassa.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: La cigüeña de la torre

Edit: it is what it is.

Pope Francis Kneels to Abuse the Liturgy, But Not to Venerate the Bread of Life

Our fathers did eat manna in the desert, as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen, I say to you; Moses gave you not bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which cometh down from heaven and giveth life to the world. They said therefore unto him: Lord, give us always this bread. And Jesus said to them: I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall not hunger: and he that believeth in me shall never thirst. 

Edit:  Question: If the Pope can commit liturgical abuses and kneel to wash and kiss the feet of 12 children, is it not also possible that he can kneel and venerate the Host and Blood of God made present on the altar? I hope no one will try and equate the two, but people often do equate themselves with God.

There’s very frank reporting of this event at Catholic Family News, no frills, just sober reporting what was said and done. That this is a liturgical abuse which has been repeatedly condemned by the Vatican is indisputable. Unfortunately, this ritual, which dates from a 50s revision of the liturgy, is in itself a kind of novelty as FatherZ has said. It is meant to elucidate the commemoration Christ’s establishment of the Sacrament of Holy Orders, the priesthood, which does not include women.

Rorate is declaring the death of the Reform of the Reform. Actually, it seems that it was being killed off months before Benedict had resigned shortly after Vatileaks broke.

So, to the strumming of maudlin guitars playing a folk song, Pope Francis went to 12 trouble makers, two of them female, kneeling to wash their feet. He knelt with great difficulty on the floor and seemed to find the work very taxing as he was assisted by two acolytes. One wonders then, why he can not also kneel (a question asked by Roman Catholic Imperialist last week) before the Blessed Sacrament as well, since he’s willing to go to the trouble of washing the feet of two girls, in violation of Vatican ruling during a feast which celebrates Christ’s establishment of the priesthood.

Rome Reports has a very good description of what happened and you can see the Holy Father being helped up by two acolytes toward the end of the video:

Gregorian Chorale Makes the Vocations Grow

(Washington) The regular Choir Brothers of the Premonstratensian Abbey of St. Micheal in California have published a new CD with Gregorian Music from the liturgical hours of their community. The Abbey of Silverado in Orange County is biritual and preserves the "Old Mass" as awell as the Novus Ordo according to the prescriptions of the Second Vatican Council for Liturgy. The Canons Regular make a special consideration for the special value. Additionally they seek to presever the living content of their own order's special forms. Gregorian and Liturgy has offered a growth of vocations thorugh the years for the abbey. In an ineterview with the Catholic News Agency (CNS) the Premonstratensians have explained why the brothers have taken this particular manner for the spreading of Gregorian Chorale.

It is not so much a musical point of view, which they are seeking after, rather a conscious apostolate for the New Evangelization and the promotion of vocations.

The Abbey has led to numerous voations in its fostering of Gregorian Change and Liturgy.

"The beauty is made through the lifting up of the faithful, in order to build them, so that the Father can be praised in Mass" said Father Ambrose Criste, Noice Master of the Abbbey.

The 13 tracks of “Gregorian Chant: Together on the Way,” includes liturgical texts, hymns, and a litany. The songs were recorded in the St. Michael Abbey chapel, located in Silverado.

Father Chrysostom Baer, the abbey's cantor, said he chose the selected pieces as “the most Catholic things I could get my hands on.”

The selections were originally sung by the Norbertine canons to introduce and complement three performances by the Pacific Symphony Orchestra in Costa Mesa, Calif.

“We were going to give them some Catholic prayers,” said Fr. Baer, “and hopefully through the beauty of the moment, they would join their hearts to ours.”

The selections sang by the Norbertines at the concert hall in February of last year were then recorded so as to bring the music to a wider audience.

“It's a really excellent vehicle for evangelization,” said Fr. Baer. “I ran into someone just two weeks ago who recognized our habits from one of those concerts, who had more questions and wanted to come visit.”

Fr. Criste noted that their music is so beautiful because chant plays a major role in the Norbertine life. “It's something we do throughout the day, every day,” he said.

The abbey's public mass is chanted four days a week, and every day the Liturgy of the Hours is chanted. The seminarians of the order have choir practice five days a week, “which consists almost entirely of Gregorian chant.”

Fr. Criste said that chant is not just for religious communities. In the parish, “ideally, I would think it should play a daily role,” he reported.

“The (Second) Vatican Council was clear that pride of place goes to Gregorian chant, and that's just following in the tradition of the 20th century, all the way back to Pope St. Pius X.”

While acknowledging that not all parishes can have as wide or difficult a repertoire as can abbeys, he said, “everybody could sing some chant.”

Fr. Baer said the community hopes that its dignified, traditional liturgy “gives people an experience of what we know the Council was asking for in the public celebration of the liturgy.”

St. Michael's Abbey was founded by a group of refugees from a Norbertine abbey in Hungary in the 1950s which was threatened by Soviet control. The community currently numbers 76, including both priests and seminarians.

“God has blessed us immensely with constant vocations,” Fr. Criste said. “Every year we get a handful of young men who want to join our way of life, and given today's culture where they can do anything else that would be more 'exciting', that really says something about the grace of God.”

Norbertines are an order of canons regular also known as Premonstratensians. Though they are based in an abbey, they have pastoral ministry as well.

The primary apostolate of St. Michael's Abbey is its prep school for boys, though it also teaches and ministers at schools and parishes in the Orange and Los Angeles dioceses. Nearly all the public celebrations of Mass in the extraordinary form are celebrated by canons of St. Michael's Abbey.

“Together on the Way” will be St. Michael's fourth CD release. All are part of an effort to get the word out about the community, as they aim to build a new monastery and school to accommodate their vocations boom.
H/t Katholisces Source:Catholic News Agency Buy the LP here: none.

In Ukraine Two of Three Applicants to Seminary Are Turned Away

(Lemberg/Lviv)  Half of the applicants for entrance in the west Ukrainian seminary are turned away because of a shortage of places:  In the Ukraine it is not the exception but the rule.  Jaroslav Pryriz, the Auxiliary Bishop of  the Greek Catholic Eparchy of Sambir-Drohbytsch, explained in Konigstein at the international headquarters of the Pontifical Aid Agency, Kirche in Not [Church in Need], that for every seminary place in the Catholic part of Ukrain there are three applicants.  In several parts of western Ukraine two out of three applicants are not accepted in the seminary, because the Bishops and the regents of the seminary don't know where they can accommodate the large number of young men in the seminary, who feel themselves called to the priesthood.

Since the collapse of Communism the number of applications has grown steadily.  The Bishops of the  Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church united to Rome have introduced strict standards for selection.  Every applicant has to undergo four acceptance tests.  Only the best will be taken, so long as there are places available, and they are much too few, says Auxiliary Bishop Pryiz.

Already in 2001 Kirche in Not published the documentary film  Die Saat des Glaubens about the growth of the faith among Catholics in the Ukraine after the end of the Bolshevist dictatorship.  The Greek-Catholics untied to Rome celebrate the Liturgy in the Byzantine Rite.  They are concentrated in the western parts of Ukraine, which belonged up until the end of the First World War, to the Austrian Empire.  Since 2011 the Senior Archbishop Syjatoslav Schwertschuk of Kiev and Halytsch is at the forefront of the Greek-Catholic Church of the Ukraine.

The relations to the Russian Orthodox Church is traditionally tense.  The Catholic Ukrainians are considered by the Orthodox Church because of their union with Rome as apostate, although in the 16th century they did not join in complete union with the Moscow Patriarchate.  During Communism, all Greek-Catholic churches were confiscated and -- as far as they remained churches -- were given to the Orthodox.   Historically -- if also from other grounds -- there was also stress in the relationship between the Roman Catholic Poles and the Orthodox Russians.  Through a common declaration of the Patriarch of Moscow Kyrill I and the Catholic Primate of Poland, Josef Michalik, an easing of tension was reached.   The Greek Catholics of the Ukraine also hope and wish the same.   Archbishop Schewtschuk explained on August 19th:  "It would be my deepest wish, that something similar will also take place in Ukraine.  I've already stated this many times.  It would be very pleasing to us, if personal dialog on the level of our Churches could take place, so that the Patriarch of Moscow could recognize the UGCC as his dialog partner.  Because till now, we are talked over  to the Holy Father in the Vatican, and really it's always without us."

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Photo:  UGCC

Link to katholisches.....

Freiburg: Three First Masses in Three Years!

A close, close examination reveals:  not a single one of the new priests did himself enter into the absurd seminary in their home diocese.

(kreuz.net, Villingen) Last Sunday Father Francesco Riegger of the Priestly Society of St. Peter celebrated his first Mass in the Old Rite in the medieval Cathedral of Villingen-Schwenningen.

This was reported by the German lay community, 'pro-missa-tridentina.org'.

Father Rieggger grew up in Villingen.  The 80,000 population city of Villingen-Schwenningen is in south western Baden-Wurttemberg.  It belongs to the desolate Archdiocese of Freiburg.

The Normal Sunday Mass

The first Mass took the place of the usual Sunday Mass.

Father Jérôme Bücker of the Societhy of St. Peter explained the differences and similarities of the Mass of All Ages at the beginning of the Mass to 350 faithful.

In the traditional Rite Communion is received only on the tongue, explained Father.

The drawback

The pastor at the Cathedral in Villingen is the Dean Josef Fischer.

He informed people during the greeting that he would shell out modern hand Communion in the clerestory.

This is forbidden in the Old Mass.

A priest glut?

In Villingen-Schwenningen is the home of origin for nine new priests "almost unheard of any more" -- explained the site 'summorum-pontificum.de' this Friday.

Because in the last two years there were two home parish first Masses.

IN 2010 Fr. Marius Simiganovschi and last year Fr. Marc Kalisch were ordained.

 They're all refugees from the Diocese

Surely, none of the priests saying their first Masses (Primizianten) came from the Old Liberal seminary of Freiburg.

Fr. Simiganovschi and Fr. Kalisch belong to the Archdiocese of Vaduz.

They were ordained by the battle hardened Msgr Wolfgang Haas of Liechtenstein.

Link to kreuz.net....

Fontgambault: Holy Father Loves Traditional Benedictines

As Pope Bendict XVI. saw the new Abbot and his predecessor a few months ago, he shouted out: "Fontgambault!"

The Traditional Benedictine Abbey of Fontambault is located by a 270 population village of the same name in the Departement of Indre in central France.

It has a stormy development behind it.

With the Old Faith, it Survived the Conciliar Collapse

In 1948, 22 monks from the Abbey of Solesmes setted from Fontgambault.

Today with over a hundred monks it is one of the largest cloisters of the Congregation.  Since 1971 -- in the midst of the Conciliar night -- the cloister formed four new foundations.

On October 7th the new director of the cloister, Abbot Jean Pateau was consecrated.

Meeting with the Pope

On the 9th of March the website 'riposte-catholique.fr' reported some recent events at the cloister.

The webiste reported that the new Abbot and his predecessor, Abbot Antoine Forgeot, had travelled to Rome on November 23rd.

They were even invited by Pope Benedict XVI.  The meeting was not known about until today.

As soon as the Holy Father saw the two monks, he called out:  "Fontgambaul!"

The Pope enjoined the new Abbot, to hold fast to the line of his predecessors.

He had militated very strenuously against introducing any kind of concelebration.

Falling Back From the High Level

According to reports from 'riposte-catholique.fr' vocations are also not falling back.

In the last year they haven't had any entrants.

Recently there were five monks in the Novitiate.

Last August two monks had made their simple and another monk made his solemn vows.

Presently, the Cloister is expecting numerous new entrants in the near future.

Link to original...kreuz.net...

SSPX and Traditional Seminarians Overtaking Diocesan in Europe

The Mass of All Ages at the Society
© Pius.info

Pope Benedict XVI. really doesn't have any other alternative than to reconcile with the Traditionalists. Because  they are growing from year to year.. -kreuznet

(kreuz.net)  Recently, the French website 'paixliturgie.org' presented the numbers of the Traditionalist seminarians who are preparing in France for a vocation  in the care of souls.

Cloistered religious societies were excluded from the statistics.

The Society of St. Pius X has about 50 French Seminarians 


In the Society of St. Pius X, ther eare at present 49 seminarians who come from France.

This number hasn't altered from last year.

The French comprise approximately one third of all the Society seminarians.

They study almost all in Ecône which is by far the largest seminary in Switzerland.

The largest Seminary by far in Germany 


The French born Traditional seminarians in ecclesiastically recognized communities are presently 91.

This number is also stable.

The largest number of seminarians study in the Society of St. Peter seminary in Wigratzbad, which is by far the largest seminary in Germany.

The Numbers  Continue to Advance

In the last year there were 18 Frenchmen ordained in the Immemorial Rite of the Ancient Mass.

That meant that in France, 84 percent of the seminarians for the New and 16 percent for the Old Rite.

Additionally, about thirty percent of the official seminarians are friendly to the Old Rite.

Otherwise, the number of official seminarians is spiraling into the abyss while the number of Traditional seminarians climb.

In 2005 there were 120 seminarians and in 2011 there were 140 seminarians.

Link to kreuz.net...

Winona Seminary Has Booming Vocations: Elevated to Minor Basilica

Edit: Stella Borealis sends report that the Diocese of New Ulm is being raised to a Minor Basilica.  It is an honor and allows for great feasts and special indulgences. Although there is some interest and the Polish Cathedral, St. Stanislaus Kostka, is quite beautiful, there must be some reason why they've been so honored. In search of an answer here are a few details. Winona is quite large.

Presently, there are 130,527 Catholics living in Winona on paper, according to Wikipedia, and although it has an impressive 12  men in the seminary, according to its website, none of its seminarians are attending St. Paul Seminary, which is about an hour's drive to the north, although three of the senior seminarians are studying at Sacred Heart in Detroit.

Winona is showing a flowering of vocations. Try comparing that to another, much larger Diocese, like Paris, France. Paris has 70 Seminarians as of last year, and while it has 17 times the Catholic population at 2,200,000, does not have much of a seminary. In fact, Catholics have declined in number significantly since the Second Vatican Pastoral Council.

Winona had almost no seminarians a decade ago.  These days, it's clear that Winona is doing something right with regard to vocations. Could the reason for the vocations have something to do, also, with the Immemorial Mass of All Ages that his Lordship, Bishop John Quinn said recently?  Perhaps competition is good for the Diocese?

The competition comes from the steadfast Society of St. Pius X, which also has a seminary in Winona, which got 20 new candidates this year.

Put together, the two Seminaries, the one Diocesan, called Immaculate Heart of Mary, and the other run by the SSPX, St. Thomas Aquinas, could easily give Paris, France a run for its money.

New Nuns and Priests Seen Opting for Tradition

Edit: who would want to belong to an organization that looks like a storefront for a massive institution which has only the most facile connection to the Catholic Church?  Most ardent young people with a lot of energy and creativity don't want to belong to an institutional dinosaur, they want to belong to a profound mission, an adventure and a vocation.  They want to know that someone has called them to do what they are doing.

You'll never get that working for a massive pile of capital which attempts to benefit a vague abstraction like humanity, progress or some other vague cause.

Anyhow, even the Old Yorke Times and Pinch Sulzberger are picking up on this story, even if they are putting it in the context of the mostly useless Apostolic Visitation.

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN

Published: August 10, 2009

A new study of Roman Catholic nuns and priests in the United States shows that an aging, predominantly white generation is being succeeded by a smaller group of more racially and ethnically diverse recruits who are attracted to the religious orders that practice traditional prayer rituals and wear habits.

The study found that the graying of American nuns and priests was even more pronounced than many Catholics had realized. Ninety-one percent of nuns and 75 percent of priests are 60 or older, and most of the rest are at least 50.

They are the generation defined by the Second Vatican Council, of the 1960s, which modernized the church and many of its religious orders. Many nuns gave up their habits, moved out of convents, earned higher educational degrees and went to work in the professions and in community service. The study confirms what has long been suspected: that these more modern religious orders are attracting the fewest new members.
The study was already well under way when the Vatican announced this year that it was conducting two investigations of American nuns. One, taking up many of the same questions as the new report, is an “apostolic visitation” of all women’s religious orders in the United States. The other is a doctrinal investigation of the umbrella group that represents a majority of American nuns, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.

Eighteen New Seminarians for SSPX in France

 Eighteen New Seminarians


France. [kreuz.net]  This coming 2. February there will be 18 Seminarians vested at the Seminary of the Cure de Ars in Flavigny in Eastern France. The Seminary belongs to the Priestly Society of St. Pius X.  Of the candidates, 13 are from France, three from Italy as well as one each from Canada and Poland.  Otherwise there is a pre-Seminarian and two Brother Postulants also taken in, of which one comes from Austria.  In the Seminary the Seminarians are to graduate after the first year. Further studies will take place at Ecône in Switzerland.

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Alaska Attorney Seeks Help to Enter Dominican Order

Tara Clemens CatholicAnchor.org Anchorage attorney, convert to Catholicism and Holy Family Cathedral parishioner Tara Clemens has been accepted for the postulancy at Corpus Christi Monastery, a Dominican religious cloister in Menlo Park, Ca. The mission of the cloistered Dominican nuns is to honor and promote devotion to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. The target date for Clemens’ entry at the monastery is June 8, 2011 – pending resolution of her educational debt. Clemens completed an aspirancy, a month-long visit at the monastery, in February. The postulancy would be Clemens’ second step in the eight-year discernment process toward taking final, life-long vows as a cloistered nun. But first, Clemens must resolve her school debt. “This is the one hurdle keeping me from entering religious life,” Clemens told the Catholic Anchor. Although she is working to pay down the debt, the balance is “significant, especially in today’s economy,” Clemens explained, so “I will not be able to enter religious life without the generous support of others.” To this end, she is working with the Labouré Society, a non-profit organization that assists aspirants in resolving educational debt so they are free to enter the priesthood or religious life. Paying off the debt by June is “no small task,” Clemens observed, but “with God all things are possible.” Tax-deductible contributions may be made to the Labouré Society in honor of Tara Clemens at labouresociety.org/. Read more about Clemens’ journey to the cloistered monastery at catholicanchor.org/wordpress/?p=934. And visit Clemens’ online blog at supporttarasvocation.wordpress.com.

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The Church Can't Make Mothers out of Fathers: Bishop van Elst Critical of Ephemeral Zeitgeist

The Bishop of Limburg found joyful words against woman's ordination, for celibacy and criticized the adaption of the ephemeral Zeitgeist.

[kreuz.net] Bishop Franz-peter Tebartz-van Elst stood critically against "commonly accepted proposals for modernization".

He explained this on the 1st of October for three journalists of the newspaper 'Nassauische Neu Presse' which was very hostilely inclined to the Bishop.

The Priest Functions as a Father

The Bishop spoke forcefully against the effort to the theologically impossible ordination of priestesses.

For: The priest has a father function within the community: "The Father is the Father, the Mother is the Mother."

The Church is then for that reason not in a position to ordain women priests.

Jesus had made men to be his Apostles, thereon the Church buttresses itself.

The question if women may be priestesses is no question of adequacy -- rather a question of the concrete pattern of Jesus.

In answer to a - stupid - request the Bishop explained that God loves women exactly as much as men. It is also important that women participate in the Church.

So he was occupied with a few positions concerning women.

Relative to the priesthood the Bishop was clear: "Those who are to become Priests, it is to say, they will be called by the Church."

There is no right, therefore, to be a Priest: "That doesn't just go for women, rather for men as well."


Journalists have Problems with Celibacy

The obligatory question about the abolition of celibacy was not answered so directly by Msgr Tebartz-van Elst:

"Many priests to live and are aware that they have then decided to devote their lives to God."

The Bishop contradicted the theory, whereon celibacy is a reason that today so few young men want to be priests.

He reproved the communities - and pastoral ministers, who have children and stay away even without celibacy.

"The reason for the priest shortage is much more in the secularization of life. Many people could imagine a life without God."


Secularization means Wordly

As a further reason for the priest shortage he identified lack of support, whereby the decision to become a priest can be hindered.

Thus he proposed: "We need evidence of Faith."

New Tradition-Friendly Bishop Reopens A Seminary Closed for 10 Years

[Paris] Msgr Marc Aillet, the current General Vicar of the traditional friendly French Diocese of Toulon, was made by Pope Benedict the Bishop of the Diocese of Bayonne. He is a member of St. Martins-Community founded by Cardinal Siri, in which the Holy Mass of Paul VI is celebrated in latin, versus Deum. The Bishop wrote an article about the use and meaning of the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum and endeavored to promote the Tridentine Mass also the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite in his Diocese.

Even after the first two years in office, it was possible for him to re-open his Seminary which had been previously closed due to a lack of candidates which now has five candidates. The first seminarians of the re-opened seminary will begin their studies in the next few days. Other candidates will begin simultaneously the preparatory year of spiritual direction for priests, which was the tradition in seminaries.

On the official Internet site of the Diocese it says, that the education and instruction in a Seminary "the door is open to the great tradition of the Church through the discovery of the Second Vatican Council in conformity with a "hermeneutic of renewal in the continuity of the individual subject-Church", especially through a foundation of theological instruction and a real exploration of the treasures of the Roman Liturgy".

When the seminary was closed 10 years ago thanks to a shortage of candidates, the then rector spoke of a "chance", to force the Church, "to break new ground". "That would be precisely like, if a Company had regarded it as a chance, if upon inspecting his ledger discovered that he had to file bankruptcy," said Internet site Messa in Latino.

And still more: "With the change of Bishops the admission is renewed: "The progressives empty the seminaries, the Traditionalists are filling them. Both in relatively short time. All is not lost, when we are given good Bishops."

Translated original, here...