It’s encouraging to hear that there is a shortage of Roman Catholic priests in the U.S. and as Rasmussen has posted elsewhere, the dwindling numbers of active churches in Montreal (once the stronghold of the RC). Here on the prairies, the number of churches closing is also dramatic and the pace is quickening. One odd thing I noticed is that there is an great influx of foreign priests from the Philippines, Vietnam, Nigeria, but especially from Eastern Europe (I guess that’s the case here because we seem to have a lot of Greek Catholic and Greek Orthodox churches in the vicinity). The odd thing in all this, is that the Greek/Ukrainian Catholic priests that came here from Ukraine are “married with children.” I’m not saying that its entirely a bad idea for priests (?) to be wedded (with women), but i wonder, how does the Catholic Church forbid the marriage of priests (pope fully endorsed), but when the shortage becomes critical, they overlook that stipulation and accept all who are called?
Perhaps its a sign of an internal collapse when the doctrine and dogma of the religious order can simply be disregarded if there is desperation in the ranks. As a side note, most of these Slavic priests have only one real goal in mind when they come to Canada - they want to get into the United States. One local chruch has now had two priests (their families included) abandon their posting and head directly into the U.S., one to Chicago and the other Oklahoma City in the past 10 months.
In the grand scheme of things, the less priests there are, the better for everyone all around, I say. So let the dwindling continue.
Bob
