Hi Fred...
I've appended an AP piece on the shrinking ranks of the Catholic clergy
and religious.
Despite desperate propagandizing, it would seem that the Catholic church is
unable to convince its members to waste their lives on ritual nonsense.
This is a good sign. The vast majority of Catholics I know have personal
religious/philosophical convictions that have little or nothing to do with
Catholic dogma. For them the church is simply a social club more akin to the
Elks or American Legion than anything else, a place to hold weddings and
funerals.
Every Catholic I know has regaled me with tales of insensitivity and
stupidity on the part of Catholic clergy at the most horrible times,
especially funerals. It is only family tradition and a superstitious
attitude trained into them as children that causes them to consider
themselves Catholics in any way.
I was witness to one of these assholes-in-a-collar at the funeral of my
friend's crib-death baby and couldn't believe the arrogance and insensitivity
of the jerk presiding. My friend's then-husband-to-be (the child was born
out of wedlock) is from a Catholic family and his mother is a hysterically
superstitious woman. They caved in to a Catholic funeral to please her and
it was a sorry mistake considering the heart-wrenching pettiness the priest
showed.
He showed no sympathy whatsoever and seemed to regard the funeral as an
opportunity to belittle them and everyone in the room for not groveling
before the mother church. My friend is not a Catholic and she is not about
to convert in order to please her now-husband's family. And all of this
was to please a hysterical and superstitious woman who is more in need of
institutionalization then religion.
It is unfortunate that the Church holds even this amount of superstitious
hold upon them. They have been conditioned to think that there is no other
church and they hold to the church the way a simpleton clutches a rabbits
foot and are constantly disappointed when the rabbits foot doesn't work.
Yet both simpletons and devout Catholics make excuses for why their
respective rabbits feet don't work and continue to rub them superstitiously
at every opportunity.
They go on and on about the celibacy issue but I think the underlying problem
is that folks just plain don't believe the nonsense the church spouts. They
apparently want to hedge their bets by bending to superstitions inculcated in
them from childhood, "just in case" they're true, but they are
plainly unwilling to waste their lives performing endless and utterly empty
rituals.
One must wonder what sort of low-grade priests/nuns they would recruit if
they eliminated the celibacy requirement. Obviously, someone who is only
prevented from taking vows by the lack of permitted sexual activity is
hardly to be considered a profound philosopher or devout Catholic. The
constant supply of sexual predators, liars and thieves who find their way
into the priesthood and the exodus of decent priests/nuns into lay-life
are very telling indicators of the decreptitude of this ancient and false
belief system.
Sincerely,
Experts: Active Priests on Decline
PITTSBURGH (AP) - The Rev. David Bonnar remembers the day he was ordained. He
says becoming a priest was the best thing that ever happened to him.
But as each year passes, fewer and fewer men are following in his footsteps.
He knows it well. As director of vocations for the Catholic Diocese of
Pittsburgh, Bonnar is responsible for recruiting candidates for the
priesthood.
Bonnar was one of eight priests ordained by the diocese in 1988. This year,
there will be perhaps two. In 1999, the diocese will not ordain a single
priest - it may be a first for this century.
The 25-year decline in the number of active priests is part of what experts
say is a church-wide trend in the United States, as is the decline in the
number of men entering the seminary.
``Every diocese throughout the land is facing the same challenge,'' Bonnar
said last week.
Nationwide, for every 100 men enrolled in Catholic seminaries in 1965, there
are 40 today, said Dean Hoge, a professor of sociology at the Catholic
University of America in Washington, D.C.
And the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University
reported that from 1970 to 1995, seminary enrollment in the United States
dropped by half.
The chief source of the decline, Hoge said, is required celibacy. He estimated
that the number of men becoming priests and women becoming nuns would
quadruple if members of religious orders were allowed to marry.
In the Pittsburgh diocese, the number of active priests is now 371; a decade
ago, it was 467.
``We have far fewer people responding to the call of priestly ministry than we
did a generation ago,'' Pittsburgh Bishop Donald Wuerl said.
Each of the diocese's 218 parishes has at least one priest, but Wuerl said it
is difficult to provide chaplains for hospitals, Catholic schools and nursing
homes. He is familiar with the celibacy argument.
``I'm sure that it (celibacy) is very countercultural, but that requirement
exists to be countercultural, and nothing speaks more eloquently to the coming
of the kingdom, to the spiritual dimensions of another realm, than celibacy
does,'' he said.
The diocese is emphasizing the responsibility of each parish to identify and
encourage men to embrace the priesthood. Priests and seminarians visit schools
and parishes to share their experiences.
The diocese also is producing a video for high school- and college-age men
that details the priestly life. Wuerl will issue a pastoral letter later this
year on religious vocations.
Although Catholics believe that men are called to the priesthood by God,
Bonnar said the church also needs to ``share with people what a joy it is to
be a priest.''
And despite the decline, Bonnar does not appear worried.
``We can always use more hands and more hearts,'' he said, but added, ``I
don't think any of us are panicking. God has not stopped calling.''
AP-NY-04-06-98 0548EDT
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Caroline
.c The Associated Press
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