Month: March 2023

(OSV News) – A new study cites trusted relationships with parish priests as a deciding factor in cultivating vocations and reducing the priest-to-parishioner ratio as essential for making such encounters possible.

The 2023 “State of Priestly Vocations in the United States” by Texas-based Vocation Ministry concludes that “the overall role of priests in fostering vocations is significant,” with “around 70% of those ordained” reporting that they were invited by a priest to consider the calling.

“We know the priest is the number one factor for a young man saying ‘yes’ to the priesthood,” Vocation Ministry founder Rhonda Gruenewald told OSV News.

But as ordination numbers decline while many parishes close or merge, priests are becoming responsible for a greater number of parishioners, Gruenewald said. With increased administrative and pastoral responsibilities, clergy often have little time and energy to mentor teens and young men who might be interested in religious life.

“If that (priest-to-parishioner) number is lower, then priests can create relationships that foster vocations,” said Gruenewald, whose report draws on data from the Official Catholic Directory along with input from vocation directors and seminarians from around the country.

According to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University (CARA), in 2022 there were 34,344 priests (24,110 diocesan, 10,234 religious) and 452 priestly ordinations in the U.S., serving 16,429 parishes and 66.5 million “parish-connected” Catholics. Just 66% of the diocesan priests were in active ministry, with an average of one active diocesan priest per parish.

The Vocations Ministry study grouped the nation’s Catholic dioceses into four tiers based on the size of their Catholic population, and then calculated how many replacement priests, seminarians and ordinations are needed in each diocese for pastoral viability, based on current conditions.

Gruenewald, who has conducted training sessions for thousands of priests, catechists, Catholic school educators and laity in more than 50 dioceses, concluded that the 2021 vocation data showed only 33 dioceses ordained enough men to satisfy a “base need ordination rate,” while 17 were meeting their “base need seminarian rate.” Another 42 dioceses had no ordinations during that period.

She admits that the data “might be difficult for some to digest.”

CARA executive director Jesuit Father Thomas Gaunt, who reviewed the Vocations Ministry report, told OSV News the study did not account for shifts in the Catholic population across the U.S., which have led to a “massive movement of Catholics out of the cities and into the suburbs, and from the Northeast and Midwest to the South and West” of the nation.

However, Father Gaunt noted the report was correct in its “overall contention on targeting the importance of relationships in encouraging vocations.”

Of the four population tiers in the Vocations Ministry report, the highest-performing group was that with the lowest population and the lowest priest-to-parishioner ratio. Dioceses in this tier — which included Lincoln, Nebraska; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Reno, Nevada — typically ordain six times as many men as do the nation’s most populous dioceses.

Gruenewald stressed that Catholics have plenty of options for countering the declines in priestly vocations — such as regular prayer, education about vocations and how to foster them, affirmation of current priests and seminarians, and youth ministry.

“Priests and parishioners need to find those pockets where young people are and bring the vocations message to them,” she told OSV News. “Instead of throwing our hands up and saying, ‘Oh well,’ we need to be intentional and strategic. Vocations can happen if you believe. Let’s get to work.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The mission to spread the Gospel message of God’s love and of salvation in Christ is entrusted to all the baptized who are called to work together and never set out alone, Pope Francis said.

The “ecclesial” dimension of evangelization “is binding and guarantees the authenticity of Christian proclamation,” the pope said at his weekly general audience March 8 in St. Peter’s Square, the first audience held outdoors in 2023.

At the end of the audience, Pope Francis noted the day’s celebration of International Women’s Day, thanking women “for their commitment to building a more humane society through their ability to grasp reality with a creative gaze and tender heart. This is a privilege only of women.”

The pope not only offered “a special blessing for all the women in the square,” but asked the crowd to join him in “a round of applause for women. They deserve it!”

Continuing his series of audience talks about evangelization, Pope Francis said the support and confirmation of the church in mission work is necessary “because the temptation of proceeding alone is always lurking, especially when the path becomes impassable, and we feel the burden of the commitment.”

But it also is tempting “to adopt the worldly logic of numbers and polls” or to rely on one’s own ideas and programs rather than on the Holy Spirit, he said. Having a plan and analyzing what is working can be helpful but is always “secondary” to “the strength the Spirit gives you to proclaim the truth of Jesus Christ.”

That truth, he said, is that “God’s love is not just for a little group, no, it’s for all, everyone, no one excluded.”

Quoting from the Second Vatican Council’s Decree on the Church’s Missionary Activity, Pope Francis said the task of the church is “to continue the mission of Christ, who was ‘sent to preach the Gospel to the poor,'” a task for which all the baptized are responsible.

Within the church there cannot be “active” members and “passive” members, he said. “There are not those who preach, those who proclaim the Gospel in one way or another and those who keep quiet. No.”

Pope Francis imagined a conversation:

“Are you Christian?”

“Yes, I’ve been baptized.”

“Do you evangelize?”

“What’s that mean?”

“If you do not evangelize,” he said, “if you do not give that witness of the baptism you have received, of the faith the Lord gave you, then you are not a good Christian.”

Faith is a gift that must be shared with others, “with a sense of responsibility” and a commitment to journey together with the rest of the church even when the going seems rough, the pope said.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis will open a Lenten prayer and penance initiative at a Rome parish March 17 rather than in St. Peter’s Basilica as in past years.

The initiative, “24 Hours for the Lord,” was begun by the pope in 2014, and invites Catholic parishes worldwide to remain open for adoration and confession for 24 hours from the Friday evening to the Saturday evening before Laetare Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Lent. This year, the vigil is scheduled to take place March 17-18.

The Vatican announced March 7 that the pope will open the celebration at a parish near the Vatican “to further portray (its) presence in parish communities.” Typically, he hears confessions during the service.

Pope Francis has celebrated the penitential service to open the initiative in St. Peter’s Basilica each year since it began in 2014, with the exceptions of 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last year, the pope consecrated Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary as part of the opening celebration.

In the initiative’s first year, 2014, Pope Francis surprised many by confessing to a priest in St. Peter’s Basilica before hearing confessions himself, a practice he has continued in subsequent years’ celebrations.

To help individuals and communities implement the prayer initiative, the Dicastery for Evangelization released a pastoral resource that offers reflections on the themes of “confession” and “vigil” in five languages.

It includes tips on how to make a good confession and suggestions for parishes on how to organize a vigil. It also features the conversion story of Phan Thi Kim Phúc, known as “napalm girl,” who was the subject of Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph depicting her running, naked, from bombs during the Vietnam war.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The light and beauty of Christ is an invitation to recognize God’s love in life’s ordinary moments, Pope Francis said.

Speaking to some 25,000 visitors gathered to pray the Angelus in St. Peter’s Square March 5, the pope reflected on the day’s Gospel reading from St. Matthew of Jesus’ Transfiguration, in which he appears to the disciples in radiant glory.

The pope explained that witnessing the “light of holiness” radiated by Jesus is not a “magical moment” outside of time but is what gives the disciples “the strength to follow him to Jerusalem, to the cross.”

The Transfiguration, he said, is a call for the disciples “to recognize the same beauty in him when he will go up on the cross and his face will become disfigured.”

“The beauty of Christ does not alienate the disciples from the reality of life,” he said, “it always leads you forward; it doesn’t cause you to hide.”

In the same way, Pope Francis said Christians are called to recognize God’s beauty around them and radiate his love through their actions.

“So many luminous faces, smiles, wrinkles, so many tears and scars speak to the love around us,” said the pope. “Let us learn to recognize them and fill our hearts with them.”

He asked Christians “to bring to others the light we have received with concrete actions of love, diving into daily tasks with greater generosity, loving, serving and forgiving more passionately and willingly.”

Pope Francis then urged those present to reflect on how they remain open to recognizing God’s love around them and resist alienating themselves from their surroundings.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Tomorrow’s priests are called to be “missionary disciples” in light of the church’s synodal journey, Pope Francis told U.S. seminarians.

Speaking to the Cleveland-based community of St. Mary’s Seminary during an audience at the Vatican March 6 to mark the seminary’s 175th anniversary, the pope said that learning to listen, to walk together and to bear witness to God are “essential” characteristics of priestly formation that are principles of synodality.

The current Synod of Bishops opened by Pope Francis in October, 2021, seeks to gather input from all baptized members of the church to inform discussions among the world’s bishops on building a listening church. The bishops will meet in Rome in two sessions, the first in October, 2023, and then again one year later.

Pope Francis urged the seminarians to listen to God by making room for him in their lives every day and praying in silence before the tabernacle.

“Never forget the importance of placing yourselves before the Lord to hear what he wants to say to you,” he said. “Listening to the Lord also involves the response of faith to all that he has revealed and the church hands on.”

The pope told them that walking together does not only mean forming strong bonds with other seminarians, but also with their bishop, local priests, consecrated men and women, and lay faithful.

“The good shepherd walks with the flock: sometimes ahead, to mark the way; sometimes in the midst, to encourage them and sometimes behind, to accompany those who may be struggling,” Pope Francis said. “Always remember how important it is to walk with the flock, never apart from it.”

He explained how “listening to God and walking with others bears fruit in our becoming living signs of Jesus present in the world.” The pope then asked the seminarians to bear witness to God’s merciful love through their lives and actions and share it with everyone, “especially the poor and those in need.”

Pope Francis underscored that those three tenets of synodality, listening, walking together, and witness, also mark each seminarian’s path toward the priesthood.

St. Mary’s Seminary was established in Cleveland in 1848 by the first bishop of the Diocese of Cleveland, Bishop Louis Amadeus Rappe. In addition to preparing seminarians for the priesthood, it also awards graduate and doctoral degrees in theology, divinity and ministry.

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to consider a case April 18 that could have broad implications for employees seeking religious accommodations from their employers.

The high court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in Groff v. DeJoy, a case concerning Gerald Groff, an evangelical Christian and former U.S. Postal Service worker, who was denied an accommodation to observe his Sunday Sabbath by not taking Sunday shifts.

Federal law prohibits employers from firing employees for who request religious accommodations unless the employer can show that the worker’s religious practice cannot be “reasonably” accommodated without “undue hardship.” The Supreme Court issued a 1977 decision in Trans World Airlines v. Hardison finding that the “undue hardship” standard is met even at a minimal cost.

Groff alleged in federal court that USPS failed to provide him with reasonable accommodations for his religious practices. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit ruled in favor of USPS, arguing the post office would face “undue hardship” by accommodating Groff’s request to excuse him from Sunday shifts.

But the U.S. Supreme Court agreed earlier this year to take up the case.

Randy Wenger, chief counsel of the Independence Law Center, a group representing Groff, told OSV News that Groff “has a very strong conviction about Sunday being the Lord’s Day,” which caused him to seek employment at a place that was closed on Sundays.

“In a pluralistic society, it’s really important to be able to find those ways to accommodate so that we can all work together effectively,” he said.

Wenger said when the post office reached an agreement to deliver some Amazon packages on Sundays, Groff sought accommodations to not work those shifts. He was initially accommodated, then disciplined for his refusal to work Sundays. He later resigned to avoid violating his convictions.

“If we’re committed to protecting religious conscience, we need to make sure employees don’t lose their jobs for following their faith,” Wegner said. “It’s kind of like freedom of speech, you might not like what somebody has to say, but their ability to say what they say helps you say what you want to say.”

In a court filing, attorneys for USPS argued that “simply skipping (Groff) in the rotation for Sunday work would have violated both a collectively bargained (memorandum of understanding) and a specific settlement.” USPS attorneys added the accommodation would have created “morale problems” among his colleagues.

Mark Rienzi, president and CEO of Becket, a religious liberty law firm that has filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case, told OSV News the Supreme Court’s previous ruling on the minimum standard in Hardison is not in keeping with the intention of the federal law.

“So essentially, if it costs the employer anything at all to accommodate, the employer doesn’t have to accommodate,” he said of the previous ruling. “The whole point of the law was to actually protect the employees unless it was some real hardship on the employer. And instead of requiring hardship, what the court said was actually it doesn’t really have to be a hardship.”

Rienzi said he is optimistic the court will fix its previous interpretation.

“I strongly suspect they’re going to fix it and acknowledge it made no sense,” he said.