Send CathInfo's owner Matthew a gift from his Amazon wish list:
https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/25M2B8RERL1UO

« previous next »
Pages: [1]

Author Topic: The SSPX and the needs of the Church in USA.  (Read 517 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Nishant Xavier

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 2873
  • Reputation: +1893/-1750
  • Gender: Male
  • Immaculate Heart of Mary, May Your Triumph Come!
The SSPX and the needs of the Church in USA.
« on: May 24, 2019, 08:57:54 AM »
  • Thanks!0
  • No Thanks!1
    • The 2019 Ordinands: A Look at Numbers from the SSPX and the Rest of the USA
    MAY 21, 2019
    SOURCE: DISTRICT OF THE USA
    The Ordinations Ceremony from 2018 at St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary
    Who is being ordained this year, both in the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) and in the Diocesan cathedrals in the United States?

    To study the numbers and trends in the United States Catholic Church as a whole is an exercise in keeping an eye on one end of a see-saw. Some developments seem positive. For instance, an increase of 34% in the number of priestly ordinations in 2018, compared to its lowest point in 2000 (when examining the numbers of ordinations per active U.S. parish).

    Other news confirms the creeping secularism and loss of faith in the United States. 51 million American are professed Catholics. This number has been fairly steady in the past 45 years, but when compared to the population as a whole, the number is less optimistic. Further, data from the Pew Center collected between 2014 and 2017 shows a 39% attendance at weekly Mass.  That’s down 10 full points from a decade earlier – and little more than half of what the percentage was in 1955.

    Data from the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, a research center at Georgetown University that has conducted studies about the Catholic Church since 1964, proposes a drastically less optimistic number of weekly practicing Catholics in the year 2018 at 21.1%.

    How Many Priests for How Many Faithful in the Dioceses?

    That the steady practice of the Faith in America is declining does not surprise faithful Catholics.  What may be more of a shocking realization is the frighteningly low number of ordinations for a flock that obviously, desperately, needs guidance.  

    In 2019, cathedrals throughout the United States will see the ordination of 481 men.

    To see the impact of the ordinations in any given year, it may be most appropriate to compare the number of faithful (using the number of faithful who attend Mass weekly) per new ordinand.

    The 481 new priests will be ministering to the 14.9 million who report weekly Mass attendance, or 1 new priest per 30,997 regularly-practicing Catholics.  If we use the Pew Center’s 39% finding, which was more generous, we see the number jump to over 40,000 faithful per new ordinand.

    How Can the Society of Saint Pius X Help the Church?

    We turn to the numbers within the U.S. District of the SSPX.  Some mechanisms must be utilized here as well, since the numbers of faithful who attend Mass at SSPX priories and mission chapels are not exact.  Unlike in the dioceses, where parishioners attend their local church and belong to a parish, the SSPX chapels are more in the missionary spirit, with less hard and fast numbers.

    However, in 2018, the U.S. District polled the priors of the chapels, who performed counts at Sunday Mass over several months. The District House reports numbers just shy of 25,000 faithful. Given that this is a Sunday Mass count, it would correspond to the 14.9 million number referenced above in the United States as a whole.

    What then is the story of the ordinands in the U.S. District of the SSPX this year?  St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Virginia has announced that five men will be anointed in June. All of these men in are their mid-20s, except one ordinand in his late 40s. This is a younger group than the 481 ordinands from the diocesan seminaries, whose are in their mid-30s on average.

    And each new ordinands “responsibility,” as it were? In the U.S. District this year, these numbers mean one new ordinand for every 5,000 faithful.

    This is a daunting way of looking at one’s vocation, to be sure.  But it is less daunting when compared to the ratio of 1 new priest for every 30,997 faithful in the dioceses of the United States.

    The numbers show that something is working in the SSPX.  The SSPX can be counted on to carry on the work of the restoration of Catholic society in the United States, and worldwide."

    From: https://sspx.org/en/news-events/news/2019-ordinands-look-numbers-sspx-and-rest-usa-47989

    One of the top priorities for Tradition in the upcoming decade will be to form a Holy Army of Traditionall Priests to do they can for the necessary work of Catholic Restoration. While it's wonderful and the Grace of God that the Society has more than 650 Holy Priests working worldwide around the clock for the Glory of God and the Good of Souls, the needs of the Faithful and the Church at large require even more. In less than a decade, SSPX will almost certainly have crossed 1000 Holy Priests and will continue to be the only real Traditional Order serving the needs of the Universal Church. I wonder if it's detractors will realize then it was a mistake to needlessly attack the SSPX? As Gamaliel said, if this were merely the work of men, it would come to naught. But if manifestly the Work of God, those who fight it are trying to fight God.
    Logged
    "We wish also to make amends for the insults to which Your Vicar on earth and Your Priests are everywhere subjected [above all by schismatic sedevacantists - Nishant Xavier], for the profanation, by conscious neglect or Terrible Acts of Sacrilege, of the very Sacrament of Your Divine Love; and lastly for the Public Crimes of Nations who resist the Rights and The Teaching Authority of the Church which You have founded." - Act of Reparation to the Sacred Heart of Lord Jesus.

    Offline Meg

    • Hero Member
    • *****
    • Posts: 6173
    • Reputation: +3147/-2941
    • Gender: Female
    Re: The SSPX and the needs of the Church in USA.
    « Reply #1 on: May 24, 2019, 10:11:36 AM »
  • Thanks!1
  • No Thanks!0
    • Quote from: XavierSem on May 24, 2019, 08:57:54 AM
    One of the top priorities for Tradition in the upcoming decade will be to form a Holy Army of Traditionall Priests to do they can for the necessary work of Catholic Restoration. While it's wonderful and the Grace of God that the Society has more than 650 Holy Priests working worldwide around the clock for the Glory of God and the Good of Souls, the needs of the Faithful and the Church at large require even more. In less than a decade, SSPX will almost certainly have crossed 1000 Holy Priests and will continue to be the only real Traditional Order serving the needs of the Universal Church. I wonder if it's detractors will realize then it was a mistake to needlessly attack the SSPX? As Gamaliel said, if this were merely the work of men, it would come to naught. But if manifestly the Work of God, those who fight it are trying to fight God.

    When St. Athanasius worked tirelessly to stand up for true Church teaching during the Arian Crisis, did he care about the numbers of priests that he ordained? I've not seen that he cared about that at all. And he most certainly ordained priests at that time. He remarked to his followers..."They have the churches, but you have the faith."

    The SSPX cares more about numbers than they do about staying true to Church teaching and the example set by Archbishop Lefebvre. Not that many on this forum will care about that at all. A few of us do.

    Also, you refer to the SSPX as a "Traditional Order" when in fact they have never been an "Order," but rather they are a fraternity. Do you understand the difference?
    Logged
    "It is licit to resist a Sovereign Pontiff who is trying to destroy the Church. I say it is licit to resist him in not following his orders and in preventing the execution of his will. It is not licit to Judge him, to punish him, or to depose him, for these are acts proper to a superior."

    ~St. Robert Bellarmine
    De Romano Pontifice, Lib.II, c.29

    Offline Ladislaus

    • Supporter
    • *****
    • Posts: 41843
    • Reputation: +23907/-4344
    • Gender: Male
    Re: The SSPX and the needs of the Church in USA.
    « Reply #2 on: May 24, 2019, 12:20:30 PM »
  • Thanks!2
  • No Thanks!0
    • So the SSPX USA is ordaining 5 despite spending a bzillion dollars on a seminary that they dreamed would be filled to the rafters?  There were many larger classes than that at Winona.  They only started to have space issues when they basically opened up minor- or pre- seminary operations.  Even then they could have built an extra wing onto the building for a couple million and carried on.  That's a sinful waste of money.  This entire seminary was set up with the prospect of huge numbers flowing in after an agreement with Rome.  But why would a young man go there instead of just to the FSSP?
    Logged
    Pages: [1]
    « previous next »