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Traditional Catholic Faith => Crisis in the Church => Topic started by: Nishant Xavier on May 03, 2019, 07:42:36 AM

Title: Tradition: Solution to the Priestly Shortage and Crisis - SSPX Article.
Post by: Nishant Xavier on May 03, 2019, 07:42:36 AM
This is another Proof of God's Divine Favour upon the SSPX and the Divine Mission He has granted to it to help continue, along with other Traditional Roman Catholics, the cause of Catholic Tradition in and for His Church, to secure Her Triumph and safeguard Her Future. We've seen in recent threads (1) Fr. Donald Kloster admits "I have been doing a National Study on the TLM only parishes in the USA. Currently, there are around 70 of these but they are exploding in numbers with each passing year because the TLM priestly vocations are outpacing Novus Ordo priestly vocations by more than 7 to 1" and therefore Tradition is likely to become dominant even as quickly as just 2050; something hopeful to pray and something necessary to work toward. (2) Rorate had an article that about 5000 to possibly 7000 (out of around 415,000 Priests in Total in the Universal Church - only about 2% yet, so there is still some way to go) offer the Traditional Mass, showing that Tradition, by the Grace of God, and the great labours of many, has come far in 50 years https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2019/02/around-5000-priests-currently-celebrate.html (https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2019/02/around-5000-priests-currently-celebrate.html) (3) Traditional Priests (SSPX, FSSP, ICRSS etc) account for about 20% of the New Ordinations in France, and are projected to increase to more than 50% of all Priests by around 2038. (4) SSPX is doing very well in France, the home of Saintly Archbishop Lefebvre, with some 180 odd (from memory) holy Priests there, and many missionary Priests sent to labour in foreign countries, as District Superior Fr. Benoit said in a recent interview. And finally, we can see simply from the facts that (5) there will definitely be, I can confidently predict and project, much more than 1000 holy Priests in the SSPX within about the next ten years, granted that there are currently 637 Priests, with some 330 Seminarians who will be trained to be Priests over the next decade, and many entering newly each year to be prepared. Why doesn't any Skeptic and Naysayer of the Society prove that they can do better than the SSPX here where it really matters? This is the ultimate test.

The below article is taken from: http://www.sspxflorida.com/en/tradition-solution-for-priestly-crisis (http://www.sspxflorida.com/en/tradition-solution-for-priestly-crisis) Thoughts on this, from the skeptics?
Tradition: solution for priestly crisis
JULY 10, 2015
SOURCE: DISTRICT OF THE USA

(http://www.sspxflorida.com/sites/sspx/files/styles/dici_image_full_width/public/news/fewer-priests-and-nuns460.jpg?itok=n9bMUfpW)
If the "experiment of Tradition" is implemented, the ever-declining number of priests (and religious) that is being experienced by dioceses throughout the world can be reversed.

The editor of DICI, Fr. Lorans, offers a brief commentary—and then a challenge from Tradition—on the tragic state of affairs afflicting the Church in France concerning the number of priests.

In contrast to the dire situation faced by French dioceses (see the following news article for more details), the Society of St. Pius X continues to flourish as testified by its recent priestly ordinations:



In consequence of this year's ordinations, the SSPX now numbers over 600 priests (http://sspx.org/en/news-events/news/sspx-to-gain-over-600-priests-this-summer-8853).

In fact, as made clear by Fr. Wegner's recent Future Fund appeal letter (http://sspx.org/en/news-events/news/help-us-build-spiritual-fatherhood-8953) for the New Seminary Project (see the sidebar video), the SSPX's North American seminary is "suffering" from a different sort of decrease—a lack of room for the training of priests!



From denial to challenge

This year there were only 68 ordinations of diocesan priests throughout all of France and 52 ordinations of religious for a total of 120 new priests. It is predicted that there will be only 6000 priests in France in 5 years as compared to 15,000 today, because 10,000 of them are over 65 years of age, and 7000 are over 75.

How will 6000 priests be able to serve parishes? The head of the Great Mosque of Paris has some ideas for putting former churches to good use in France (Europe 1, 6-15-2015), and Bishop Michel Dubost of Evry, who “prefers that churches become mosques rather than restaurants,” will be able to hand over the keys to him.

Faced with this inexorable drop in ordinations, specialist committees offer sociological explanations and expert consultations suggest psychological interpretations, while the conclusion is more demographically obvious every day: there are not enough new priests to replace the priests who die.

This critical situation led one bishop to ask several years ago for permission to “make the experiment of Tradition.” But in the name of an ideological a priori, his request was denied: the Council is non-negotiable, post-conciliar reform is irreversible, the numbers that contradict it must be “Lefebvrist,” and must be treated accordingly with the disdain… Such is the denial of reality.

But the facts are always there, and the experiment of Tradition can still be made. But for that to happen we must make an energetic denial that this decline is our destiny, and there must be a will to make use of the treasures offered by the Tradition of 2000 years… Such is the challenge!

Fr. Alain Lorans | DICI no. 318 (http://www.dici.org/en/news/from-denial-to-challenge/)



France: Drop in the number of ordinations this year

Le Figaro of July 7, 2015, indicates that “the number of priests ordained in France has never been so low.” Indeed, the French bishops’ conference announced 68 ordinations of diocesan priests in 2015, down from 82 in 2014. Together with the 52 ordinations of priests from religious orders, this makes up 120 priests (diocesan and religious) who are ordained for the year 2015, as compared to 140 last year. This is the lowest number in the last 15 years.

The future is hardly brighter, for only 87 diocesan seminarians were ordained to the diaconate in 2015 and are due to become priests next year. As Figaro columnist Caroline Picquet writes,

Quote
the chronic drop in the number of priests in France has been concerning the bishops for a long time. The number of Catholic priests in France was almost halved over 20 years, moving from 29,000 (diocesan and religious priests together) in 1995 to around 15,000 in 2015. Experts predict that there will be only 6000 priests in France by 2020."
 

10,000 of them are over 65, and 7000 are over 75. And one bishops recognized the plain facts: “I ordain one priest per year, while I bury 12.” This means that many French bishops have not ordained a priest for 10 years.

Le Figaro accepts this commentary fatalistically:

Quote
In the diocese of Toulouse, the chancellor Christian Teysseyre has observed this permanent fluctuation from one year to the next. ‘On average, we have 1.5 ordinations per year, but this year we have not had any diocesan ordinations,’ he reports. ‘This is not the first time this has happened, it depends on the year. In 2016, for example, we expect to have three.’ In the diocese of Orleans, it varies a good deal. ‘This year, we have one ordination, versus four in 2014,'”
 

explains a layman involved with the Church who preferred to remain anonymous. 2012 and 2013 were more difficult years: “no ordinations.”

This drop in ordinations is invariably accompanies, throughout the decades, a drop in the number of participants: in 1952, 27% of Catholics attended Mass; in 2010, only 4.5%, according to a study conducted by IFOP.

(Sources: Figaro—CEF—IFOP—DICI no. 318 (http://www.dici.org/en/news/france-drop-in-the-number-of-ordinations-this-year/), 10-7-2015)

Edit: See Also: RELATED ARTICLES
SSPX "healthy" and "growing": Bishop Fellay (http://www.sspxflorida.com/en/sspx-healthy-and-growing-bishop-fellay-3-2015-interview)
Sacrifice: the heart of the priesthood (http://www.sspxflorida.com/en/news-events/news/sacrifice-heart-priesthood-8677)
Priestly Holiness (http://www.sspxflorida.com/en/media/books/priestly-holiness-2043)

59 new seminarians for SSPX (http://www.sspxflorida.com/en/news-events/news/59-new-seminarians-sspx-7514)

 (http://www.sspxflorida.com/en/news-events/news/59-new-seminarians-sspx-7514)The New Mass weakens notion of sacrifice (http://www.sspxflorida.com/en/news-events/news/new-mass-weakens-notion-sacrifice-2882) (http://www.sspxflorida.com/en/news-events/news/new-mass-weakens-notion-sacrifice-2882)

Discerning a vocation (http://www.sspxflorida.com/en/priesthood/vocation)
3 new priests ordained at La Reja (http://www.sspxflorida.com/en/news-events/news/3-new-priests-ordained-at-la-reja)
How the crisis impacts priests, family, vocations (http://www.sspxflorida.com/en/news-events/news/how-crisis-impacts-priests-family-vocations-6541)
Spotlight on USA seminarians in Australia (http://www.sspxflorida.com/en/news-events/news/spotlight-usa-seminarians-australia-4815)