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"The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest."
How have we Catholics gotten ourselves into the situation that we find ourselves today? To say that the Church is running short of priests is to underestimate the problem. Look at this chart which shows graphically the pickle we are in: (source: Channel 23 Bakersfield CA)
Above we see that the number of priests topped out in 1970 and has been sliding downhill, slowly at first, then starting in the 1980's it begins a rapid decline until we end up where we are today, and that, my friend, is in trouble. You would think that the number of Catholics in the United States was falling off significantly but you would be wrong. Compared with the 1970's there are thirty-million more of us that profess to be Catholics now than there were in the 70's. You would think that with that kind of an increase we would be awash in priestly vocations. You would be wrong there too. If One-Percent of the thirty-million became priests we would have 300,000 thousand of them - just based on the "new" people calling themselves Catholics. Of course, this is just a simple calculation and one that does not take into account how many of those people are male and how many are female. It also does not take into account how many of them are converts versus reverts, nor does it count those people any differently that are just nominal Catholics, ones that call themselves such but attend mass sparsely or not at all. But, there still should be more men studying for the priesthood than there currently is. The question this blog is raising today is a simple one, and this "Why?"
I am a child of the 1970's. I hail from an age where there were multiple priests at every parish. For example, on Saturday afternoon you had your choice of five priests to go to confession. A layperson knew his or her place. That place was in the pews and except when getting married, the altar rail was as far as the normal person went. Father took care of everything that went on north of the Altar Rail Line. He did the readings, he did the announcements and aided by a couple of acolytes he led the prayer. There was literally no reason for unconsecrated hands to touch anything that was part of the equipment used for mass. Also, no civilian ever would be allowed to touch the Sacred Species, the very Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ. The sacrament was removed from the Ciborium and you were fed by the priest. The young ones were even taught (at least at my parish) to not touch the host with the tongue even if it got stuck on the roof of your mouth, you were to let it dissolve naturally. A priest back then was a man entitled to great respect. You listened when Father spoke. He settled all of your doubts and questions and taught with authority. If you were a kid, you might not even know the priest's first name. Even if you did, you never called him by it. To this day, I do not know what the pastor who gave me first communion's first name. He was then and will always be for me, Father Hughs.
Then, something changed, but what was it? Oh, sure, the church made some changes. The priest turned around and faced the people, we were able to listen, in our own language to the prayers of the mass. Communion was now offered in both the bread and the wine and you could, if you wanted to, receive the host in your hand, imagine that! The music was updated and at some masses, the organ was out and the guitar was in. We rowed the boat ashore with Michael and we Kumbya'd and developed a real feel-good sort of worship service. Somewhere in all of this minutia, something changed not the church but the people in the church, the civilians, we changed.
Our fathers and grandparents saw the Church as a constant in their life. In many parts of the world, the day was constructed around the church. A son or a daughter that expressed an interest in a vocation with the Church was encouraged and the family was proud of "my son the priest" or my "daughter the nun." As I grew up in St. Joseph and St. Anne's Church and School, we were forever encouraged by the nuns and priests to consider a vocation in the Church as a priest, nun or religious brother. I think that it was in the late sixties and early seventies that their advertising for the Church started to fall on deaf ears. The question is why? Nothing had, at the time, changed with the nuns or priests. Society had changed a bit, the summer of love came and went as did Woodstock. What changed at that moment, as I see it, were two things. First, grandparents lost much of their voice in the care and feeding of their grandchildren. Where once their wisdom would have been considered, it was now discounted, as their ideas were out of date with this new brave world that their sons and daughters lived in. This would have been okay if the new generation of parents had similar goals for their lives as the previous generation. It is unfortunate that they did not. For them, spirituality took second place to consumerism. We became a people who were obsessed with the outward signs of success and this was unfortunately detrimental to our spiritual lives. When Danny or Debbie broached the subject of feeling a call to religious life, if not actively discouraged, they received no encouragement to follow through. Instead, the subtle pressure was brought to bear that would distract the prospective religious person from their personal goal. They would, like Jesus, be taken to the top of the temple and be shown all of the things that could be theirs. Unlike Jesus, they were often unable to put the temptation behind them and many vocations were lost this way. I am not saying that the parents were doing this out of hate. No, far from it. I believe that they were doing what they considered best for the child and what would be best for the family in years to come. This was the exact opposite of what would have happened in the days of yore!
So, as our cadre of priests aged, their numbers began to fall. Even some of the priests already ordained fell prey to the life outside of consecrated life and left their vocation to pursue a career outside of the Church. Today we are in extremis as far as priests go. We have never recovered that spark of spirituality that would ignite a blaze and burn away the dross of our fall into consumerism and once again open our eyes to what is important.
Apple Phone 10 is not important. 1040 HD Televisions are not important. Stacks of money in the bank are not important. What is important is that we adopt (again) a fresh new spiritual way of thinking. Parents, wake up, your eternity, as well as that of your children, are at stake here. Encourage spiritual things. For every temporal thing in your child's life, introduce two spiritual concepts. Pray together, take them to mass, drag them there if you have to! Preach to them not with words but with actions. Treat your spouse with the loving care that Jesus lavishes on his bride, the Church. Encourage your children by example to be kind, to be loving, to be tender, to want to help. If they express a desire to be part of the Church, encourage them to explore it for themselves and support them in their quest. Don't push, for they will push back. Remember all of the missed opportunities in your early life and let your kids discover for themselves, with your gentle and loving assistance, the beauty of offering their mind, body, and soul to Jesus. Ultimately, it does not matter if they become priests, nuns, deacons, for only those God has ordained to be so will succeed in this endeavor. But making sure that their spiritual life means more to them than what they have and who they know will make your son or daughter a proud follower of Jesus the Lord.
Purgatory is a place where the last vestiges of our attachment to things of this world and our sins are burned away. It is both a place of pain and sorrow and a place of great joy. The Poor Souls, perhaps some people you know, are waiting for YOU to pray for them. The time for gaining merit is on this side of the grave not once you arrive on the other. Please, this weekend, say a rosary for a poor soul. Remember, death is not the qualification for heaven, holiness is. Where they are one day you may also be.
