The pastor of a Chicago-area parish writes in the most recent bulletin: (pdf file, letter is on p. 10)

In two weeks, the priests and people of the Archdiocese will gather with Cardinal George and the Auxiliary Bishops in the Cathedral of the Holy Name for the annual Mass at which new priests are ordained. Most of those who become priests in Chicago study at the major seminary in Mundelein, and on May 20, twelve men will receive the sacrament of Holy Orders. Not too bad a number, yet not one was born in the Archdiocese (all but one were born outside of the United States).

Six of us were ordained in 1990; we were one of the smallest ordination classes. And yet, we all had Chicago roots. We all went to school in the Archdiocese and had family in the Archdiocese.

Some U.S. dioceses are able to produce an abundance of seminarians, but not Chicago. The paltry number of those attending our high school and college seminaries that actually get ordained makes it difficult to justify the expense. Archdiocesan parishes are hotbeds of discipleship and prayer. But how many young people who grew up in Chicagoland are active in their faith? My sense of the thousand young people attending Mass at St. Alphonsus each week gives me the impression that too many who grew up in Archdiocesan parishes are not practicing Catholic adults. Those who come to Mass at St. Alphonsus seem to be mostly from small towns outside the Archdiocese, or from other states. We boast of having a strong Archdiocese, yet the percentage of those who grew up here who are part of parish life seems inordinately small.

The fact that we cannot produce our own priests is an indictment against our Church; it is an indictment against us priests, because it is our role to recruit. I therefore have to accept responsibility for not having made seminary recruitment enough of a priority in my own priesthood.

My grandmother died of leukemia– a cancer of the blood. At the time, the only real treatments consisted of transfusions of healthy blood, since her own bone marrow was unable to sufficiently produce this on its own. Newer treatments seek to heal the bone marrow, or replace the old, substituting it with new, healthy marrow.

Perhaps during this thinning out period, during which native clergy are replaced by those from other countries, whatever it is in our Archdiocese that is spiritually sick will run its course, and a new, healthier marrow will begin producing vocations to the priesthood. In a diocese of 2.4 million Catholics, even if only 20% go to Mass, we should be able to produce priests. With so few in the seminary, it is clear that, as a body, we are spiritually sick. The emergency transfusion of seminarians and priests from other countries and outside the Archdiocese is a life-saving measure, but not a long-term solution. Our spiritual bone marrow that generates a response to the priestly calling must be renewed, unless it is so diseased that we might better prepare for death.