{"id":1286,"date":"2008-12-28T08:51:00","date_gmt":"2008-12-28T08:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2008\/12\/priests-without-borders.html"},"modified":"2008-12-28T08:51:00","modified_gmt":"2008-12-28T08:51:00","slug":"priests-without-borders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/12\/priests-without-borders.html","title":{"rendered":"Priests without borders"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>Photo: by James Estrin, the New York Times<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

The New York Times has taken notice of something many of us here in the U.S. have known for a while: more of our priests are not American.<\/p>\n

Here’s a snip<\/a>: <\/p>\n

Sixteen of the Rev. Darrell Venters\u2019s fellow priests are running themselves ragged here, each serving three parishes simultaneously. One priest admits he stood at an altar once and forgot exactly which church he was in.<\/p>\n

So Father Venters, lean and leathery as the Marlboro man \u2014 a cigarette in one hand and a cellphone with a ring tone like a church bell in the other \u2014 spends most of his days recruiting priests from overseas to serve in the small towns, rolling hills and farmland that make up the Roman Catholic Diocese of Owensboro.<\/p>\n

He sorts through e-mail and letters from foreign priests soliciting jobs in America, many written in formal, stilted English. He is looking, he said, for something that shouts: \u201cThis priest is just meant for Kentucky!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we didn\u2019t get international priests,\u201d he said, \u201csome of our guys would have had five parishes. If one of our guys were to leave, or God forbid have a heart attack and die, we didn\u2019t have anyone to fill in.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the last six years, he has brought 12 priests from Africa, Asia and Latin America who are serving in this diocese covering the western third of Kentucky, where a vast majority of residents are white. His experiences offer a close look at the church\u2019s drive to import foreign priests to compensate for a dearth of Americans, and the ways in which this trend is reshaping the Roman Catholic experience in America.<\/p>\n

One of six diocesan priests now serving in the United States came from abroad, according to \u201cInternational Priests in America,\u201d a large study published in 2006. About 300 international priests arrive to work here each year. Even in American seminaries, about a third of those studying for the priesthood are foreign-born.<\/p>\n

Father Venters has seen lows. Some foreign priests had to be sent home. One became romantically entangled with a female co-worker. One isolated himself in the rectory. Still another would not learn to drive. A priest from the Philippines left after two weeks because he could not stand the cold. A Peruvian priest was hostile toward Hispanics who were not from Peru.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a strictly personnel perspective,\u201d Father Venters said one day over a lunch of potato soup with American cheese and a glass of sweet tea, \u201cthe international priests are easier to work with than the local priests. If they mess up, you just say, \u2018See you.\u2019 You withdraw your permission for them to stay.\u201d<\/p>\n

But there have been victories as well, when Kentucky Catholics who once did not know Nigeria from Uganda opened their eyes to the conditions in the countries their foreign priests came from \u2014 even raising $6,000 to install wells in the home village of a Nigerian priest serving in Owensboro.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re taking a shot in the dark getting these guys,\u201d Father Venters said. \u201cBut honestly, other than a few, we have had really, really good results.\u201d<\/p>\n

In earlier eras, the Catholic church in the United States depended on foreign priests from places like Ireland, Italy, Germany, Poland and Belgium. But they usually accompanied their immigrant flocks, and ministered to their own people in their native language.<\/p>\n

Nowadays, however, the missionary priests have little in common with the Americans who often come to them for advice and solace in times of crisis. In Owensboro, it falls to Father Venters, who grew up on a farm in Illinois and has barely traveled outside the country, to find ways to bridge the often large cultural divides. One foreign priest had never seen a microwave. Another thought the frost on his car one morning was the work of vandals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s this assumption that a priest is a priest,\u201d said Father Venters, who, as the vicar for clergy, is essentially the bishop\u2019s assistant on personnel issues. \u201cOn the church side of it, that\u2019s correct. We are a universal church and the rituals are the same, so he knows how to be a priest. The challenge is, he does not know how to be a priest in the United States.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To find out what that means, check out the rest of the story, and a very good slideshow at the link<\/a>.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo: by James Estrin, the New York Times The New York Times has taken notice of something many of us here in the U.S. have known for a while: more of our priests are not American. Here’s a snip: Sixteen of the Rev. Darrell Venters\u2019s fellow priests are running themselves ragged here, each serving three…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":365,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ripped-from-the-headlines","category-vocations"],"yoast_head":"\nPriests without borders - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/12\/priests-without-borders.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Priests without borders - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Photo: by James Estrin, the New York Times The New York Times has taken notice of something many of us here in the U.S. have known for a while: more of our priests are not American. 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