{"id":3183,"date":"2008-04-16T07:59:00","date_gmt":"2008-04-16T07:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2008\/04\/magnificent-bloggery-the-papal-edition.html"},"modified":"2008-04-16T07:59:00","modified_gmt":"2008-04-16T07:59:00","slug":"magnificent-bloggery-the-papal-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/04\/magnificent-bloggery-the-papal-edition.html","title":{"rendered":"Magnificent bloggery, the papal edition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over at the New York Times, they have a running blog<\/a> of various religious observers and experts, discussing the papal visit. Fascinating stuff. Some excerpts: <\/p>\n

From Fr. James Martin, SJ: <\/p>\n

\u201cI am deeply ashamed,\u201d Pope Benedict XVI said this morning, briefly addressing the sexual abuse crisis in the United States. \u201cWe will do what is possible so this cannot happen again in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pope was expressing the same sentiment of every priest I know, not to mention every sister, brother and layperson. American Catholics are ashamed of the crimes of some of their priests \u2014 and the actions of too many of their bishops. The reports that began in The Boston Globe in January of 2002 were shaming for the priesthood in particular.<\/p>\n

Yet men are still entering seminaries. Why?<\/p>\n

Over the last few days I\u2019ve received at least a dozen calls from reporters trying to make sense of that question, and to grasp the parlous state of priestly vocations. In 2007, according to the Center for Applied Research on the Apostolate, 3,238 parishes (out of a total of 18,624) went without a \u201cresident priest pastor.\u201d That means over 3,000 \u201cpriestless\u201d parishes. Overall, the number of priests stood at 41,449 in 2007, down from 58,632 in 1965. And the number of graduate-level seminarians is down from 8,325 in 1965 to 3,274 last year.<\/p>\n

Why would anyone want to be a priest after the abuse crisis? Who would want to join an organization like the Catholic Church, much less represent it publicly? How could someone still hear the \u201ccall\u201d? What will the church do without priests? A few observations:<\/p>\n

First off, the call has little to do with hearing voices. As long as I\u2019ve been a Jesuit (20 years) and a priest (9 years) I\u2019ve never met anyone who decided to seek ordination because he heard a voice. Or saw a vision. Or seen anything, for that matter.<\/p>\n

Second, the call comes from a simple attraction or desire, like any vocation. It\u2019s not all that different from vocations in the life of the layperson. Two people may discover their vocation to the married life by being attracted to one another. A doctor may decide to become a doctor because he finds that life appealing. So in the life of a young man drawn to the priesthood<\/p>\n

At the most basic level a \u201ccall\u201d manifests itself as a simple attraction. In these ways God, I believe, \u201ccalls\u201d people to fulfill their vocations. Those attractions are still operative in the lives of men who see that the vast majority of priests are living healthy and productive lives. Believe me, seminarians, as well as men in religious orders preparing for ordination, are fully aware, and \u201cdeeply ashamed\u201d of the clergy abuse scandals. But they are also aware of the great satisfaction that the vast majority of priests report in their working lives. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From Amy Welborn: <\/p>\n

There\u2019s a certain irony about Benedict XVI\u2019s visit to the United States, and it\u2019s this: the fact that from the 1980s right up to the day of his election a not-inconsiderable chunk of those who ran this Church he\u2019s visiting wouldn\u2019t have put him on their Friend\u2019s List for anything. In fact, as someone remarked, it was the era in which \u201cRatzinger\u201d functioned as something close to a swear word, the punching bag for frustrated progressive church professionals everywhere.<\/p>\n

(Lest you think I\u2019m making it all up, I just this minute came back from Mass where the priest began his homily making this exact point. There.)<\/p>\n

Not that the actual pope at the time \u2013 John Paul II \u2013 was exempt, despite current media fashions that demand comparisons of the \u201cpopular\u201d John Paul to Benedict. Once, sometime in the 1990s, a diocesan director of religious education \u2013 a religious sister \u2013 opined to other religious educators at a meeting I was attending that \u201c\u2026as soon as this Pope dies\u201d things would certainly improve.<\/p>\n

April 19, 2005, was probably not a great day for Sister.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From Alejandro Bermudez: <\/p>\n

The sex scandal in the Catholic Church seems to be a never-ending story.<\/p>\n

But if someone is capable of bringing this to some kind of closure it\u2019s the Pope. Not only because he has the authority, but because he has given the only truly effective response the Catholic Church can provide to this painful issue: conversion. A key Catholic word that\u2019s usually looked down upon, conversion means repentance, reparation and a 180-degree change.<\/p>\n

Two of the Pope\u2019s phrases delivered on the plane say it all: \u201cI am deeply ashamed and we will do what is possible so this cannot happen again in the future,\u201d and \u201cWe will absolutely exclude pedophiles from the sacred ministry.\u201d<\/p>\n

The shame and the promise of change are very encouraging words. There will always be those who will find these words as \u201ctoo little, too late.\u201d<\/p>\n

But looking back at all the pain, the bickering, the euphemisms, the grandstanding and the lawyers\u2019 strategies, I think that this is the first breath of a gust of fresh air that this trip could bring. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There’s much more at the Times link. Check it out.<\/p>\n

Meantime, there’s also some great bloggery happening over at Beliefnet, where the papal sage David Gibson<\/a> (author of “The Rule of Benedict” and “The Coming Catholic Church”) is holding sway. And, if that’s not enough to slake your thirst, pop over to The Anchoress<\/a>. She’s watching the papal activities closely, and has some great observations and links.<\/p>\n

Finally, there’s Your Humble Blogger’s own modest contribution over at CBS News<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over at the New York Times, they have a running blog of various religious observers and experts, discussing the papal visit. Fascinating stuff. Some excerpts: From Fr. 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Prior to that, Deacon Greg worked for 26 years as a writer and producer for CBS News, where he contributed to \"The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric,\" \"60 Minutes II,\" \"48 Hours,\" (Emmy Award, Writers Guild of America Award) and \"Sunday Morning.\" He was co-writer for the acclaimed documentary \"9\/11,\" hosted by Robert DeNiro. (Emmy Award, Christopher Award, Peabody Award, Writers Guild of America Award.) His radio essays were featured in the bestselling book \"Deadlines and Datelines\" by Dan Rather. He's also a two-time winner of the Catholic Press Association Award. Other places you may find him: AMERICA, U.S. CATHOLIC, CATHOLIC DIGEST, REALITY (Redemptorist Communications) and THE BROOKLYN TABLET. He also contributes homiletic reflections to the parish resource CONNECT!, published by Liturgical Publications. In November 2009, he began serving a three-year term as a consultant to the Communications Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Deacon Greg grew up in Maryland (Go Terps!) but he and his wife today live in the beautiful borough of Queens, New York. You can contact Deacon Greg at dcngreg@gmail.com.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/author\/gkandra"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3183\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}