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Published: November 2, 2009
No one better die
San Francisco feels pressure of priest shortage
Editor: the following story appeared in Catholic San Francisco on October 16.
In comparison to many other Catholic dioceses in the United States, the archdiocese of San Francisco has had relatively little difficulty in providing enough active priests to serve the pastoral needs of its faithful.
 The ministry of priests from other countries at parishes in the archdiocese has, for many years, filled the gap between the archdiocese’s need for new priests and the number of its ordinations to the priesthood each year. So far the archdiocese has been spared the most serious effects of a priest shortage seen in some other regions of the country, where more than 18 percent of parishes do not have a resident priest.
But the demographics of an aging resident clergy combined with a lower number of annual ordinations are putting pressure on the archdiocese’s ability to meet the needs of parishes. The archdiocesan directory lists 44 priests ordained in the decade 1970-79, while the comparable listing for the decade 2000-09 shows 22 priests.
“I’ve been vicar of clergy for two-and-a-half years, and a priest ministering in the archdiocese for 41 years,” said San Francisco Auxiliary Bishop William Justice, “and this is the first year that I’ve said to priests, in a joking manner, ‘No one can get seriously ill or die. That’s an order.’ Because we don’t have anybody to replace them.”
Bishop Justice, who carries the responsibilities of Vicar for Clergy, paused, and then added in a serious tone: “We’ve got to continue to do some serious planning.”
For complete story click here.
Posted Monday, November 02, 2009 4:03 AM By Pat Ryan
opm
It is a great sadness that there is such a shortage of priests in San Francisco for which there may be a number of causes.
May I suggest that Bishop William Justice and your many readers check out an excellent web site called
"Vocations guide to Priesthood" because it literally contains hundreds of suggestions that most certainly will help Bishops, Pastors, Directors of Vocations, Seminaries, Catholic Schools and Families to foster vocations.
We are all partly responsible for the shortage of priests in our own dioceses. The road to increasing the number of vocations in our home parishes starts with each one of us taking the first step.
What better time to start than during the Year for Priests?
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Posted Monday, November 02, 2009 6:03 AM By St. Christopher
Gee, your excellency, how many traditional masses are there in SF? The FSSP and SSPX and other Catholic orders do reasonably well in attracting strong seminarians (and sisters). You are fooling no one, excellency, with your silly hand-wringing. Soon there will be no one at all going to your seminaries, except those who should not. Enjoy the fruits of your wonderland. PS/the next call will now be for "married" priests (and what does that mean in SF) and women priests to "save the day", all in the name of the Holy Spirit, of course.
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Posted Monday, November 02, 2009 6:07 AM By OneoftheSheep
Bishop Justice mispoke when he said “We’ve got to continue to do some serious planning.”
I believe he should have said "serious praying", not planning.
Call in the Franciscan missionaries from around the globe and recolonize our sick sister San Francisco!
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Posted Monday, November 02, 2009 8:17 AM By Grisha
My daughter tries to encourage vocations. She reports that, in large part becauise of the celabacy requirement, the boys who would make the best priests become cops and firefighters.
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Posted Monday, November 02, 2009 9:59 AM By Life Lady
Grisha, the boys who would make the best priests embrace the order of celebacy. If those other boys are attracted to becoming firefighters and policemen, more power to them, but not a one of them would have become a good and faithful priest. If San Francisco is having problems attracting or creating vocations from their young men, perhaps the good bishop needs to get down on his knees and do his serious planning from there. And, he could use a little fasting, from the picture posted here.
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Posted Monday, November 02, 2009 10:32 AM By cecilia tsu
There is NO shortage of priest in Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish, Mill Valley, Marin County of SF Archdiocese. A priest who has been in residence for last 8/9 years, says at least 3 Mases per week, including Sunday Mases, is intentionally NOT allowed to say Mass on Tuesday, the day-off of our new Pastor. Thus, claiming there is no priest on Tuesdays. Therefore, Communion Service is able to be held by lay man or woman, clothed in similar vesture of priest, perform just like priest for the ENTIRE "Mass". Misleadingly citing "The Directory for SUNDAY Celebration in the Absence of a Priest" 1988 is the authority. It is in open violation of numerous codes of Redemptionis Sacramentum, 2004 of the Confregation for Divine Worship & Discipline of the Sacraments.
One has to believe that the SF Archdioces is in tacit consent of destroying the sacramental nature of the Mass, in open support of secularization of clergy and "clericalization" of laity and woman for priest.
Come to see it on Tuesday at 7:45am. You will wonder whether this is a Catholic Church with woman priest!
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Posted Monday, November 02, 2009 10:46 AM By ConcDen
Grisha, that is an age old "concern" - we are not animals and do not need the carrot of sex to be good givers of life. A Priest has a great responsibility in caring for a Parish and all the families within it. Having a wife and children of his own would only take away from his parish and take away from his domestic church. When one is married, we are married to ONE. A priest is married to the church - PERIOD!
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Posted Monday, November 02, 2009 12:19 PM By Elizabeth
Who would want to join such a 'Liberal' Archdiocese?
The young men who want to become Priests, from what I have read, want to be Orthodox!
And where are all the Perpetual Adoration Chapels in the Archdiocese?
I believe the Archdiocese needs to foster more vocations and also be kinder to all the Priests they currently have, some of what goes on currently, (in my humble opinion) depends if you are a 'team' player or not! In other words, are you Liberal or Orthodox??????
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Posted Monday, November 02, 2009 12:29 PM By St. Christopher
"Grisha", many believe that true men simply are disgusted with the Paul VI mass, which lacks all types of discipline, varying widely from parish to parish and certainly among diocese. More importantly, this same mass is feminine in nature, as is the priesthood itself under many bishops. The Church has dropped it evangelical mission, and the notion that a priest -- a male priest -- stands in the person of Christ on this earth, to lead his flock at Mass, facing East, and in giving no quarter to an increasingly wide vista of sinful activity that is now seen as acceptable. Police and Firemen, in a temporal sense, represent such figures of assurance and authority. We must pray for priests, as they have been so misformed that many men simply refuse to become so feminized and "preside" over a weekly "meal". The Church, to the fury of so many liberal bishops, is surely heading away from this awful circumstance. It is not celebacy, though, that leads to this rejection by men, but the soft and fluffy, that leads to this result.
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Posted Monday, November 02, 2009 3:12 PM By WOODY GUIDRY
Perhaps SOMEONE SHOULD DIE, as did Ugandan martyr, St. Charles Lwanda, who was canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1964 for resisting evil and refusing to renounce his Catholic faith. Among the evils he resisted are said to have been acts of homosexuality. Anglican young men died in the same incident and were mentioned by the Pope at St Charles' canonization. Pope John Paul ll said, "Christ is in Africa" on one of his visits there-and, now, a stream of beautiful black African priests continues to come to the U.S. Further, there is the chance that Anglican priests will swell our ranks of priests who want, foremost, to be Catholic. What a wonderful coincidence-or did the seed of martyr's blood prevail?
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Posted Monday, November 02, 2009 3:47 PM By Peggy
Grisha -- we need only look to the Anglican/Episcopalian church to see what happens when married clergy, women clergy, same-sex "marriage", etc. is allowed. There are those in the Catholic church who advocate for these same things. Yet, have you tried to get adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in your parish? Or how about having a Latin Mass in your parish? Ask, and you will most likely be scorned and laughed at for suggest such a "backward" idea. Have a reverent Mass and provide for time to sit and pray before the Blessed Sacrament and my belief is that vocations to the priesthood will happen.
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Posted Monday, November 02, 2009 3:52 PM By Mark from PA
This is an interesting article but I can't believe the pettiness of some of the comments. The bishop could use a little fasting? The priest needs to face the East? This same Mass is feminine in nature? SIGH!
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Posted Monday, November 02, 2009 4:04 PM By Bob
Several threads are flowing through this site, all at once. Let's just assume that there is a good number of men who don't want to lead a celibate life. In that case, they would not be attracted to the priesthood. Others might be attracted to it. Its not a zero sum game. Its ok not to want to be celebate. It has nothing to do with the absence of TLM or any of those things.
As the number of priests dwindles, and nearly 20% of all parishes today have no resident priest, the use of the Sunday celabration in the absence of a priest will become more common. Very often, the deacon is asked to perform the "ceremony". If there is no deacon, then properly trained lay people - Lectors and Acolytes- can lead people in the prayers, the liturgy of the Word and distribute communion. They would normally wear an alb, but no stole. This is not a mockery of the mass as has been hinted at. It is a reality of the present day status of the lack of priest. This is a normal practice in the military, by the way, in many countries. None of the above has anything to do with liberal or conservative or orthodox. People who say that others are disgusted with the Paul VI Mass are people who cannot claim to be fully Catholic, because that is the mass of the church, as is the TLM and several other variations with the norms. There are several cannons from which priest can choose. Let's let them do their jobs without being too judgemental, shall we. Some of these posting sound like catholic fox news.
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Posted Monday, November 02, 2009 4:08 PM By JLS
Grisha, obviously your daughter, firefighters and cops know better than the popes.
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Posted Monday, November 02, 2009 4:09 PM By Fr. X
When Bishop Justice says we need to do some "serious planning" (rather than praying as onofthesheep suggests), we see an example of what such planning will be with Cecilia Tsu's description of mass without a priest, while there are priests available to say mass in her parish. The "shortage" of priests seems to be a self-fulfilling, or rather a desired outcome. Notice the dishonesty in how mass without a priest was justified. Just as many of the post Vatican II were not implemented honestly. Another example would be communion in the hand. Nothing in the Vatican II documents speaks of standing and receiving Holy Communion in the hand. This was an experiment tried by Bishops and their liturgy committtees in Europe, then later to the United States. Subsequently, many religious education leaders, and average catholics went along with this out of obedience and charity. Once it became widely practiced, diocesan leaders now say it is a "customary" practice, precedence has been set, and so it must be accepted. In similar way, we will be indoctrinated with "mass" without a priest.
These leaders think they are doing good, leading us in an ecumenical direction. Unfortunately, the church and its sacraments are being weakened just as we face the growing threat of a one world government and tyranny.
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Posted Monday, November 02, 2009 4:13 PM By JLS
This bishop "no one better die" is putting the blame on others ... he, of course, is innocent. Dante placed fraudulance in the lower reaches of Hell, where it was said by Saint Charles Borromeo that the road is lined with the skulls of bishops. Looks more and more like there is the San Francisco Catholic Church and the Roman Catholic Church, the first being a few decades old and the second being a couple millenia old and yet still younger than the upstart.
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Posted Monday, November 02, 2009 6:20 PM By WOODY GUIDRY
Three Texas churches became Catholic after the 1980 Vatican approval of the "Anglican use" provision which allowed U.S. churches to convert on a case-by-case basis but also retain their traditions and identity. St. Mary the Virgin church stuck to its Anglican roots in ways such as receiving Communion while kneeling. San Antonio's Our Lady of the Atonement Catholic Church began with 18 people who had left several Episcopal churches and wanted to become Catholic. It has grown to 500 families. The married priest has been accepted as a priest-"-they always ask about my family" says Rev. Christopher Phillips.
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Posted Monday, November 02, 2009 6:54 PM By RR
Grisha: I think it's great that your daughter is trying to encourage vocations, but in order for a man to become a priest he needs to have a Calling to the priesthood. I have a nephew who in the last year or so received his calling and he just this fall started in the seminary at Mount St. Mary's in Maryland. He said he tried to deny his calling because he said that he wanted to have children. He said he just knew he would be a great dad. He broke up with this beautiful girl he had been dating a long time because his calling to the priesthood was greater than his calling to be a father and husband. He is such a great young man. He is 25 years old and he is so very handsome. But, he said that eventually he accepted wholeheartedly his calling from God and he now says that some day he will have so many of God's children to tend to, just in a different way. He says his family will be his parish. So, when your daughter says the reason these boys don't go into the seminary and become cops or firemen instead is because they have to be celebate is not true. They just simply were not called by God to be a priest. The will of God was for them to be a fireman or a policeman, not a priest.
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Posted Monday, November 02, 2009 8:41 PM By JLS
Bob, you never answered my question, what religion are you a member of? Because you certainly don't advocate anything that is Catholic. Literature has used your character innumerable times: It is a character whose purpose is to facilitate a transition from something good to something bad. It's not an insignificant character, though, so don't be too bummed out about it. It has been played by great character actors in various movies about various things, but always this guy serves to betray the good people by in the way a toad is betrayed by being put in cool water which is heated slowly to boiling.
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Posted Monday, November 02, 2009 8:46 PM By JLS
There is no shortage of priests, but there is a shortage of faithful. When faith is taken up by more people, then they will furnish the priests they need. Also to note, it takes witnessing of the Cross to gain the love of faith in faithless people ... St John Vianney stirred countless souls to the faith. Those souls did not need many priests, but only one faithful priest.
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Posted Monday, November 02, 2009 9:05 PM By JLS
RR, do you mean rather Mt St Mary's in Emmitsburg Pennsylvania?
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Posted Monday, November 02, 2009 9:07 PM By JLS
RR, tell your nephew that there are countless children out there who have no father ... yes, if he continually develops his faith, then he will be father to many needy children.
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Posted Monday, November 02, 2009 9:43 PM By Phillip in S.F.
I would be willing to serve as a priest in my hometown; however, I would exclusively say the Traditional Mass, and not the Novus Ordo.
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Posted Monday, November 02, 2009 10:49 PM By Theresa
The best way to inspire and attract the young to consider being a clergy is by setting examples, certainly not by preaching or sarcasium. Comments such as "no one better die" is silly and stupid and not funny at all, a very poor reflection not only on the bishop himself but on the church. This good bishop desperatly needs our prayers. If he was truly serious about "serious planning", he would be at the 7:45AM mass at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Mill Valley next Tuesday to see the woman "priest" for himself.
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Posted Monday, November 02, 2009 11:06 PM By Maryanne Leonard
For those who are shocked by the concept of a lay person conducting Mass in the absence of a priest, which I also find deeply disturbing and of course contrary to Catholic teaching, I would like to share my experience in living in a tiny village on the Yukon in Alaska populated by 225 Indians, most of them drunk most of the time, and 6 white people, who basically provided all the services of the town. The very few fully functional people in town of native blood were practicing Catholics who had lost their priest but still had a weatherbeaten old church from the 1800's, missing perhaps 1/6 of its clapboards, in which they gathered every Sunday and conducted Mass together, with each person taking a small part. It moved me to tears to witness people refusing to lose their church, and I learned the value of continuing the skeleton of a church in such a small and desolate setting. I don't know how they could have survived without their weekly celebration of Mass. It was all they had to help them keep sane in such a depressing environment.
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Posted Tuesday, November 03, 2009 6:30 AM By Joshua
Let us pray that the City of San Francisco gets more priests in the very near future. In one of the Bible's most famous parables by Christ himself didn't he recount that the good shepherd left the ninety-nine sheep to find the one lost sheep. Let us all pray that the City of San Francisco get some shepherds for their flock as well. God loves us all no matter what we have done becasue we are all precious in his eyes and worthy of salvation. After all isn't this the same God who saved the good theif right at the foot of the cross.
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Posted Tuesday, November 03, 2009 8:19 AM By Grisha
RR: You are right. We ought not to push young men toward the seminary if they don't truely have vocations. God bless your nephew on his journey to the priesthood
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Posted Tuesday, November 03, 2009 10:36 AM By RR
JLS: No, it is not in Pennsylvania. It is Mt. St. Mary's in Maryland. It's a university with a seminary on campus. My nephew had been working in my diocese here with a program called FOCUS, which is a program where college youth are taught about the Catholic faith. You can Yahoo it. The youth are taught how to defend the faith when they are confronted by Protestants and non-believers. He loved working with the youth. I have a HUGE family and I have 30 nieces and nephews. When there is a family event all the little nieces and nephews just cling to him. You can tell there is something special about him. I haven't seen him since August when he left, but he will be back in Illinois for Thanksgiving. I can't wait to talk to him about the seminary.
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Posted Tuesday, November 03, 2009 1:25 PM By St. Christopher
"Fr. X" has stated it correctly. We are being softened up, as lambs to the slaughter, before the self-fulling prophecy comes in - - the need for lay people to lead a mass, or the need to have women priests, or married priests, or what have you. "Bob" there are many variants of Catholic mass in the USA, but it is unclear what you are describing; it is certainly not a sacramentally valid service or mass. The "liberal liturgists" that now hold sway in the Church are panicked in that only in and through Tradition is there growth in Catholic religious orders. The sycophantic mewing of some clergy and bishops (many growing old) towards a "universalist church" -- not a united Catholic Church -- will become a sorry footnote or two in church history. The patron saint of this movement is Bishop Weakland, a favorite of Paul VI. A cleansing fire is coming; the work of the Holy Ghost.
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Posted Tuesday, November 03, 2009 5:02 PM By Bob
I think that it is important to understand that lay people do not say Mass. They lead a service of the Word, prayer and reflection. They may or may not distribute communion that was consecrated by a priest at another time. One of the strategies that has been discussed is to have a priest visit outlying churches too small to have a pastor, or when no pastor is available, to say Mass and consecrate enough host to last until he can return. But, this is not a mass and isn't intended to be one.
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Posted Tuesday, November 03, 2009 5:09 PM By Bob
JLS, it is not yours to question anyone's religion, so I will not answer. I know, however, that I have never posted anything on this site that was not in full compliance with the teachings of the Church. I do enough research on most issues to know that I am right. Sometimes, I admit, I do give my opinion. I suggest that judging people as good or bad is not very helpful.
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Posted Tuesday, November 03, 2009 5:35 PM By JLS
It does not really matter how large a percentage of the hierarchy are moving or trying to move the Church away from God ... The faithful are guaranteed the only Church.
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Posted Tuesday, November 03, 2009 7:21 PM By gravey
No need to worry. There's a corresponding shortage of Catholics in the S.F. Archdiocese.
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Posted Wednesday, November 04, 2009 6:40 AM By JLS
Bob, I can and will question anyone about anything. It is called for us to do so by Jesus Christ. Too bad your knowledge of Catholicism is so sparse.
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Posted Wednesday, November 04, 2009 7:36 PM By Bob
JLS. One example, please
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Posted Wednesday, November 04, 2009 9:50 PM By JLS
Bob of short memory, I've carried out your request at least twice in the past weeks.
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Posted Thursday, November 05, 2009 6:31 AM By JLS
Bob, Jesus in the Apocalypse tells us to "discern the spirits". Do you understand what this means? When you claim all your posts are in full compliance with Church doctrine, you err. The most glaring example of your error is in the post where you contradict yourself. You say both that you know you are right, and then in the next sentence you say that you also give your own opinion. This conflict of mind appears in almost all of your posts, Bob, and is why I have jumped on them. I do not see a search for truth to be a feel good party, nor a compromise party, nor anything else but a search for the truth. Opinions are good as long as they are truthful. Truth can be seen from various angles, and each angle is an opinion. However, when the opinion replaces the truth, then it is an evil opinion.
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Posted Thursday, November 05, 2009 8:26 AM By abqdad
When seminaries are orthodox, they have NO problem getting sufficient men for vocations! This is true worldwide! (When I investigated the priesthood in 1975, I was openly told that they were ONLY interested in gay men!!! True story!) If someone has the needed faith and devotion to become a priest, the celibacy requirement is NOT a "deal breaker" in the least! Deacons are NOT required to be celibate, and there is a lack there, too! (Most deacons are "older" when they start the program, and they tend to come from families that are financially secure.) The reality is that selfishness is pervasive in our culture which is inconsistent with service in the church! The ORTHODOX seminary that we helped build in the name of my mother was full within one year of its completion!!! Yes, there is a shortage in some areas, but those areas tend to be areas with weak Bishops (like where I live!) and lacking in orthodox teachings! (Again, like where I live!) The key is to RETURN to Christ's teachings and reject man's deceptive teachings, which have corrupted so many churches in the US!
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Posted Saturday, November 07, 2009 6:33 PM By JonJ
Wow! I just learned something profound! There are more ways to end a sentance than with an exclaimation mark! Since I've worked my entire life as a 4th rate marketing failure, I never knew that! Lets try it now. A Period!!!!! That felt good.
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Posted Saturday, November 07, 2009 9:38 PM By JLS
4th rate marketing failure, JonJ? Why not give that up and try to be a theologian? Or you could start a church. How about televangelism? You could save money doing your own ads.
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Posted Sunday, November 08, 2009 10:45 PM By Abeca Christian
Really shortage?? I wonder why? (I'm being sarcastic, of course we know why, we have been reading about it for a while now)
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