Petr
12-31-2005, 12:08 AM
http://www.nationalcatholicreporter.org/washington/wnb030305.htm
Comforting myths
By Joe Feuerherd
...
Washington, like De Mille's Hollywood, is a city of myths, both sacred and secular.
Some are relatively harmless, like the one in the Washington archdiocese's recent John Carroll Society essay contest. High school students were asked to consider the impact of the priest shortage on Eucharistic practice. Good topic. And then this question, the premise of which is a real whopper: "Why do you think the number of vocations has declined in the United States even as vocations in Africa and elsewhere in the Third World are abundant?"
According to the Vatican, between 1961 and 2001, the number of priests on the African continent rose from 16,541 to 27,988, an increase of nearly 60 percent. So far so good. But given the increase in the overall Catholic population, the number of priests per 10,000 Catholic Africans fell from five-and-a-half to fewer than two-and-a-half. Hardly an "abundance." In the priest-needy United State, there are about seven priests for every 10,000 Catholics.
But don't place all the blame on Washington's John Carroll Society. On the vocations section of its Web site, the Detroit archdiocese makes this claim: "In the world as a whole, vocations to the priesthood and religious life have dramatically increased in the last 30 years." Really? In fact, since 1975 the number of Catholics worldwide has doubled, while the number of priests has remained constant.
"In Africa," continued the Detroit archdiocese, priestly vocations "increased by 394 percent." Huh?
"It is only in the U. S. and in Western Europe that they dropped by 60 percent and 13 percent respectively." And then a clue to the ideology that might be driving the bad math: "The problem is not the requirement of celibacy. … There is something else going on in our nation and in Western Europe."
There is indeed "something else going on in our nation," and that, according to some Catholic writers is a revitalized "orthodoxy" among the Catholic young. Papal biographer George Weigel says they are at the forefront of an "authentic Catholic renewal" and author Colleen Carroll (The New Faithful) writes that "orthodoxy's appeal seems to be growing among young adults who have a disproportionate amount of cultural influence -- those who set trends and lead others in academic, artistic, and political circles."
A case of wishful thinking? At a Feb. 18 presentation on "Commitments and Concerns of Young Adult Catholics," Catholic University of America sociologist Dean Hoge painted a picture of 18-to-39-year-old American Catholics that shattered the myth of growing conservatism among this group. Not surprisingly, perhaps, only 22 percent of this age group agreed that it is "always morally wrong" to "engage in premarital sex," though nearly two-thirds of their elders (63 and older) said so. Only 10 percent of younger Catholics agreed that artificial birth control is always wrong. But even outside temptations of the flesh (opportunities for which are presumably greater among the younger population), the overwhelming majority (80 percent) of the generation called to lead this "authentic Catholic renewal" agreed that "individuals should seek out religious truth for themselves and not automatically conform to the doctrines of any church." Eighty-eight percent said, "if you believe in God, it doesn't really matter which religion you belong to." Most didn't even know the Second Vatican Council took place, much less what it taught.
...
Petr
Comforting myths
By Joe Feuerherd
...
Washington, like De Mille's Hollywood, is a city of myths, both sacred and secular.
Some are relatively harmless, like the one in the Washington archdiocese's recent John Carroll Society essay contest. High school students were asked to consider the impact of the priest shortage on Eucharistic practice. Good topic. And then this question, the premise of which is a real whopper: "Why do you think the number of vocations has declined in the United States even as vocations in Africa and elsewhere in the Third World are abundant?"
According to the Vatican, between 1961 and 2001, the number of priests on the African continent rose from 16,541 to 27,988, an increase of nearly 60 percent. So far so good. But given the increase in the overall Catholic population, the number of priests per 10,000 Catholic Africans fell from five-and-a-half to fewer than two-and-a-half. Hardly an "abundance." In the priest-needy United State, there are about seven priests for every 10,000 Catholics.
But don't place all the blame on Washington's John Carroll Society. On the vocations section of its Web site, the Detroit archdiocese makes this claim: "In the world as a whole, vocations to the priesthood and religious life have dramatically increased in the last 30 years." Really? In fact, since 1975 the number of Catholics worldwide has doubled, while the number of priests has remained constant.
"In Africa," continued the Detroit archdiocese, priestly vocations "increased by 394 percent." Huh?
"It is only in the U. S. and in Western Europe that they dropped by 60 percent and 13 percent respectively." And then a clue to the ideology that might be driving the bad math: "The problem is not the requirement of celibacy. … There is something else going on in our nation and in Western Europe."
There is indeed "something else going on in our nation," and that, according to some Catholic writers is a revitalized "orthodoxy" among the Catholic young. Papal biographer George Weigel says they are at the forefront of an "authentic Catholic renewal" and author Colleen Carroll (The New Faithful) writes that "orthodoxy's appeal seems to be growing among young adults who have a disproportionate amount of cultural influence -- those who set trends and lead others in academic, artistic, and political circles."
A case of wishful thinking? At a Feb. 18 presentation on "Commitments and Concerns of Young Adult Catholics," Catholic University of America sociologist Dean Hoge painted a picture of 18-to-39-year-old American Catholics that shattered the myth of growing conservatism among this group. Not surprisingly, perhaps, only 22 percent of this age group agreed that it is "always morally wrong" to "engage in premarital sex," though nearly two-thirds of their elders (63 and older) said so. Only 10 percent of younger Catholics agreed that artificial birth control is always wrong. But even outside temptations of the flesh (opportunities for which are presumably greater among the younger population), the overwhelming majority (80 percent) of the generation called to lead this "authentic Catholic renewal" agreed that "individuals should seek out religious truth for themselves and not automatically conform to the doctrines of any church." Eighty-eight percent said, "if you believe in God, it doesn't really matter which religion you belong to." Most didn't even know the Second Vatican Council took place, much less what it taught.
...
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