Florence, Italy, Jan 10, 2021 / 08:01 am (CNA).- The Archbishop of Florence has said no new students have entered his diocesan seminary this year, calling the low number of priestly vocations a “wound” in his episcopate.
Cardinal Giuseppe Betori, who has led the Archdiocese of Florence since 2008, said in 2009 he ordained seven men as priests for the diocese, while this year he will ordain one man, a member of the Neocatechumenal Way. In 2020 there were no ordinations.
“I consider it one of the biggest wounds of my episcopate,” Betori said in a video press conference last month. This “is a truly tragic situation.”
The 73-year-old cardinal said he believes the low number of men entering the seminary in his diocese is part of a larger vocational crisis that also includes the sacrament of marriage.
“The problem of the vocational crisis to the priesthood lies within a vocational crisis of the human person,” he stated.
The latest Statistical Yearbook of the Catholic Church, published in March 2020, indicated that the number of priests worldwide fell in 2018 to 414,065, with Europe registering the largest decrease, though Italy still has one of the higher concentrations of priests, at around one priest for every 1,500 Catholics.
Like most of Europe, Italy’s demographics have been affected by a 50-year decline in birth rate. An aging population means fewer young people, and according to national statistics, fewer young Italians than ever are choosing to marry.
According to Betori, a “provisional” culture has likely influenced young adults’ choice of a permanent state of life, such as marriage or priesthood.
“A life that wants many experiences cannot be a life that is consecrated to a finality, to a purpose. It is true for marriage, for the priesthood, for all the choices of people,” he said.
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CNA Staff, Jun 3, 2024 / 13:55 pm (CNA).
Two university professors in Texas are suing the federal government over its recently revised Title IX rules, stating that they would refuse to abide by the government’s order… […]
Pittsburgh, Pa., Mar 17, 2020 / 12:01 pm (CNA).- Allegheny County prosecutors are appealing a judge’s decision to vacate the conviction of Fr. Hugh Lang, who is accused of having assaulted a boy in 2001.
On March 9 Allegheny County Commons Pleas Judge Anthony Mariani said he was granting Fr. Lang a new trial.
He said the priest had been denied a fair trial because the previous judge had allowed prosecutors to submit evidence that Fr. Lang had searched the internet for defense attorney shortly before the 2018 release of a Pennsylvania grand jury report on allegations of clerical sex abuse of minors.
Prosecutors have said the internet search demonstrated “consciousness of guilt,” the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports, while Mariani responded that the search could have been for other reasons, such as looking on behalf an accused colleague, or out of fear of being falsely accused.
He also said there is a right to search for and receive attorneys, which can’t be used to demonstrate guilt.
According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Assistant District Attorney Gregory Stein “said the evidence wasn’t the same as evidence that a suspect actually hired or consulted with an attorney, which appellate court rulings have said can’t be used against a defendant.”
Mariani had sentenced Fr. Lang to 9-24 months in jail, but delayed implementation.
The priest’s accuser said that he was assaulted during an altar boy training at St. Therese of Lisieux parish in Munhall when he was 11. He said Fr. Lang molested and photographed him.
Fr. Lang, 89, has denied the abuse.
He was ordained in 1956, and retired in 2006.
The Diocese of Pittsburgh received the allegation against Fr. Lang in August 2018. His faculties are restricted.
Following Mariani’s decision to grant Fr. Lang a new trial, Bishop David Zubik of Pittsburgh said that “the Church … will wait until all court proceedings are completed before moving forward in its canonical process.”
The Augustine Institute’s new facilities in Florissant, Missouri. / Credit: Boeing Company and Augustine Institute
CNA Staff, Apr 23, 2024 / 13:30 pm (CNA).
The Augustine Institute, a Catholic educational and evangelization apostolate based in Denver for nearly two decades, announced on Tuesday that it will be moving its operations to a new campus in the Archdiocese of St. Louis.
The institute, founded in 2005 as a Catholic graduate theology school, currently has an enrollment of a little over 300 students. It says on its website that it exists to serve “the formation of Catholics for the new evangelization” by “equip[ping] Catholics intellectually, spiritually, and pastorally to renew the Church and transform the world for Christ.”
The organization announced on Tuesday that it had purchased the former Boeing Leadership Center in Florissant, Missouri, just outside of downtown St. Louis. The school will “begin transitioning its operations over the next few years,” it said in a press release.
The nearly 300-acre property “offers an unprecedented opportunity to expand our Graduate School of Theology and further our mission to help Catholics understand, live, and share their faith,” institute President Tim Gray said in a Tuesday press release.
The Boeing facility, a former retreat center that went on sale in March, offers “state-of-the-art facilities” for the group’s Catholic mission, Gray said.
The president told CNA this week that the Augustine Institute “wasn’t even in a search mode” when they learned of the facility.
“Some of the leadership at the Archdiocese of St. Louis told us about this property when it became available,” he said.
The property was on the market for nearly a year before the institute began exploring it. “A couple of different buyers tied it up, but those deals fell through,” he said. “We found out about it toward the end of November, and it wasn’t until December that we started looking into it.”
Gray himself visited the campus in January; within several weeks the institute had purchased the property.
“My head’s still spinning,” he said. “Just a few months ago this was not even on our radar.”
‘We have a big vision for this property’
Archbishop of Denver Samuel Aquila said in the institute’s press release this week that the discovery of the property was “providential” for the organization.
“It will allow the institute the opportunity to remain faithful to its mission while continuing to grow,” the prelate said, calling the purchase “the realization of a long-standing hope for a campus environment for students, faculty, and expanded theology programs.”
In addition to its graduate school, the Augustine Institute offers sacramental preparation resources, a Bible study app, an apologetics course for high school seniors, and other instructional and catechetical materials.
Much of that material is in digital format. Gray said this week that the new property will allow the Augustine Institute to expand from digital into “a national center for Catholic conferences, retreats, evangelization, and fellowship.”
The institute had largely outgrown its facilities in Denver, he told CNA.
“We’ve been growing here and we’ve filled up our building,” he said. “We love Denver, it’s been great for us. But we didn’t have student housing. Housing is very expensive in Denver and it’s hard to recruit people to move out here. Those were challenges we were facing.”
The organization had to work quickly to raise enough funds to realize the sale, he said.
“We had to raise a lot of money in just a few months so we could purchase this campus in cash,” he said. “We also had to raise enough money to have a reserve fund for the operations of such a large campus.” The institute amassed $50 million over the course of several months, he said.
The Augustine Institute is expecting to hold its 2024-2025 graduate school year at the new property starting in September.
The Augustine Institute’s new facilities in Florissant, MO. Boeing Company and Augustine Institute
Mitchell Rozanski, the archbishop of St. Louis, said in the press release that the facility could become “the premier center for the new evangelization in the United States.”
The institute “can foster a new era of collaboration with Catholic organizations nationwide,” the archbishop said, “and invite more people to encounter Jesus Christ and his Church.”
Why buy the cow, when the milk is free? That age old question in the continual cycle of life, in the rise and fall of every civilization.
Don’t take no rocket scientist to read Ab Chuput jabbing and ridiculing to be President Biden. That recognize anti-Catholic ways are from the top as Chuput driving away potential vocations, priests if anybody is..
No real family person would be or attempt today to be in politics, or religion, in those of bad or own self elevating ways will merely attack them..
That is proven by the martrydom of Kennedy, the good cant win…
God bless Mr. President Biden for trying, and we pray that God guides him.. That as a Catholic should have been ab Chuput only comment, rather than condemnation.
Perhaps Florence should reach out to the many African seminarians. Ive read additionally that numbers of young men in Africa wish to enter the seminary but economics won’t allow it.
I have heard critics of the Church many times sneer “Those old men at the Vatican banned contraception and want many children born so there will be priests” (and presumably monks and nuns).
.
Admittedly, there is something to that. If a region has a fertility rate of only 1.3 or so, there will not be children born to do any job, not just priest. Back in 1997, that rate was 1.22, so it has been many, many years Italy has lacked children.
Some bishops seem to be able to foster vocations. Some orders seem to be thriving. What are they doing right?
(Not sure if this is true in Europe. I see on Anglican Unscripted that (orthodox) Anglicans are setting up missions in Europe).
Why buy the cow, when the milk is free? That age old question in the continual cycle of life, in the rise and fall of every civilization.
Don’t take no rocket scientist to read Ab Chuput jabbing and ridiculing to be President Biden. That recognize anti-Catholic ways are from the top as Chuput driving away potential vocations, priests if anybody is..
No real family person would be or attempt today to be in politics, or religion, in those of bad or own self elevating ways will merely attack them..
That is proven by the martrydom of Kennedy, the good cant win…
God bless Mr. President Biden for trying, and we pray that God guides him.. That as a Catholic should have been ab Chuput only comment, rather than condemnation.
Dude, you are batting about .060. Might want to adjust your stance and grip.
That high? And you can actually figure out what he’s trying to say? Must be all those years of being an editor.
I read a lot of academic stuff, so I’ve learned to wade through repetitive, inane, and mostly incoherent writing.
Email address to the Archbishop and vocation director Catholic Archdiocese of Florentine
Perhaps Florence should reach out to the many African seminarians. Ive read additionally that numbers of young men in Africa wish to enter the seminary but economics won’t allow it.
I have heard critics of the Church many times sneer “Those old men at the Vatican banned contraception and want many children born so there will be priests” (and presumably monks and nuns).
.
Admittedly, there is something to that. If a region has a fertility rate of only 1.3 or so, there will not be children born to do any job, not just priest. Back in 1997, that rate was 1.22, so it has been many, many years Italy has lacked children.
Some bishops seem to be able to foster vocations. Some orders seem to be thriving. What are they doing right?
(Not sure if this is true in Europe. I see on Anglican Unscripted that (orthodox) Anglicans are setting up missions in Europe).
May the Lord of the harvest inspire and invite zealous laborers to toil in his vineyard.
How can I contact the vocation director if I’m inspired to join his diocese as a seminarian?
Greeting!
I am interested to join your diocese. How can i get the vocations director’s contact.
Greetings
If one is inspired to become a Priest in the Archdiocese of Florence, whow should he go about it?
Request to join your seminary
Good morning.
I am interested to join your diocese. How can get the vocations director’s contact