Only priest ordained for Archdiocese of New York this year - his 1st. Mass is EF Mass

[prettiefly]

The bad news is only one priest was ordained for the Archdiocese of New York this year.
The good news is that priest offered a traditional Latin Missa Solemnis as his first Mass.

http://sthughofcluny.org/2012/05/fir...ric-darcy.html

[wasserfall]

People who see these photos would perhaps ordinarily ask: What traditional group is that?

Answer: Archdiocese of New York

[EcceAgnusDei]

Wonderful!

And look at the transcendent beauty at the elevation of the Chalice...

Thanks for posting the pictures.

+ PAX

[TrueLight]

Originally Posted by wasserfall

People who see these photos would perhaps ordinarily ask: What traditional group is that?

Answer: Archdiocese of New York

A good number of folks at my parish offered their support by attending his first mass.

[anp1215]

And he gave first Communion to his precious little niece, how sweet! I was a little surprised to see that the First Holy Communion girls weren't wearing veils. Even in OF Masses around here, the majority of little girls wear them for their First Communion.

Just an aside though, congratulations to the new Fr.!!

[ByzCathCantor]

May God grant his new faithful servant many happy, healthy and blessed years in Christ's vineyard!

[JReducation]

One note. Father was the only diocesan priest ordained for the Archdiocese.

There were 35 priests ordained in NY for the different religious communities that live and serve in NY.

Not to despair. NY is producing more priests than many other dioceses, not to the diocese that's all.

Fr. D'Arcy is a very special young man. I like him very much. I'll leave it at that.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, FFV

[Melchior_]

Originally Posted by JReducation

One note. Father was the only diocesan priest ordained for the Archdiocese.

There were 35 priests ordained in NY for the different religious communities that live and serve in NY.

Not to despair. NY is producing more priests than many other dioceses, not to the diocese that's all.

Fr. D'Arcy is a very special young man. I like him very much. I'll leave it at that.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, FFV

This isn't counting Religious Brothers, either. Aren't the Friars of the Renewal based out of the NY area?

[sw85]

Originally Posted by JReducation

One note. Father was the only diocesan priest ordained for the Archdiocese.

There were 35 priests ordained in NY for the different religious communities that live and serve in NY.

Not to despair. NY is producing more priests than many other dioceses, not to the diocese that's all.

Fr. D'Arcy is a very special young man. I like him very much. I'll leave it at that.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, FFV

I have read too that the main problem is that the Archdiocese recently changed its program by adding an additional year of philosophy. In fact they were expecting a "gap year" in which no new priests were ordained as a result of this extension, so Fr. D'Arcy's ordination is a blessing. They are expecting something like 10 or more ordinations in two or three years' time.

[EcceAgnusDei]

Originally Posted by JReducation

Not to despair. NY is producing more priests than many other dioceses, not to the diocese that's all.

Hmm. However, Brother, it is the dioceses that are desperately desperately lacking in priests. It is a shortage of diocesan priests that is stretching diocesan priests to the limit. While your clarification is a good one (it's wonderful to know that religious priests are being ordained), it doesn't alleviate the despair at the tremendous lack of diocesan vocations -- the priests whose job is to directly serve the laity. So while I applaud you adding the information about religious priests, I disagree with your assessment that it somehow negates the very sad fact that only one diocesan priest was ordained this year.

+ PAX

[Usige]

Originally Posted by EcceAgnusDei

Hmm. However, Brother, it is the dioceses that are desperately desperately lacking in priests. It is a shortage of diocesan priests that is stretching diocesan priests to the limit. While your clarification is a good one (it's wonderful to know that religious priests are being ordained), it doesn't alleviate the despair at the tremendous lack of diocesan vocations -- the priests whose job is to directly serve the laity. So while I applaud you adding the information about religious priests, I disagree with your assessment that it somehow negates the very sad fact that only one diocesan priest was ordained this year.

+ PAX

I kind of felt the same way. While it's great to hear that religious orders are growing, with the fact that many religious are returning to a focus on the poor it can leave gaps in the priesthood in middle and upper income parishes. I know in my diocese we generally only have a single priest except for vary large parishes (i.e. 5000+) and smaller parishes end up having a single priest shared between 2 or 3 parishes that are often 50 - 75 miles apart. The few parishes that have 2 or more priest are generally taken care of by priestly fraternities.

As far as I see, many bishops in the middle country now have to rely on religious or priestly societies to minister to their parishes. Since non-diocean priest may be pulled by their superiors at anytime doesn't that leave a bishop in a bind?

Don't get me wrong. I would love to see more Franciscans, Dominicans, etc. but the average Joe Catholic in my neck of the woods only encounters the priest at their parish. We have few Dominicans and our parish is too wealthy for the Franciscans (not that there are many of these out here either). Heck the only actual religious priests I normally run into are Jesuits and that's only because I went to a Jesuit university.

[JReducation]

Originally Posted by Melchior_

This isn't counting Religious Brothers, either. Aren't the Friars of the Renewal based out of the NY area?

Yes, their mother house is in NYC

Originally Posted by sw85

I have read too that the main problem is that the Archdiocese recently changed its program by adding an additional year of philosophy. In fact they were expecting a "gap year" in which no new priests were ordained as a result of this extension, so Fr. D'Arcy's ordination is a blessing. They are expecting something like 10 or more ordinations in two or three years' time.

I heard that they were going to make changes, but I don't know the details.

Originally Posted by EcceAgnusDei

Hmm. However, Brother, it is the dioceses that are desperately desperately lacking in priests. It is a shortage of diocesan priests that is stretching diocesan priests to the limit. While your clarification is a good one (it's wonderful to know that religious priests are being ordained), it doesn't alleviate the despair at the tremendous lack of diocesan vocations -- the priests whose job is to directly serve the laity. So while I applaud you adding the information about religious priests, I disagree with your assessment that it somehow negates the very sad fact that only one diocesan priest was ordained this year.

+ PAX

The reason that I mention it, is because people tend to panic and think that there is a shortage of vocations to the priesthood. There is not. What we're seeing is a return to life as it was before 1900. Diocesan priests were a minority. Most priests belonged to orders.

After 1900, there was an explosion of vocations to the dioceses. This turned out to be a very bad thing for the Church. As we can see, the focus shifted from quality to quantity and we know how that story ended up. Now, the focus is back on quality.

Last week, the Holy Father came within a hair-width of blasting the American bishops for promoting priestly vocations at the expense of religious life. He called on the American bishops to focus on bringing back religious life, especially male religious life, ordained or not.

He wants to see more diocesan priests, but he wants the bishops and the parishes to promote them equally. One thing that he told bishop Dolan was that the brothers in the USA had become the forgotten vocation and that this concerns the Church, because their presence is essential to the Catholic identity of the Church. There are many more in Latin America and Africa than in the USA. There are many more in the Eastern Churches too.

He also pointed out to the need for ordaining men for the religious orders so that the orders could go out and do what they were called to do, which goes beyond parish work. There is a desperate need for the orders and they're are being replaced by lay people. Lay people are running schools, hospitals, colleges, shelters, soup kitchens, pregnancy centers and so forth. These should be in the hands of the orders and these orders need priests to serve their needs.

Basically, he has called on the bishops to balance out their vocation campaigns. I heard that this may be part of the changes in NYC. Bishop Dolan is very pro religious life. He did promise the male religious in NYC that he would do everything possible to promote them and not to compete with them for vocations. He said this very publicly on TV and radio. One of the changes that they have to make is to make the diocesan formation program more secular. Right now, it's like a monastery or a novitiate. The year out would be great for those guys. It would give them a chance to see what a diocesan priest faces every day.

He won't have people to pray with, eat with, play with or work with. He's alone, even if there are five priests in the parish. They are not a community or even friends. Each one has a job description and each reports to the pastor. That's it. They have nothing to do with each other, unless they choose to do so. In the seminary, there is a community life based on that of the Benedictines.

I believe that the Benedictine experience is good, because it helps the guys develop a strong spiritual life. But they also need to see if they can keep it going when they're alone. To be ordained, sent to a parish and find that you're very lonely and that you don't like your colleagues or they don't like you, can be very hard on a young man who has so many dreams about being a priest. I believe that it's the biggest threat to celibacy.

Whereas , a young man who is not taken by surprise, because he had the chance to live it before chose to be ordained, has a better chance of survival.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, FFV

[Mrs Sally]

I am not sure of the entire formation process here, but I know that the men have a year in the parish. We also have men in several different seminaries, so they make friends, but they know that they won't be working together after ordination.

A funny story about our pastor, though. The previous pastor built a HUGE rectory - there are rooms (suites) for 5 men. My pastor now constantly has visiting priests, priests in residence, etc. We call if Fr W's Home for Wayward Priests!

So right now we have the 3 assigned to us (we are a 5000+ family parish) and 1 retired priest in residence. I expect this summer that we will have a priest from India or Africa here to study or raise money (or both).

[giuseppeTO]

Originally Posted by JReducation

One note. Father was the only diocesan priest ordained for the Archdiocese.

There were 35 priests ordained in NY for the different religious communities that live and serve in NY.

Not to despair. NY is producing more priests than many other dioceses, not to the diocese that's all.

Fr. D'Arcy is a very special young man. I like him very much. I'll leave it at that.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, FFV

We have 6 young men in either the seminary or monastery and 5 young ladies in various convents. Our parish has roughly 400 parishioners. This is not out of the ordinary for a Society parish. The average number of children in our parish is 7 per family and we have 10 families with 11 or more children. 60% of our families have an ordained or professed family member.

This will be how the crises of vocations will be solved.

[JReducation]

Originally Posted by giuseppeTO

We have 6 young men in either the seminary or monastery and 5 young ladies in various convents. Our parish has roughly 400 parishioners. This is not out of the ordinary for a Society parish. The average number of children in our parish is 7 per family and we have 10 families with 11 or more children. 60% of our families have an ordained or professed family member.

This will be how the crises of vocations will be solved.

Not really. The shortage is among diocesan priests. The SSPX are not and never will be diocesan priests. They are secular priests incardinated into the Society, not a diocese. That the reason that you cannot count the religious who were ordained in NY and will serve in NY. They are not incardinated into the diocese.

What dioceses need are their own priests, not someone else's. Do you see the difference?

Between 1800 and 1950, religious were forced to provide priests for dioceses. That is no longer allowed. This has left dioceses with a shortage of priests.

But societies of apostolic life cannot commit to providing dioceses with priests either any more than religious can. None of these priests belong to the diocese and their primary mission is the preservation of their society or their religious community, not the preservation of the diocese.

When the Society is regularized, it will function just like religious, without being religious. There will be the needs of the Society, which trump the needs of the dioceses. Then there will be contracts between the diocesan bishop and the prelature, assume that there is going to be a prelature. Those contracts will define the terms of service in the diocese And there will be a constitution fro the prelature that the Holy Father gets to write for it, which defines the prelature's relationship with the bishops.

We really need more men responding to the call to be diocesan priests. But as the Holy Father just told the bishops, they must equally promote vocations to the religious life of men. This is going to be a challenge.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, FFV