Where a Roman Catholic deacon ponders the world
A great vocation story from the Boston Globe: Dan Kennedy will graduate from Boston College on Monday, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, and the recipient of the school’s most prestigious prize, the Edward H. Finnegan Award. Winners of the Finnegan, given to the student who best exemplifies the BC motto, “ever to excel,’’ tend [...]
Buried in the bowels of YouTube, somebody uncovered this gem. While it may be of particular interest to folks in the Diocese of Brooklyn, it’s also a fascinating sort of time capsule that shows life in a college seminary in the 1970s. (Look beyond the platform shoes and sideburns and you’ll hear a lot of [...]
Today the seminarian who spent his pastoral year at my parish packs his bags and heads for Creighton University, where he’ll spend the summer studying at their Institute for Priestly Formation. It’s been great having young Jeremy Canna (or, as I like to call him, JC ) around the rectory, and in the parish. The [...]
From NCR: U.S. Catholic seminary enrollment in theology this year is the highest in almost a quarter-century, the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate reported in the spring issue of its quarterly newsletter, The CARA Report. The reported growth in seminarians, however, does not begin to match the growth in the U.S. Catholic population, [...]
Seminarians! Lots of ‘em! Read on: Bishop James D. Conley of Denver said the news of rising seminarian numbers across the United States has delighted Pope Benedict XVI. “He was very happy to receive that information,” Bishop Conley told CNA on May 4 after meeting the Pope at the Vatican. “He said he had heard that vocations [...]
Glad you asked. Deacon Bill Ditewig has a terrific podcast that answers that very question, and more. Click here to listen. They’re ordaining 13 new deacons on the Diocese of Monterey on Saturday. Keep them in your prayers! I hope to have more after the big event.
A recent study from CARA says, “Yes”: With accumulated educational debt increasing by five percent yearly in the United States, the research was designed with two main goals: 1) to learn more about the impact of student loans on the men and women who are coming to religious life today. 2) to learn about the policy [...]
This being Vocation Sunday, it’s a good time to look at a vocation that is really struggling, religious sisters. How can they attract new recruits? Here’s one answer: When Sister Elaine Lachance devoted herself to a religious life straight out of high school in 1959, her religious order had more than a dozen convents in [...]
My parish is hosting its annual vocations fair this weekend, to coincide with the 49th annual World Day of Prayer for Vocations, so my homily focuses on that. +++ For audio of this homily as it was delivered, click the green arrow below. “We are all God’s children…what we shall be has not yet been [...]
My blogging neighbor Kathy Schiffer has this poignant story: Graham Turner wanted to be a priest. It was toward that end that he enrolled at the Beda College in Rome, planning to serve in the Diocese of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, in Scotland. Graham had hoped to be ordained with his class last June; but [...]
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