Number of Priests worldwide shifting: the numbers

Provided by the AP:

VATICAN CITY -- The number of priests has decreased worldwide in the last quarter-century, with the sharpest fall in Europe _ where there are now 20 percent fewer Roman Catholic clerics, the Vatican said.

Experts say the reasons for the drop are complex, but they cite increasing secularization in Europe; some also cite a broader culture that devalues celibacy.

The Vatican, in figures released Saturday, said the number of priests worldwide fell from 420,971 in 1978 to 405,891 in 2004 _ a decrease of 3.5 percent. A Vatican statement called the decline "rather disappointing."

In Europe, the number of priests fell by 20 percent _ from 250,498 in 1978 to 199,978 in 2004.

In Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, the numbers of priests fell by 14 percent.

But in Africa, the numbers increased _ from 16,926 to 31,259 _ a rise of nearly 85 percent. Asia also showed more priests over the period _ from 27,700 to 48,222 _ for an increase of 74 percent.

Latin America and North America together saw a slight increase, with the number of priests rising 1 percent _ from 120,271 to 121,634.

The Vatican did not provide a further geographic breakdown, but the latest figures for the United States show a drop from 58,632 priests in 1965 to 42,839 in 2005 _ a decrease of 26 percent, according to CARA, a research center on the Catholic Church affiliated with Georgetown University.

This report reminds me of a line I heard in a talk given by Dr. Philip Jenkins:

"Something you will likely hear your children say: 'Daddy, do you remember when there was still that thing called Western Christianity?'"

He explains what he means in this book, "The Next Christendom: the Coming of Global Christianity," which will probably find its way, along with a few other of his books, onto the summer reading list I'm currently compiling (so much for eating and sleeping this year).

Philippines trying to track down man posing as priest

From the Manila Standard:

Church warns public of fake Catholic priest

A FAKE priest is in town.

A church official is warning clergy, religious women, and heads of Catholic schools and other institutions as well as the public of a fake priest solemnizing marriages and performing Roman Catholic rituals.

Rev. Msgr. Roberto Canlas, chancellor of the Archdiocese of Manila, issued Circular 2006-21 informing the people of the presence of a certain Fr. Carlo Layson, who introduced himself as a priest from Capiz, Aklan.

“Fr. Carlo Layson, DCC, from the Archdiocese of Capiz, is not a Roman Catholic priest,” Canlas said.

He claimed that Layson has celebrated mass, solemnized weddings and baptisms in Manila while noting that, in the process, “he has misled many Catholic faithful.”

Canlas directed parishes to launch an information campaign during masses to warn the people and urged parishes and the public to always demand a celebret to avoid individuals posing as priests officiating weddings, administering the sacraments of baptism and celebrating masses, among others.

A celebret is a letter that a bishop gives to a priest to certify that the priest is allowed to say mass and is free from canonical censures.

After conducting an identity check, Canlas said Layson was not a priest from Capiz.

As horrible as the other stuff is, the "celebrating [invalid] masses" is the one that really gets me the most.

Hurting for blog reading material this Sunday night?

Against the Grain has the cure for you!

(I'd be blogging too but tonight I'm engaged in a battle-to-the-finish with my last assignments for the semester...)

Oh great, they went ahead and did it.

China, that is:

BEIJING (Reuters) - China pressed ahead with appointing a new bishop to its state-sanctioned Catholic Church on Sunday and warned the Vatican not to interfere, risking a deepening rift with the Vatican which objected to the promotion. More.

Your PPOTD (Papist-Picture-of-the-Day): Sunday, April 30 - YOU CAPTION!

Pope Benedict: "My dear friends: Today, I want to talk about materialism."

*clears throat and repeats very clearly into the microphone*: "MA-TER-I-A-LIS-M."

(more good ones in the comments!)

[photo: REUTERS/Chris Helgren]

I never thought I'd see an offensive TEXT advertisement

Sadly, I was wrong:

Shame on these folks for using Terri Schiavo's tragic plight (and death) to sell their services.

Shame on Yahoo! for letting them. Do you think they would permit an ad saying "Don't get caught like Princess Diana - wear a seatbelt."??

(I'm sorry if my example is offensive, I picked the first tasteless one that came to mind, because this is tasteless - at the very least.)

A little public service message (in picture form)

"... because you never know who could be reading."

"... doh!"

New Cardinal Arinze Podcast Up + a Great One-Liner!

Rob of Familyland was kind enough to notify me about the most recent Cardinal Arinze Podcast (which he produces) being made available today:

Cardinal Arinze on Vatican II (MP4 format)

From this new episode's summary:

"Who better than Cardinal Arinze to explain the documents of the 2nd Vatican Council? He was there! This time he'll enlighten us about the documents on Holy Scripture (Dei Verbum) & the Sacred Liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium). Listen to Arinze, find the heart of the Church." [source]

The Cardinal gets off a nice one-liner soundbyte in this episode:
"The Catholic Church is not a piece of the Vatican Museum."

Good stuff as always.

I'm enjoying my read through Cardinal Arinze's biography, God's Invisible Hand. I'm enjoying it so much, in fact, that I dont want to read any faster than one chapter a day because I don't want it to end yet. *sigh* I'll survive.

"Large Mammal" + Top 1000 TTLB

Yes...!

If you run a blog, now would be a great time to blogroll me or join TTLB (and then blogroll me).

Now, to go meet Cardinal Tumi ...

Amy Welborn is coming to my neck of the woods this weekend!

Hooray!

Jim Tucker of Dappled Things a "dissenter in the flock"?

Well, that's what Jeffrey MacDonald of the Religion News Service (and currently appearing in the Washington Post) would have you believe about Jim Tucker of the blog Dappled Things:

"Religious bloggers run the gamut of topics, but challenging their own authorities is shaping up to be a favorite:

...

· In the Diocese of Arlington, the Rev. Jim Tucker speculates in his blog about why Catholic bishops do not welcome disgruntled clerics from other denominations, a practice he describes as "an opportunity being terribly missed." [source]

Now, I've often read Fr. Jim Tucker's blog, Dappled Things, and describing him primarily as one who challenges authority (particularly in a article titled "Blogs Give Voice to the Dissenters in the Flock") seems grossly misaccurate.

I dug up Fr. Jim's full post on this topic and I think everyone would agree it is far more balanced and "non-dissenting" than MacDonald's short quotation and context would lead one to believe.

My quick question (besides what Fr. Jim thinks about this): How deep did MacDonald have to dig in the Catholic blogosphere before he found the "dissent" he was looking for?

I'd argue he should still dig deeper - because he failed to quite find it this time around...

Oh well, to borrow the ending sentence from Fr. Jim's own carefully-worded blog disclaimer: "All of this should go without saying, but common sense is surprisingly uncommon."

Email-wielding Church officials? Could it actually happen? Are we that lucky?

Perhaps responding to the recent media feeding frenzy on Cardinal Martini and Barragan's comments and the "lag time" of a few days before Cardinal Barragan or anyone in a position of authority issued some clarifying thoughts, this statement gets made:

From Zenit:

"According to the director of communications of the conference of U.S. bishops, dioceses need to be better prepared with "timely responses, especially in potentially controversial matters." Monsignor Francis Maniscalco, speaking at the 5th Professional Seminar for Church Communications Offices, added that it is obvious that "the more timely the response in a critical situation the better." [Read more]

So, does this mean we can expect "blog.usccb.org" to be launched soon? :-) Well, maybe not.

However, this very interesting proposal is mentioned:

"[i]nstead of resting from the media for a blessed respite after the crisis, Church communicators should see to it that every media outlet in their vicinity receives an e-mail alerting them about a story-idea, containing a correction that needs to be made of an error about the Church published or aired, or offering a word of appreciation for good coverage."

I can't even begin to imagine a world where that is done... it seems too much to ask for. Or is it?

This idea reminds me of a sequence of events Dom noticed suggesting that Cardinal Levada used email earlier this year to save the Church from an embarassing situation during the Boston Catholic charities controversy.

Couldn't a few more judicious (and timely) emails here and there plug a few holes in the dike? Is that just not the way these things work?

The news story de jour: "Report: 'Da Vinci' Boycott Urged"

Dozens upon dozens of media sources are picking up on this story:

Report: 'Da Vinci' Boycott Urged

ROME -- A Vatican official reportedly called for a boycott of the upcoming "The Da Vinci Code" film Friday, saying it contained "slanderous" offenses against Christianity that would have provoked a worldwide revolt had they been directed against Islam or the Holocaust.

Monsignor Angelo Amato _ Pope Benedict XVI's former No. 2 when Benedict was head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith _ made the comments in a speech at the Pontifical Holy Cross University, which is run by the conservative Catholic movement Opus Dei, the ANSA news agency reported.

"I hope all of you boycott this film," the Italian agency quoted Amato as saying. He said the film, based on the best-selling novel by Dan Brown, was full of "offenses, slander, historical and theological errors concerning Jesus, the gospel and the church."

"Slander, offenses and errors that if they were directed toward the Quran or the Shoah would have justifiably provoked a worldwide revolt," he said, referring to Islam's holy book and the Hebrew word for Holocaust.

"Yet because they were directed toward the Catholic Church, they remain 'unpunished,'" he said. [More]

Three things strike me:

• First, it's interesting how readily Church officials are now making the comparison between overblown Islamic responses to the desecration of their beliefs vs. the Christians' track record of playing fair... I don't know what it means, but I think it should be noted.
• Second, I don't think I'm going to see this film in the theaters. I simply don't feel like giving my money to the project, at all. The "othercott" idea - going to see another movie instead, sounds very appealing, however.

Third: I wonder if it would be a nice little service to sit outside a local theater on opening weekend and hand out pamphlets (such as this one by Amy Welborn - sold in packs of 50) that disprove the historical claims made in the Da Vinci Code.

You wouldn't even have to get into debates with people necessarily - just invite them to read the pamphlet. You could say something like, "Okay, you've been entertained - now learn the truth."

Of course, If you chose to get into (charitable) discussions with people - and it would be hard not to - I would in that case recommend seeing the movie because you should always be well-informed about what you are talking about...

Any comments? Has someone else already suggested this?

More analysis of the Chicago Tribune on "religious blog mania"

Dom points out this story in the Chicago Tribune entitled "Religious blogs test beliefs, power structure" which has a very odd (read: biased) take on the Catholic blogosphere. You can read Dom's comments (on certain quotes from the article) right here.

I'd like to take a look at the other three paragraphs that discuss "Catholic blogs" in this article:

"In light of blog mania, religious organizations are getting proactive to make the voices of their top authorities more accessible. Posting the actual words spoken by Pope Benedict XVI on any number of topics, for instance, has become a priority for church staffers in an age when people seem to value messages that come directly from "the horse's mouth."

Interestingly, the pope's official texts have been published in the Acta Sanctae Sedis from before the 1900s, and in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis up until the present day. The difference is that one can more easily and quickly access the texts now - but that's equally true of everything with the internet.

"People want to know, `What did he say? What did the pope actually say?'" said Mary Ann Walsh, spokeswoman for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. "This enables people to get material without it being filtered by the media."

Yes, exactly: "without being filtered [and neutered] by the media."

Meanwhile, reform-minded dissidents are finding the Internet enables them to bypass religious authorities altogether in a way that was virtually impossible, at least in terms of mass media, just 15 years ago.

... and maybe *gasp* also lets loyal Catholics voice their support for tradition and authority because the liberal elite have a stranglehold on the mass media? Hmm...

Finally, this could just be the path I tread, but I don't see that many dissident blogs really giving it a serious go... there seems to be a strange lack of liberal Catholic blogging enthusiasm out there - or again - is this just me?

Hey, send me some links ... I'd love to take a look at their comboxes.

Oh that's right. I bet they keep them closed.

Doh! And after we'd heard so much about Vatican-Chinese relations being on the mend...

... this happens:

China plans to ordain bishop, defying Vatican

Beijing, Apr. 28 (AsiaNews) - Chinese officials are planning to ordain a new bishop without the approval of the Holy See, the AsiaNews service reports. The ordination would jeopardize the progress made in recent talks between Beijing and Rome.

Father Bernardo Cervellera, the director of AsiaNews, reports that the government-approved Chinese Patriotic Association plans to ordain Father Ma Yinglin as Bishop of Kunming, in a ceremony set for Saturday, April 30. [source]

AsiaNews.it has more.

Drudge Watch: the important catholic stories for today

Drudge Report is highlighting:

• Pope: Lack of Love Behind Failed Marriages (I agree.)
• "Boycott Da Vinci Code film": top Vatican official (I agree.)

Today is the feast day of Saint Gianna Beretta Molla!

Today is the feast day of Saint Gianna Beretta Molla, the recently-recognized Pro-Life saint. I had the great honor of attending her Mass of canonization two years ago in Rome (it was also the last Mass of canonization done by Pope John Paul II, I think). I'll try to dig up some pictures of that event sometime later when I have access to the computer that hosts them.

More available here from the Saint Gianna society:

"The canonization of Saint Gianna is the first of its kind. Many mothers have been beatified for their heroic virtues but they entered religious life after becoming widowed. In St Gianna’s case, the very condition of her being a spouse and mother is being exalted and highlighted. St Gianna is the first canonized woman physician and professional who was also a "working mom"."

The Prayer of Saint Gianna:

"Jesus, I promise You to submit myself to all that You permit to befall me, make me only know Your will. My most sweet Jesus, infinitely merciful God, most tender Father of souls, and in a particular way of the most weak, most miserable, most infirm which You carry with special tenderness between Your divine arms, I come to You to ask You, through the love and merits of Your Sacred Heart, the grace to comprehend and to do always Your holy will, the grace to confide in You, the grace to rest securely through time and eternity in Your loving divine arms."

Book resources for her life story and message:

• Blessed Gianna Beretta Molla: A Woman's Life
• Saint Gianna Molla: Wife, Mother, Doctor
• Love Letters to My Husband (by Saint Gianna)

Hers is an excellent and most-worthy witness in today's world - spread the word!

Once again, more information available at the Saint Gianna society website.

As promised, Magister on the Cardinal Martini fallout

Running between classes right now, will take a look at it later. Until then, here is the story:

Carlo Maria Martini’s “Day After”

The text of the cardinal published in “L’espresso” greatly irritated the Church’s leadership. Some have interpreted it as the manifesto of an antipope. Here is a summary of the reactions, plus a commentary by Pietro De Marco." Read on.

Vatican Information Service Brief Debriefing

"The Holy Father today received in [a] separate audience: Bishop Robert James Carlson of Saginaw (USA)."
Bishop Carlson is awesome. Anytime he and the Holy Father get together is a good time for rejoicing!

Your Papist-Picture-of-the-Day: Friday, April 28

As a good and loyal Papist, Mrs. Tony Blair was in Rome today for her ad limina visit, reporting on recent decisions made in the UK by her political puppet, her husband the prime minister.

(...and she gets to wear white!)

Related news article: "Pope blames loveless world for low birthrates."

[photo: AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano]

Catholics for a Free Choice call for Vatican change on condoms

"Catholics for a Free Choice", who are behind the "Condoms 4 Life" initiative - which launched a massive ad campaign during the last world youth day to promote condom use - predictably issued a call this week urging Pope Benedict to change Church teaching on the use of condoms:

"Last week, the Condoms4Life campaign welcomed the news that another prominent cardinal had come forward to make a stand in support of the culture of life. Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini joined a growing chorus of voices within the church suggesting that for couples where one partner has HIV/AIDS, the use of condoms is “a lesser evil.” Now we hear that the pope himself has commissioned the Council on Health Care to study this issue in the interest in changing it long-contentious stand against the use of condoms, even to prevent the spread of disease."

...

"We ask that Benedict XVI show courage, compassion and vision and that he lift this ban against condoms as a step to promote a true culture of life." [source]

It's nice they appropriate our language (for instance, "culture of life"). The ad campaign promoting condoms that they organized for world youth day also included pictures of two men gazing lovingly at each other, and their latest newsletter ("Conscience") has a picture of two lesbians kissing accompanied by the main article's title as a caption "Catholic Pride... and Prejudice: the story behind the hierarchy's obsession with sexuality."

The list of follies goes on and on, but what irks me in all this the most, however, is that they get to use the name of a prominant Catholic cardinal as being "on their side" as they issue their pleas to the Vatican.

UK Tablet article & editorial on the condom debate

Mirror of Justice points to this article by the UK Tablet on the Condom Debate.

MOJ also highlights an editorial in the April 29th issue. A quotation:

"But the real problem for the Catholic Church lies elsewhere. Under the doctrine spelled out in the encyclical Humanae Vitae in 1968, any use of condoms, for whatever reason, is immoral. There is no leeway for arguments about a lesser evil; it is irrelevant how effective condoms are against Aids. But it is also well known that in the panoply of Catholic moral teaching, that on contraception is most often disregarded by the faithful. Can the Vatican approve the use of contraceptives in connection with Aids, even in the textbook case of a married couple, without reopening the wider debate? Would that not be interpreted as a retreat from Humanae Vitae? Indeed, has the time come for such a move anyway, with Aids as the catalyst for an overdue development of doctrine? The Pope will be well aware of all these questions."

"In 1968 the most persuasive reason advanced in favour of retaining the ban on artificial birth control was that to lift it would signal that the Church could change its mind, and hence undermine its teaching authority. That is ironic, given the damage done to that authority by the furore that followed. Today, however, far from weakening its position, the Church would gain much public credit by admitting that condoms should not be ruled out as a protection against HIV-Aids, even if the practical questions concerning their advisability remain to be addressed. And if that opens the door to wider issues, then so be it." [More]

Well, at least the other side admits that the "lesser evil" argument is bunk and that any ruling in favor of condom use in the "textbook case of a married couple" would be a retreat from stated Catholic doctrine.

Circumcision, Fidelity More Effective HIV Prevention Methods Than Condoms, Abstinence, Researchers Say

From Medical News Today (and currently being highlighted by the Drudge Report):

Promoting male circumcision and fidelity to one partner seems to be more effective at curbing the spread of HIV than promoting abstinence and condom use, USAID researcher and technical adviser Daniel Halperin said last week, the Chicago Tribune reports.

As Halperin and other researchers analyze 20 years of studies on HIV/AIDS throughout Africa, they have tried to "put aside intuitions, emotions, ideologies and look at the evidence in as coldhearted a way as we can," Halperin said.

During a speech at a meeting of the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society in Johannesburg, South Africa, Halperin said he and his colleagues discovered that regular sex partners rarely use condoms, and abstinence merely delays HIV infection among young people by one or two years.

For example, condom use in Ghana and Senegal seems to have helped in the reduction of the spread of the HIV, which in those countries is particularly prevalent among commercial sex workers and their partners. However, condom use in South Africa and Botswana has had little effect in reducing those countries' HIV epidemics -- which have reached the general population -- because regular sex partners rarely use condoms consistently.

In comparison, faithfulness to one partner has worked at reducing HIV prevalence in Uganda and Kenya, according to Halperin. Because a person is more likely to transmit HIV during the first three weeks of contracting the virus, an HIV-positive person who has just one partner during that time is likely to pass the disease to that one person.

But if an HIV-positive person in the highly infectious stage has many sexual partners at a time, "the virus spreads like wildfire" as those people in turn have sex with other people, Halperin said. In addition, circumcision has been shown to reduce male-to-female HIV transmission by 60% to 75% (Goering, Chicago Tribune, 4/23).

A study published in the November 2005 issue of PLoS Medicine of men living in South Africa finds that male circumcision might reduce the risk of men contracting HIV through sexual intercourse with women by about 60%. Male circumcision might also reduce the risk of HIV transmission from HIV-positive men to their female partners, according to a study of couples in Rakai, Uganda (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 2/9). [source]

Fidelity works?! Wow, science never ceases to amaze. One sentence from this report does mystify me, though: "abstinence merely delays HIV infection among young people by one or two years." Well, clearly abstinence only practiced for two years ... only works two years.

But combine "abstinence" with "fidelity to one parter" ... hey, now you've got something! Hmm, what does that sound l