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Saturday, April 19, 2008

"'Serious and urgent' vocations crisis in Scotland"

This is not a good post...
From TotalCatholic.com
Published on April 18, 2008

A Scottish bishop has warned that he “cannot overstress” what he describes as the serious and urgent nature of the crisis of vocations confronting his diocese.

Bishop Ian Murray of Argyll and the Isles wrote to parishioners to say that the diocese currently has only one seminarian preparing to be ordained as a priest in 2011.

Thereafter, there are no more aspirants to the priesthood. Any man applying for acceptance for the priesthood this year would not be ordained until 2014.

Bishop Murray said: “Parishioners must confront the reality that there may not be Mass every Sunday in every parish of this diocese.”

The bishop said that the crisis in vocations in Scotland has arisen despite 11 men beginning their seminary formation last year. This figure was larger than Scotland has experienced for some years.

Bishop Murray’s letter was part of a concerted effort by Scotland’s eight bishops to highlight the need for more priests.

Bishop Philip Tartaglia of Paisley was equally frank. He wrote: “Priests after the image of Christ the Good Shepherd have never been more necessary in modern Scotland than today, and the priesthood has never been more challenging. Priests today know that they need to be evangelising and missionary.”

Bishop Peter Moran of Aberdeen suggested that as a condition for the growth of vocations, families must value priestly, diaconal or religious vocations as an honourable life choice and show by their words and attitudes that they consider it as such.

Bishop Moran wrote: “Please pray for vocations, please keep your eyes open for potential candidates – and above all, please show how happy you would be if a friend or relative received this call from God.”

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