There were 467 new priestly ordinations in the U.S. last year, and Boston's seminary had to turn away applicants.
In his Holy Thursday homily at St. Peter's Basilica on April 5, Pope
Benedict XVI denounced calls from some Catholics for optional celibacy
among priests and for women's ordination. The pope said that "true
renewal" comes only through the "joy of faith" and "radicalism of
obedience."
And renewal is coming. After the 2002
scandal about sexual abuse by clergy, progressive Catholics were
predicting the end of the celibate male priesthood in books like "Full
Pews and Empty Altars" and "The Death of Priesthood." Yet today the
number of priestly ordinations is steadily increasing.
A new seminary is to be built near
Charlotte, N.C., and the archdiocese of Washington, D.C., has expanded
its facilities to accommodate the surge in priestly candidates. Boston's
Cardinal Sean Patrick O'Malley recently told the National Catholic
Register that when he arrived in 2003 to lead that archdiocese he was
advised to close the seminary. Now there are 70 men in Boston studying
to be priests, and the seminary has had to turn away candidates for lack
of space.
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