Catholic Communications, Sydney Archdiocese REPORT
3 Aug 2012
Vocation Sunday this weekend marks the start of National Vocations Awareness Week and for the Archdiocese of Sydney there is good reason to celebrate.
Tomorrow, 4 August, eight men from two city seminaries will be ordained into the priesthood by the Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell. This brings the number of priests who have been ordained by His Eminence at St Mary's Cathedral since Sydney's World Youth Day in 2008 to 23.
At the Seminary of the Good Shepherd, Homebush the numbers are even more impressive when seminarians from other countries who chose to be ordained by their local prelates are taken into account.
"Over the past six years there have been 38 ordinations of our seminarians," says Rector of the Seminary of the Good Shepherd, Father Anthony Percy.
In the 1970s through until the end of the 1990s, the numbers of those seeking priestly vocations went into a sharp decline. But slowly this changed and for the past six years there has not only been an increase in the number of those ordained, but also in the numbers entering Sydney's Seminary of the Good Shepherd and the Redemptorist Mater Missionary Seminary at Chester Hill.
Currently the Seminary of the Good Shepherd has 42 men studying for the priesthood with a further 22 studying to be missionary priests at the Redemptorist Seminary.
"A few weeks ago a group of priests celebrating 40 years since their priestly ordinations visited the Seminary and one of them wanted to know: 'Is the Church going forward or backwards?'" Fr Percy says. "I was pleased to be able to tell the priest firmly that "we are definitely going forward."
He says he then went on quote the most recent statistics across the Archdiocese that showed not only was Sydney seeing an increase in ordinations into the priesthood or of those seeking a priestly vocation, but in many other areas.
"In the five years since the last report was sent to Rome, there have been over 5000 more baptisms per year, while daily Mass numbers have never been higher," he says. "Catholic marriages are also rising steadily despite marriage rates generally across Australia at all-time low. Since marriage is the basis of family and family is the basis of society, Catholics are well placed to profoundly influence the future of Australian society."
However, Fr Percy says there was one large area of growth that was difficult to quantify or put in into statistical terms.
"This is the increasing level of involvement we are seeing among young people in the life of the Church. They have a substantial presence in the Church and the numbers I see today suggest not only an increase in numbers from the time when I was ordained over 20 years ago, but the young people seem to have a greater and much stronger commitment."
He puts much of this down to the success of Sydney's World Youth Day in 2008. The pride in faith, enthusiasm and eagerness to learn more about their beliefs and to deepen their faith has been further built on by ongoing initiatives such as the Sydney Congress Embracing the New Evangelisation (SCENE) which is held in alternate years to World Youth Day, Theology on Tap, the establishment of the University of Notre Dame in Sydney and Catholic social networking websites such as Xt3.com.
He also believes young people have turned to the Church after discovering that they want more in their lives than is offered by today's secular society.
Fr Percy says while many of the challenges facing young priests involve providing an environment and culture where the Word of God can be fruitful, these challenges are not unique to today's world but would have been the same challenges faced by St Mary of the Cross MacKillop. Or even further back: St Francis of Assisi.
However new challenges confront young priests in today's world and Fr Percy believes these are associated with marriage and catechesis.
"Discovering commitment is actually an adventure; that new life is a blessing and not a threat; that ignorance is not bliss but banal. These are the pastoral priorities of the young priests of the third millennium," he says.
Information and events are planned throughout National Vocations Week which runs from 5 - 12 August with one of the highlights being the chance to meet and hear Br Paul Bednarczky, Executive Director of National Religious Vocation Conference, USA.
On Sunday afternoon, 12 August Br Paul will give an address at Dooleys Catholic Club Lidcombe where he will speak about religious and priestly life today, the call to leadership, the right people for the Vocation Ministry, and the trends and challenges facing us all.
To register for this event contact dhayesrscj@gmail.com or by phoning 0437 402 256.
Further information about the week and about vocations can be obtained by logging on to the Archdiocese of Sydney's Vocation Centre at www.vocationcentre.org.au
SHARED FROM ARCHDIOCESE OF SYDNEY
3 Aug 2012
Four priests were ordained by
Cardinal Pell in 2009, the largest
number in more than a decade
Tomorrow, 4 August, eight men from two city seminaries will be ordained into the priesthood by the Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell. This brings the number of priests who have been ordained by His Eminence at St Mary's Cathedral since Sydney's World Youth Day in 2008 to 23.
At the Seminary of the Good Shepherd, Homebush the numbers are even more impressive when seminarians from other countries who chose to be ordained by their local prelates are taken into account.
"Over the past six years there have been 38 ordinations of our seminarians," says Rector of the Seminary of the Good Shepherd, Father Anthony Percy.
In the 1970s through until the end of the 1990s, the numbers of those seeking priestly vocations went into a sharp decline. But slowly this changed and for the past six years there has not only been an increase in the number of those ordained, but also in the numbers entering Sydney's Seminary of the Good Shepherd and the Redemptorist Mater Missionary Seminary at Chester Hill.
Currently the Seminary of the Good Shepherd has 42 men studying for the priesthood with a further 22 studying to be missionary priests at the Redemptorist Seminary.
"A few weeks ago a group of priests celebrating 40 years since their priestly ordinations visited the Seminary and one of them wanted to know: 'Is the Church going forward or backwards?'" Fr Percy says. "I was pleased to be able to tell the priest firmly that "we are definitely going forward."
Six priests were ordained by Cardinal Pell in 2010
at St Mary's Cathedral
"In the five years since the last report was sent to Rome, there have been over 5000 more baptisms per year, while daily Mass numbers have never been higher," he says. "Catholic marriages are also rising steadily despite marriage rates generally across Australia at all-time low. Since marriage is the basis of family and family is the basis of society, Catholics are well placed to profoundly influence the future of Australian society."
However, Fr Percy says there was one large area of growth that was difficult to quantify or put in into statistical terms.
Fr Anthony Percy
He puts much of this down to the success of Sydney's World Youth Day in 2008. The pride in faith, enthusiasm and eagerness to learn more about their beliefs and to deepen their faith has been further built on by ongoing initiatives such as the Sydney Congress Embracing the New Evangelisation (SCENE) which is held in alternate years to World Youth Day, Theology on Tap, the establishment of the University of Notre Dame in Sydney and Catholic social networking websites such as Xt3.com.
He also believes young people have turned to the Church after discovering that they want more in their lives than is offered by today's secular society.
Fr Percy says while many of the challenges facing young priests involve providing an environment and culture where the Word of God can be fruitful, these challenges are not unique to today's world but would have been the same challenges faced by St Mary of the Cross MacKillop. Or even further back: St Francis of Assisi.
The Church is going forwards not backwards
says Fr Anthony Percy
"Discovering commitment is actually an adventure; that new life is a blessing and not a threat; that ignorance is not bliss but banal. These are the pastoral priorities of the young priests of the third millennium," he says.
Information and events are planned throughout National Vocations Week which runs from 5 - 12 August with one of the highlights being the chance to meet and hear Br Paul Bednarczky, Executive Director of National Religious Vocation Conference, USA.
On Sunday afternoon, 12 August Br Paul will give an address at Dooleys Catholic Club Lidcombe where he will speak about religious and priestly life today, the call to leadership, the right people for the Vocation Ministry, and the trends and challenges facing us all.
To register for this event contact dhayesrscj@gmail.com or by phoning 0437 402 256.
Further information about the week and about vocations can be obtained by logging on to the Archdiocese of Sydney's Vocation Centre at www.vocationcentre.org.au
SHARED FROM ARCHDIOCESE OF SYDNEY
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