Priest shortage putting strain on growing Catholic population

(8/29/07 - KTRK/HOUSTON) (KTRK) -- An alarming shortage of Catholic priests in the Houston area is putting a strain on those already serving a growing Catholic population.

The numbers are not encouraging. There are about 500 priests in the Houston-Galveston diocese, serving an estimated one and a half million Catholics. That boils down to one priest for every 2,000 Catholics. The bells of St. Mary's toll with a ring heard throughout the campus, yet the call is equally as loud for more candidates for priesthood.

"So we've never had an over abundance of priests. What we're facing right now for our archdiocese, you can imagine this, we probably have over a million and a half Catholic men and women," said Father Brendan Cahill. With St. Mary's Seminary. "That's huge, and probably about 500 priests to serve all these men and women. In that sense, you can say there's a shortage."

St. Mary's seminary in Memorial prepares future priests for service. There are 77 candidates here, far below the 120 person capacity. While those numbers are considered good, they aren't enough to keep up with the gap created by priests who leave service through retirement or death.

As a result, priests in the faculty are being called to fill in at parishes.

"A few weeks ago, I served in three parishes on a weekend," said Father Trung Nguyen with St. Mary's. "Four masses because of the need."

While no one disputes the growing need, don't expect the Catholic church to shorten or change the nine-year study requirement.

"I think the church is very concerned about the quality of the formation of our men regardless of the numbers," said Father Dean Wilhelm with St. Mary's. "We're looking for quality and not quantity."

At St. Mary's, there is a growing number of a different type of seminarian -- one who may have been married or even fathered children.

"One thing that's interesting is I found a lot of our seminarians now are a little bit older, like 35 to 40, which is young, that maybe at a younger age of 18 to 20, they thought about the priesthood, then went off to college and went on a regular career track," said Cahill.

While the face of the seminarian has changed, the desire and commitment to a life of service remains the same as its been at St. Mary's for over 100 years..

"I could not find any greater joy that I could spend in my life than serving God and his people and I can't think of anything more worthwhile," said seminarian TJ Dolce.

As far as all the foreign-born priests now being assigned to local churches, the archdiocese says it has developed a program called 'accent modification.' Priests are taught to speak better English, so they are understood by their congregations and their preaching doesn't get lost in translation.
(Copyright © 2007, KTRK-TV)

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