Word: priestly
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...more the Roman Catholic Church in the U.S. has grown in recent decades, the more crippling has become its shortage of priests. In 1966 the American Catholic population was 46 million. At that time, the number of priests available to offer the sacraments was some 59,000, or approximately one priest for every 780 parishioners. Today there are 57 million Catholics and 53,000 priests, or one priest for every 1,100 parishioners. One result is that more than 1,000 parishes now have no priest at all. Last week two sociologists published research predicting that the crisis will only...
...Richard Schoenherr, of the University of Wisconsin, and his former student Lawrence Young, now at Brigham Young University, released the results of a six-year study of the trends for clergy in 86 dioceses. The 163-page report, titled The Catholic Priest in the U.S., which was prepared for the U.S. bishops' conference, makes a gloomy assessment: if current directions are not reversed, by the year 2005 there will be 74 million Catholics and fewer than 34,000 priests, or one priest for every 2,200 parishioners. The causes for the continued decline: fewer and fewer men are finding...
...Patriarch draws immediate authority and credibility from his election by a 330-member Local Council with a bishop, priest and lay delegate representing each of the nation's dioceses. Aleksy will reign over a flock of some 50 million members (in contrast to 19 million Communists). As Mikhail Gorbachev fully recognizes, Orthodoxy could provide a unique source of continuity, stability and morality amid escalating Soviet turmoil. Enthroned at age 61 with life tenure, Patriarch Aleksy is quite likely to be a national leader long after Gorbachev leaves power...
...highly significant that the delegates bypassed Filaret, a hard-liner who had served as acting head of the church since the death last month of Patriarch Pimen. Leader of the Kiev diocese since 1966, Filaret is more of a Ukrainian chauvinist than is Vladimir and, according to dissident priest Gleb Yakunin, is seen as "a KGB puppet." He was third in the bishops' vote...
This time the town's text commission labored hard to respond to complaints, especially those lodged by American Jews. The commission reworked the basic text, itself a 19th century revision by a local priest, Alois Daisenberger. The new version was prepared in consultation with Jewish agencies and two Catholic scholars, Leonard Swidler and the Rev. Gerard Sloyan of Temple University. The numerous alterations include the re-Judaization of Jesus and his disciples, who wear prayer shawls and yarmulkes, and the removal of stereotypes of the Jews as avaricious and mercenary. "They have made very significant improvements," says Swidler...