Author: Richard Chonak

A posting over at Amy’s on the subject of priest shortages brought forth dozens of comments, many on the theme famously expressed by Archbishop Curtiss that orthodox teaching and practice in a diocese encourage vocations. It’s a reasonable connection to make, but I have to admit that attempts to prove it using statistics haven’t worked.
An NOR article by Doug Tattershall arguing for the thesis actually gives numbers that show how weak it is: the top 20% of Mr. Tattershall’s list includes not only famously orthodox Lincoln and Fargo but also more liberal Greensburg, Mobile, Lexington, Steubenville (despite FUS), Raleigh, Charlotte, St. Augustine, and Crookston.
On the other side, staunch Cdl. O’Connor’s New York and Cdl. Law’s Boston are not near the top as we’d hope, but down near the bottom of the list, along with liberal Richmond, L.A., and Honolulu.
A similar statistical summary for a three-year period is available on-line at Petersnet; search for the author’s name, “Humm”, to find the lists of “Ordinations – Per Capita”. Daniel Humm’s breakdown of the dioceses by size gives us a clue: high-ranking Mobile, Lincoln, and Fargo are all small and largely rural dioceses; big NYC, BOS, Brooklyn, and LA are near the bottom. Is diocesan size itself the factor — in which case we’ll have an argument for breaking up the mega-dioceses — or is there something going on in cities that contributes to a low ordination rate?
If anybody out there has some geographical mapping software and would like to generate some graphics from the data, that might help us to figure it all out.

Canon 1370 says:

A person who uses physical force against a cleric or religious out of contempt for the faith, or the Church, or ecclesiastical authority or the ministry, is to be punished with a just penalty.

Note the distinction: if you use force against a priest out of contempt for the faith, that’s a punishable offense under church law. But if you slap him up-side the head for some other reason — for example, because of his obnoxious arrogance toward the Faith and the faithful — well, the canon doesn’t restrict that at all.
Today’s candidate for an attitude adjustment is Rev. Thomas Quinlan of Virginia Beach. For starters, here’s a profile from the Virginian-Pilot. He seems to be out to give his congregation entertainment: a Mass to compete with the Jerry Springer show.

In 1974, a Time magazine profile quoted him calling his parish “spiritual white trash” who casually drop into Mass to “fill up at God’s gas pump.”
Quinlan shocked more than a few Catholics when he rode down the center aisle of the Basilica of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception on a police motorcycle, blue lights flashing, for the Palm Sunday procession.
Jaws dropped, too, when he dressed for Mass on one occasion as Superman, on others as the Grinch or the Blue Angel. And when he led the nearly all-black congregation to Suffolk to re-enact the trial of Nat Turner on Good Friday. And when, at a wedding in 1989, Quinlan went into detail about the sexual imagery invoked by the long, narrow candles used for the liturgy.

Really, do such tasteless stunts still go on? Are there really priests who think that shock and slapstick are the way to reach black Catholics?
The pitiful thing about this guy is that he plainly has some good intentions and some correct observations, coupled with a lot of error, and all of it delivered in a manner that a nearby pastor has called “crude and arrogant”. For example, about half the points in his advice on proper conduct during Mass are correct, while the rest are rubbish.
(Thanks to Mark Sullivan.)

Scroll to the bottom of the linked page for the info.
The three emeriti had all passed the age of 75.

: this year’s turnout for the March for Life was the second-largest I’ve seen: I haven’t heard any estimates yet from March organizers, but I’d guess 75,000 attended. Tuesday night’s Vigil Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception — can anyone convince Msgr. Bransfield to get the title shortened, please? — had an enormous turnout, overflowing to the lower church and with standees in the vestibule.
Stranger than fiction? I love the way the March and the Vigil always seem to lead to unexpected meetings. Sometimes they’re just cute little connections that happen when the right people cross paths, but to me they serve as a witness to the communion of saints. My friend Bro. Matt and I were among those standees in the vestibule along with another layman. Jerry was attending the Vigil Mass for the first time, and during the homily the name on a young man’s name-tag happened to catch his attention. It reminded him of a Catholic classmate who had put her pro-life conviction into action, twenty years ago and six hundred miles away. While Barbara and Jerry attended the same college, she became an unwed mother through her boyfriend of the time and gave birth to Samuel. And here was little Samuel’s name, first and last, hanging on the jacket of a young Knight of Columbus who was an usher for the pro-life Mass. He squatted down in front of us to help a young lady who had felt faint. When he stood up to go, his name tag jogged in Jerry’s memory, and a couple of questions later, Samuel had confirmed that yes, he was Barbara’s boy. Jerry took my pen and wrote on the usher’s Mass program “Barbara– Sam is looking good! — Jerry….”

Well, there is one liturgy I’d like to see updated.
Hearing coverage of the anti-war protestors in Washington reminds me that they need some new slogans.
Hey, hey;
Ho, ho;
Mindless chanting has to go.
Can’t they come up with something better than “Hey, hey; ho, ho; (fill in the blank) has got to go”? I mean: it’s such a cliche’! And so avoidable: after all, these events attract the cream of today’s artistes: makers of papier-mache street puppets, members of drumming troupes, and so many other creative types: why can’t they come up with a few more original couplets to recite?
We’re not hating, we’re not ranting
we’re not thinking, we’re just chanting.
For some generally irreligious people, a political demonstration may be the most moving event they ever take part in, and the one which gives them the greatest feeling of solidarity with humanity. No wonder it takes on the character of a ritual whose basic texts become fixed with time.
And by the way, since I’m here in Washington for this week’s March For Life: fortunately, pro-life crowds don’t seem to chant slogans much; they prefer to sing hymns or say prayers together. Cardinal Law used to try to stir up the teens with “Give me an L: L!” and they’d politely shout along with him, at least to get it over with.