A Walk on the Mild Side . . .

This was written by a very good friend of mine. It certainly points out a real problem in our Church today.

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The vocation crisis is absent from a few of the 146 Latin Rite Dioceses in the United States. In the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska, Bishop Bruskowitz has no problem keeping his churches staffed with priests and his seminaries full. In the dioceses of Atlanta, Georgia, Omaha, Nebraska, and Peoria, Illinois, the same lack of a problem. They have vocations. They also have a different vocation crisis - the ordained priests are crowding out lay people in many ministries. When Bishop John Myers left the Diocese of Peoria, it had an abundance of vocations. After being appointed Archbishop of Newark, New Jersey, he has sown and now reaps another harvest of vocations. The Diocese of Newark had the largest graduating class of any seminary in the country.

What is the secret of the flourishing diocese? It would seem that the bishop is the key as reflected by the above mentioned. Take the bishop in our diocese, for an example. He is a good man. I believe he is orthodox and holy. He prays. The sermons I have heard were very good. I believe, however, he is, indeed, the problem with our lack of vocations.

What is the problem with this good and orthodox bishop? I believe it is a lack of the virtue of fortitude. Most bishops have too much of the virtue of prudence and not enough of fortitude. They want to please two masters on earth; the Holy Father and the world. They hear from Rome that there cannot be women's ordination and they obey. However, they feel that they must bend the knee to their other master, the world. So, they "explain" or avoid explaining the teaching. They play down the "controversy". Anything that might upset the media, badly catechized laymen, or the elite who donate large sums of money is to be avoided or watered down. This is not because the bishops are heretics but to avoid the dreaded abyss of bad publicity.

Young men on fire for the Lord can give up a biological family to be a spiritual father to a flock but they will seldom do this to be a branch manager with the slight possibility of promotion to VP or CEO.

The bishops and their bureaucracies want smart, efficient, branch managers, who will run their parishes without controversy and crank out sacraments efficiently. A candidate for the seminary who is fired with the Holy Spirit makes them uncomfortable. What might such a priest say during a sermon? What might he tell a parishioner or a newspaper reporter? The bishop would have to try and smooth over the crises; almost certainly not by forthright affirmation of the Faith, but by weasel words, appeals to compromise, and mildness.

Bishops with vocation crises want what can never be: young men who want to dedicate their lives to Jesus who are "reasonable" and not too enthusiastic about the faith. But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, nor hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth. Revelation 3:16.