The archdioceses of Washington, St Paul and Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and Milwaukee celebrated the largest number of new priests in decades.

On 15 June, the Archdiocese of Washington celebrated its largest ordination class in 64 years. Cardinal Wilton D Gregory ordained 16 new priests, the largest number since 1960, at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

The other three archdioceses also saw notable increases in their ordination classes. The Archdiocese of St Paul and Minneapolis welcomed 13 new priests, Los Angeles ordained 11, and Milwaukee saw nine men take up the priesthood.

Diverse backgrounds

The new priests in Washington range in age from 25 to 64, including a Rwandan genocide survivor, a former emergency room physician, and military veterans.

Cardinal Gregory praised the lifelong development of priestly vocations, supported by family and friends, and urged the new priests to centre their lives on prayer and the sacraments.

In his homily, the cardinal emphasised the importance of unconditional love, urging the new priests to "surrender your lives in imitation of the One who poured out His life for us."

In St Paul, approximately 3,500 people attended the ordination at the Cathedral of St Paul. Archbishop Bernard A Hebda highlighted the varied backgrounds of the 13 new priests, including careers in marketing, the Air Force and social work.

Archbishop Hebda noted that their skills and experience would serve them well in their new roles.

Faithfully serve Jesus

Archbishop José H Gomez ordained 11 new priests in Los Angeles at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. The new priests come from varied backgrounds including catering, therapy and sports.

Archbishop Gomez highlighted the importance of love in the priesthood, quoting St John Vianney - "The priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus".

Milwaukee saw Archbishop Jerome E Listecki ordain nine men at the Cathedral of St John the Evangelist.

Archbishop Listecki emphasised the role of priests in shaping and forming communities through the sacraments and acts of charity, encouraging the new priests to "faithfully serve Jesus Christ in his church".

This record number of ordinations signifies a hopeful future for the Catholic Church in the US as it sees an influx of diverse and committed individuals step into the priesthood.

Sources

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CathNews New Zealand

Burke documents the church's history of legislating against giving Communion to persons "obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin." It begs the question of what comprises such sin.

A San Diego group, Catholic Action for Faith and Family, has reprinted, packaged and mailed the 64-page booklet, which retitles Burke's essay as "Deny Holy Communion?"

Founded by Thomas J. McKenna, who acts as Burke's scheduler and is involved with several other lay Catholic organizations, Catholic Action for Faith and Family's two episcopal advisers are Burke himself and San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone.

Determining what comprises "manifest grave sin" seems uppermost in the mind of Cordileone, who last year banned then-Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi from Communion in his archdiocese.

In an April 2022 letter, Cordileone wrote to the speaker, who professes to be a devout Catholic, "You are not to present yourself for Holy Communion … until such time as you publicly repudiate your advocacy for the legitimacy of abortion and confess and receive absolution of this grave sin."

Therein lies the rub, and the confusion. On the other side of the country, Washington Archbishop Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory has said he would not deny Communion to President Joe Biden, another Catholic politician on the wrong side of Cordileone's reading of the law.

Late last month, Bishop Thomas J.J. Paprocki of the diocese of Springfield in Illinois, a canon lawyer who has banned legislators in his state who voted to allow abortion, threw mud into the larger equation with an ungentlemanly critique of San Diego's bishop, Cardinal Robert McElroy, who had published an article in America magazine advocating a more pastoral approach to related questions.

In the middle of all this, the Vatican — in the person of Pope Francis — opposes using Communion as a political weapon.

What does double effect have to do with the fracas? Well, President Biden and the former speaker say they are "personally opposed" to abortion even as they back measures to keep it legal and accessible.

The stretch here is their argument that legalized abortion prevents a worse result. It is a stretch. Does this rise to the level of "manifest grave sin" requiring canonical penalties?

The lawyer-bishops say yes.

The pastoral bishops say no.

Which brings us to the other morality police, the Catholic Laity and Clergy for Renewal, a Denver group headed by a former employee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which reportedly spent millions of dollars to track clerical use of Grindr, advertised as "the world's largest social-networking app for gay, bi, trans and queer people."

Despite canon law's insistence on not damaging individuals' reputations, the Catholic Laity and Clergy for Renewal does not see its spying as wrong. Founded in response to the scandal surrounding former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, they say their aim is to protect the church.

From what?

Here, the argument of Military Archbishop Timothy Broglio, president of the bishops' conference, rises: He connects priest pederasty with homosexuality.

For Catholic Laity and Clergy for Renewal, then, tracking and sharing clerics' use of hook-up apps has a good intent.

In July 2021, after the group shared its findings with various bishops and others about clerics' use of Grindr and its findings were published by the online newsletter The Pillar, Msgr Jeffrey Burrill was forced to resign as general secretary of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

It did not affect his future ministry, however. He is now the administrator of a Wisconsin parish.

The result of all this?

Are Catholics any better evangelized on the problem of abortion as a moral and political issue?

Are the people of God better served when errant clerics are publicly excoriated?

Catholicism does not allow abortion or same-sex relations.

That is well known.

But is this evangelization?

Is anyone even paying attention?

Or have the church and Catholicism in general become ignored footnotes to the news?

• Phyllis Zagano is an internationally acclaimed Catholic scholar and lecturer on contemporary spirituality and women's issues in the church.
• Republished with permission from the author.