Pope Francis has made perfectly clear that he is opposed to ordaining women as deacons. Although I disagree with him, I accept that we are not going to see women deacons during his pontificate. But if Francis or anyone else opposes ordaining women deacons, there is a simple solution: stop ordaining anyone as deacons, and Read more
The incoming class of seminarians who will be ordained in 2024 is young and involved in their community, an annual survey released April 15 found. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops commissioned the Center for Applied Research (CARA) at Georgetown University for an annual survey. From January to March of this year, CARA surveyed almost Read more
Forty-five years ago, I wrote a parody of a then-popular Catholic hymn. The same parody works today: Be not ordained Priesthood is for men only Don’t follow me, for they will give you grief. We laughed then, but decades later, it is not very funny. In fact, it is rather tragic. What is tragic is Read more
We’ve just turned the page on the month of June, traditionally in some parts of the world, the time for priestly ordinations in many parts of the Catholic world. According to figures from the national bishops’ conference, the Church in France was ordained 122 new priests this summer – 77 diocesan and 45 from religious Read more
Pope Francis will ordain nine deacons to the priesthood at St. Peter’s Basilica on Sunday, 25 April. Among those who are to be ordained are Samuel Piermarini, who gave up a promising football career and Riccardo Cendamo, a former film director. Read more
Fr Matthew Hood of the Archdiocese of Detroit recently discovered that his baptism as an infant had been invalid when he watched a family video that showed Deacon Mark Springer saying, “We baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” The Congregation for the Doctrine of Read more
The validity of some Dearborn, Michigan, parishoners’ sacraments has been called into question after one of its own priests invalid baptism! Father Matthew Hood learned that he was not a baptised Catholic earlier this month after watching a family video of his baptism and where some words were changed. The words used at his baptism Read more
An ordination to the priesthood and to the diaconate according to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite will take place at St Benedict’s church in Newton, Auckland, in early October. NZ Catholic understands that Bishop Denis Browne, Emeritus Bishop of Hamilton, will ordain Deacon Roger Gilbride, FSSP, to the priesthood and Mr Brendan Boyce, Read more
Peter Trung Nguyen was ordained to the priesthood by Cardinal John Dew at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Palmerston North last Saturday. The event had been postponed from April because of COVID-19 restrictions. And because COVID-19 Alert level remains at 2, numbers were still restricted. Nguyen said that while he was happy to Read more
About a quarter of all new Catholic priests in Europe are Polish, according to data from the Polish Institute for Catholic Church Statistics. Furthermore, since 2000 the statistics show a decline in the number of new priests in Poland, as well as a rise in the number of those leaving the priesthood. Around 350 new Read more