Saturday, May 10, 2014

AD GENTES?


One of the questions we have asked here on this blog is why is Archbishop Apuron taking seminarians from other countries and bringing them to our island under the guise of "ad gentes" and of Guam being a "mission" when we are already 400 years along in Catholicism. 


It appears that the former Prefect for the CONGREGATION FOR THE EVANGELISATION OF PEOPLES, Cardinal Jozef Tomko, has asked the same thing in:

 COMMENTS BY CARDINAL JOZEF TOMKO 
ON THE SENDING ABROAD AND SOJOURN
OF DIOCESAN PRIESTS
FROM MISSION TERRITORIES

Many of them long to come to the West and stay there for long periods or definitively, prompted by motives that are not truly missionary, such as better living conditions or good economic situations. On the other hand, the Western Churches are currently suffering a certain vocations crisis and gladly have recourse to the easy solution of staffing their parishes with African, Asian or Latin American priests, heedless of the possible harm this can cause to the mission ad gentes and to the frail young communities. 
Many mission dioceses cannot give up their own priests because they represent the forces indispensable for their survival and the continuation of evangelization, also damaged by the decreasing numbers of Western missionaries. Thus the Churches of ancient foundation, on the one hand, no longer offer the help they once offered missionaries and, on the other, deprive mission territories of their own local priests who should be carrying on the work of evangelization. 
Some dioceses in Africa and Asia have a third or even half of their diocesan clergy in other countries, for financial reasons. I know of one that has 83 priests abroad, while within the country evangelization is stagnating. In Italy there are 1,800 foreign priests, of whom 800 are involved full time in direct pastoral work. With such a number of diocesan priests many new dioceses could be created in mission lands! Can Italy consider itself a "mission territory" to this extent, with the same number of priests per faithful and per population as in Africa and Asia?

Note: Guam already has more priests per capita than any other diocese in the United States. 



The current Prefect for this Congregation, Cardinal Fernando Filoni, has also said the same thing in a recent address:
Cardinal Fernando Filoni told the Societies’ leaders that it is “unfair” that up to half the priests in some African and Asian dioceses now serve in the West, “where they believe they find better pastoral conditions.” These priests’ native dioceses, he said, are “still short of personnel” and thus are “deprived of significant apostolic forces absolutely indispensable for Christian life.”
But to answer the initial question...we know why. 

11 comments:

  1. For 30 mins I sat watching the live feed which publisher Tom Rohr has placed on this page. It is amazing not only the number of people following this blog but the particular places people are visiting from. Unbelievable readership. Congratulations on your informative researched and honest publications. Continue informing the international church of the alarming situation that has evolved in Guam with the present bishop. May be another bishop of bling like in Germany.

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    1. Thanks, but Tom's my cousin. And the only thing the "bishop of bling" did was overspend. Would much rather have that problem than this one.

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    2. Tim is correct. Had archbishop Apuron just have over spent on a budget which we believed was needed to serve Guam we would raise the money for him. But we are certainly not raising money when he is not open about church finances with us. We also ask ourself the question what exactly is he doing with r ms . It looks very dishonesty to the loyal Catholics of Guam. This year I did not submit my small gift of one thousand to the appeal because I do not find the archbishop honest with the people. Sorry.

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  2. I was watching EWTN just recently and showed a documentary on one particular country China where a missionary priest would come and celebrate mass once a year due to the lack of priest in the outskirts of this faraway land with a population of 600 people in it. The people of little town cried with Joy just to have a priest celebrate mass. Its so ironic how we are overwhelm with so many priests in a tiny little island and this one small town in China does not. Missionary priest should be sent out in to these areas if they called to do such by their vocations. Send all RMS priest and stay there! China will support their priestly vocations.

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    1. I bet to differ about the missionary priests being sent there. The seminarians should be sent there to study the language and the culture.

      Then again, this may be a poverty stricken area in China that there is no AAA to support them! Isn't there an RMS built there? Need to check this one out!

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    2. The international leadership does not maintain a presence in china. It also does not want a presence in china.

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  3. Love the pic! lol
    Why is it that these deacons get to wear clerics, and the permanent deacons do not?
    Also, our permanent deacons are not to be called by their proper name of reverend mr.
    In fact, I believe that these men start wearing their clerics, from the time they receive the acolyte title...
    Just another example of the favoritism towards the NCW.

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  4. concerned parishionerMay 10, 2014 at 10:50 AM

    Here on Guam we don’t need more priests, what do we need? We need pastors with a strong faith in our true faith! What we need is to have pastors who work more close with the parish and the sacraments. We need to have more catechism of the Catholic Church class for all adults in every parish even if they have already received all the sacraments because many of us do not know our faith or forget about it because we don't practice anymore! The catechism of the Catholic Church is the true teaching of our Catholic Church, not the neo ways! In our Churches here on Guam a lot of Catholics do not know our faith and are more confused because of the division and confusion of what is right or wrong and why the neos have to be different, etc.

    The diocese s not doing anything to spread the faith and to train strong CCD teachers and parish councils. The diocese needs to concentrate on teaching and making our faith strong for the adults, for the ccd kids, for the young parents and young adults and the teenagers instead on concentrating on money for the seminary. They really have to stop spending money on all the travels!

    The diocese spends money left and right but just ignores our faith in the parish and think that the neo will solve our faith problem? No its not! In the parish we have the CCD directors and teachers and students and all the parish ministry volunteers and adult education volunteers. So work with our pastors and with us in each of all the groups instead of brnging in outsiders that don’t even believe what we believe and cannot relate to us!

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  5. Facts vs fiction.
    The neos speak of Mission and Evangelisation. What they mean is a so called reconquest of the Church within the Church.
    The reconquest is a very Spanish notion, that is birthed in its national history and psyche.
    At no time the kikomaniacs wished to go and Evangelise China and/or other real land of Mission.
    In fact, recently many voices have raised the debate within the Church as to why so many priests are coming to Europe or North America, from Africa and South America.
    Kiko has used the fact that many priests from these regions are looking forward to move to more "comfortable" areas of the world, deserting their lands of origin, who are often left with not enough priests to take proper care of their flocks. This has been roundly criticized by the majority of African Bishops.
    South America is particularly the target of strong Evangelisation from North American protestant churches, but so is Africa.
    Why then remove these priests from their own land to bring poorly formed ones to countries that have a long Catholic history, and a need for an astute parish leadership in line with the local problems these new priests have little knowledge of?
    The answer is: more political power within the Church for the kikomaniacs. This is a dangerous game of smoke and mirrors.
    It is time we pick up the challenge and say no to this nonsense.

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  6. I just remembered something about the first/ second group of priest who were ordained. These men were ordained before they finished their theological schooling. How do I know? I remembered that six months down the line they were pictures in the Pacific Voice as it was called back then stating that they had completed their studies.

    How can they be ordained before they finish their theological courses? Is this still happening now

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  7. Please note Diana's post! These are foreigners who........So does Diana think that the seminarians are all local....7/8th of them are foreigners! Do these men sleep in the street? Does the Santo Tomas boy in Saipan sleep in the street?

    You see I really don't care what others do elsewhere....I care about what is happening on our island! How many of the RMS priest and seminarians live and the street for two weeks and are hungry or dirty. None, unless they live amongst the homeless!

    AnonymousMay 21, 2014 at 8:25 AM
    Really Diana, who do you think you are fooling! Who housed the seminarians here when they first came? People from the communities. Who fed them? People who are from the communities! They didn't live in the streets! They had free room and board, not to mention free taxi driver to take them here and there!

    I would mention names of those who helped when they first arrived, but I won't! If you want names then let me know on this blog, and you have to publish it. Then call these people and verify it!

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    DianaMay 21, 2014 at 10:04 AM
    Dear Anonymous at 8:25 a.m.,

    The communities did not housed or fed the priests and seminarians when they went on a two by two mission that was organized in Colorado. I said that their stories were very inspiring. What is inspiring is that despite that they didn't have any place to sleep or anything to eat, God actually provided for them. In other words, they went to foreign places where no one knows them. They slept in the streets and no harm came to them. Even when they had no food, God provided for them. In other words, they actually followed the biblical verse below and depended solely on God to provide for them.


    Mark 6:7-8 And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two; and gave them power over unclean spirits; And commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey, save a staff only; no scrip, no bread, no money in their purse:

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