Monday, January 12, 2009

"Growing, energetic" Knoxville gets its new bishop

Rocco Palmo at Whispers in the Loggia is reporting on the appointment of St. Louis' Msgr. Richard Stika as the new bishop of the Diocese of Knoxville.

Along the way, Rocco gives us a bit of background on Knoxville (emphasis mine).

Founded in 1988, the Knoxville church [with its 60,000 Catholics] comprises just 2% of its area's total population, but stands in the front rank of the Stateside church's ever-burgeoning Southern emergence. Encompassing some 47 parishes and 10 schools spread over 14,000 square miles of Volunteer Country, the growing, energetic diocese has more than doubled in size since 1990. Its seven seminarians may not sound like much, but a diocese of a million members would need 140 men in formation to have a contingent of equal proportion; widely celebrated for his efforts at energizing the turf and bulking up its ordained ranks, [Knoxville's last bishop, Joseph] Kurtz, ordained three priests and 29 permanent deacons in his final weeks before leaving for Louisville. Just in recent weeks, one booming parish near the see city opened a new 900-seat, $11 million church built in the Romanesque style.

DOR would need to have 40 men in priestly formation to match Knoxville's ratio of seminarians to total Catholics.

We have 6.

3 comments:

Rich Leonardi said...

Six represents an uptick though, correct?

Mike Shea said...

It sure does, Rich.

Similar upticks are occurring in many dioceses with a reputation for orthodoxy, a trait of which Bishop Clark and much of DOR is seldom accused.

We are, instead, known for things like this, which I sure hope is not responsible for our increase in seminarians.

Anonymous said...

Once more, here is the ordination outlook for the coming years (http://dor.org/planning/PlanningUpdateJune2008.html Article: "UPDATE ON PRIESTLY VOCATIONS IN THE DIOCESE OF ROCHESTER"

2009- 1
2010- 0
2011- 0
2012- 0
2013- possibly 5

Probably worth mentioning that 2013 will be the first year post-Clark for ordinations. Coincidence?

~Dr. K