Saturday, May 2, 2009

Vocations surge in Arkansas

There must be something in the water in the Diocese of Little Rock. 

Arkansas Catholic, the official newspaper of the Diocese of Little Rock, is reporting that the diocese currently has 27 men in formation and expects to add as many as 10 more next fall.  This uptick in vocations has even prompted talk of reopening the diocesan seminary.

What makes this all the more remarkable is that the diocese, which encompasses the entire state of Arkansas, only has about 112,000 Catholics.

Little Rock currently has 24.1 seminarians per 100,000 Catholics and, if all 10 potential new seminarians follow through, will have 33.0 per 100,000 this fall.

These numbers compare quite favorably with those of the Archdiocese of St. Louis and the Diocese of Wichita (21.6 and 38.3 seminarians per 100,000 Catholics, respectively - see here).

By way of contrast, DOR currently has 1.7 seminarians for every 100,000 Catholics.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Larry Denninger said...

Mike - those are great numbers! How does Peoria, Fargo and Denver compare? They traditionally have good numbers too.

Anonymous said...

The fact that Bishop Clark allowed the article (Discerning God's Call To Serve) to be published on the front page of the May issue of the Catholic Courier Newspaper, is a sign of "hope".

I would like to share a suggestion about Becket Hall.

Rather than have just 2 men attend a Mass at Becket Hall, I would suggest that the Mass be held at a local parish, so that other parishioners are able to attend. Today, a priest is worth his weight in gold and every Mass should attract as many parishioners, as possible.

Priests, Deacons and Nuns have to start asking every boy and young man in the parish, if they would consider becoming a priest. You have to start asking them at a young age.

In today's society in Rochester, New York and the whole Diocese of Rochester, young men are being taught to become rich. We want to go straight to the top and become the President of the corporation and make big money. Greed of money and material objects is the goal. That is also why there is also so much corporate stealing taking place.

What we are forgetting, is that we are only passing through this life and life is shorter than you think. We will take nothing with us on our last trip to Holy Sepulchre Cemetery.

Anonymous said...
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Mike Shea said...

LarryD,

Peoria: "nearly 40" according to here. 40 would translate to about 20 seminarians per 100,000 Catholics.

Fargo: 20 (see here), or 24.1 seminarians per 100,000.

I couldn't find a number for Denver but I did stumble across one for Sioux Falls: 20 (see here), or 16.0 per 100,000.

Interstate Catholic said...

Lets hope that a lot of extern priests are coming to the DoR in the next few years. If not, we are going to be in big trouble.