St. Patrick's Online Bulletin

This coming Wednesday, June 26th, Fr. Sean will leave for his new assignment as Vocation Director of our diocese and Fr. Thomas Acheampong will take his place. For the first time in my 48 years of priesthood I along with Fr. Fred will be in the minority in the rectory as native born Americans. Fr. Thomas is from Ghana, Fr. Abraham is from India, and Fr. Corneille who is one of the chaplains at St. Catherine’s Hospital, is from the Belgian Congo. When the list of available associates was sent to me a few months ago, there was not one American born priest on it. With more and more Catholics leaving the Church and only about 30% coming to Sunday Mass on a regular basis, it should be no surprise young men are not hearing a call to serve God’s people as priests. The current crisis in the Church over the scandal of abuse is another negative and discouraging factor. The American Catholic Church which used to send missionaries all over the world is now the beneficiary of vocations from other countries. God takes care of us in ways that surprise us.