Cartoon to tempt teenagers into priesthood

[ted_bloody_maul]

Cartoon to tempt teenagers into priesthood

Japanese manga cartoons have become a multi-billion pound global market, commonly associated with martial arts warriors rather than with nuns and monks. But the Catholic Church in England and Wales is launching its own comic strip this week to attract teenagers into the priesthood.

It is using the comic book art form in an advertising campaign that aims to combat the dramatic decline in the number of applicants for ordination, and the resulting dearth of young priests.

The Church hopes that its manga comic, with pictures of nuns and monks playing pool and surfing the internet, will help to improve the image of the vocation, which leaders believe is seen as 'monotonous and boring'. The minimum age to enter a seminary is 18, but children as young as 10 are being targeted by the recruitment drive, which is encouraging them to consider life as a parish priest or in a religious order.

About 5,000 primary and secondary schools have been sent posters promoting a website that features a manga comic strip based on five young Catholic characters.

Fr Paul Embery, the Church's Director of Vocations, admitted that persuading teenagers to commit to a life of poverty, chastity and obedience was not an easy sell, but said that the Church was desperate to reach younger candidates for ordination. 'We realise that this kind of commitment is counter-cultural. It requires great sacrifice, and a lot of people see it as monotonous and boring, but actually it is an extremely fulfilling job,' he said. 'Manga cartoon characters are popular with young people from the age of 10 up to mid-20s and we thought that it would be a way to help them use their imagination when thinking about the priesthood.' Religious orders and seminaries are struggling to survive because of the fall in numbers. Fewer than half as many people joined colleges last year compared with 1991. The decline over the past 15 years is particularly marked among the younger generation, with under-30s making up more than two thirds of entrants in 1991, but only half last year.

In the typical Catholic diocese, there are four times as many priests aged over 70 as there are under 30, who make up only 7 per cent. The average age of clerics has risen from 57 in 1996 to 61.5 today.

The young may be put off by the six years of training before they can enter the priesthood, or by the frugal stipend, which ranges from 3,500 to 10,000. Yet the Catholic bishops, who meet at their annual conference this week, will be encouraged that there has been a rise in the number of entrants to seminaries in the past few years, from 28 in 2003 to 44 last year. 'After Pope John Paul II died we saw an increase of interest not only in the priesthood, but in Catholic life in general,' said Fr Embery. 'The challenge for the Church is to recognise this and build on it.'

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh ... ests29.xml

 

[Fizz32]

If any young man shows an interest, they can then show them "Father Ted" for a more realistic idea of what to expect.

 

[morningstar667]

Lets keep the age of priests as high as possible then maybe they'll die out naturally

 

[James_H]

These attempts to make certain things - the church, the conservative party, etc - 'cool' are always so excruciating that they're worth looking out for.

 

[JamesWhitehead]

"Bless me, Father, I have sinned. I neglected to read the brief properly and have spent the last week designing comics to tempt priests into teenagers."

"For your penance say six Muscle Maries and a How's Your Father. I shall also confiscate all the comics." :furious:

 

[Mythopoeika]

Why does it require 6 years of training to enter the priesthood?
It's not like they're doing a critical job like doctors or dentists, for goodness' sake...

 

[ted_bloody_maul]

Why does it require 6 years of training to enter the priesthood?
It's not like they're doing a critical job like doctors or dentists, for goodness' sake...

They've got a whole lifetime of hi-jinks to fit in to the time that they're students. They don't have much time for studying after all the sex, drugs and rock'n'roll.

 

[Xanatico]

Did you ever see some of the attempts they made on using The Matrix movie for propaganda, sheesh.

 

[morningstar667]

Did you ever see some of the attempts they made on using The Matrix movie for propaganda, sheesh.

Do tell, this sounds delightfully awful :lol:

 

[Jerry_B]

It's kinda like this too...

http://www.themangabible.com

Why is that Manga-type rip-off comics are so badly drawn? I think I prefer Chester Brown's version of the New Testament instead...

 

[Xanatico]

There´s an example of the Matrix idea here:

http://www.godspy.com/reviews/Father-Ma ... ickona.cfm

 

[rjmrjmrjm]

Why does it require 6 years of training to enter the priesthood?
It's not like they're doing a critical job like doctors or dentists, for goodness' sake...

Priests are generally very intelligent people.* The modern priest has many more duties than just the celebrating of the mass. They have to run their parishes requiring fiscal knowledge, they also have to have a good understanding of theology - not just Christian theology either. They often have to deal with the most difficult aspects of society, drug addits, the homeless, poverty stricken familes, families with berevements, psycologically disturbed people.

I have great respect for clergymen of any denomination, they really do act in places in society were even the most well trained social worker would fear to tread. I know this from first hand experience, i've met an inner-city priest who was assaulted in his church one evening. Even today he still keeps his doors open and doesn't turn people away.

There is often a lot of priest bashing but very little praise for them. Ok, there are bad apples but it would be wrong to tar them all with the same brush.






*Just because they believe in God doesn't make them thick, as some people think.

 

[OldTimeRadio]

I'm by no means certain that "tempt" is the word most Catholics would choose.

 

[OldTimeRadio]

Why does it require 6 years of training to enter the priesthood?
It's not like they're doing a critical job like doctors or dentists, for goodness' sake...

Is six years all that long? My understanding is that a Roman Catholic seminary education resulting in priesthood is equivalent to a Master's Degree and M. A.s usually take six years.

The priests I've known have all carried out extensive pastoral counselling with clinically depressed, drug addicted and suicidal individuals. I might or might not agree with the counselling methods utilized, but that surely is a "critical job."

 

[decipheringscars]

Why does it require 6 years of training to enter the priesthood?
It's not like they're doing a critical job like doctors or dentists, for goodness' sake...

Is six years all that long? My understanding is that a Roman Catholic seminary education resulting in priesthood is equivalent to a Master's Degree and M. A.s usually take six years.

The priests I've known have all carried out extensive pastoral counselling with clinically depressed, drug addicted and suicidal individuals. I might or might not agree with the counselling methods utilized, but that surely is a "critical job."

AFAIK, the educational requirement is the same in the RCC as in other mainline denominations (mine is ECUSA; the same is true for Presbyterians, Lutherans, Methodists, UCC, UU, and so forth...) - an MDiv, which is a professional degree. It's a three-year program. Six years may include other parts of the process, including undergraduate study and discernment. Of course, I don't fully understand the Roman Catholic seminary system - I think there's an undergrad version of it.

For the other mainline denoms, you get an undergrad in whatever, and then do an MDiv (Master of Divinity), which involves studying theology, liturgics, history, ethics, and biblical studies - including learning ancient Greek and Hebrew (and Latin for Roman Catholics). On top of all that, priests' training includes field education and internships, as well as some training in "pastoral" work, which means all the counseling, visitation, being able to identify problems like addiction, abuse, and so forth that would require referrals to the appropriate agencies/experts; plus the ability to write and deliver sermons, and read music and sing (at least the chanting required in the liturgy - which is a whole different type of musical notation).

Of course, one may think all the work priests do is unimportant (or, not "critical," compared with doctors and dentists), but even if that were true, that would hardly translate into no need for extensive education. Ever wonder where folks like Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart come from? The denomination that put them in pulpits (in both cases, the Assemblies of God, which I was raised in) doesn't require ANY education of its ministers. OK, there are some intelligent, educated, and nevertheless wacky televangelists, but there are idiots in any field.

Which, in my opinion, makes the use of comics to make the priesthood look "cool," a really stupid move. It's not a vocation that people should be drawn to because it's "cool." Talk about asking for burn-out! Coolness won't get ya through another 50 or 60 hour workweek with people making constant demands of you, your church's roof leaking while the budget's in the hole, and so on...

 

[OldTimeRadio]

Ever wonder where folks like Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart come from? The denomination that put them in pulpits (in both cases, the Assemblies of God, which I was raised in) doesn't require ANY education of its ministers.

Many far more mainstream sects and denominations have no actual educational requirements, when push comes to shove.

The pastor for nearly 50 years at one of Northern Kentucky's wealthiest and most citified suburban Baptist churches had no formal theological training and in fact was never formally ordained.

But he became the perennial Kentucky delegate to the World Baptist Conventions.

He DID have a quite legitimate doctorate, but it was in English literature rather than theology.

 

[ted_bloody_maul]

Ever wonder where folks like Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart come from? The denomination that put them in pulpits (in both cases, the Assemblies of God, which I was raised in) doesn't require ANY education of its ministers.

Many far more mainstream sects and denominations have no actual educational requirements, when push comes to shove.

The pastor for nearly 50 years at one of Northern Kentucky's wealthiest and most citified suburban Baptist churches had no formal theological training and in fact was never formally ordained.

But he became the perennial Kentucky delegate to the World Baptist Conventions.

He DID have a quite legitimate doctorate, but it was in English literature rather than theology.

I'm not too clued up on the historical facts regarding this but I recall my father (who is) pointing out that this is the main reason for the success of the Baptists in the southern states. Given the make up of the population at the time of its European settlement one might reasonably expect the Anglican or Presbyterian churches to have flourished but apparently the circumstances regarding ministerial qualifications made it rather problematic. The Baptists, with a less exhaustive regime, filled the gaps in supply and demand in essence.

 

[decipheringscars]

I'm not too clued up on the historical facts regarding this but I recall my father (who is) pointing out that this is the main reason for the success of the Baptists in the southern states. Given the make up of the population at the time of its European settlement one might reasonably expect the Anglican or Presbyterian churches to have flourished but apparently the circumstances regarding ministerial qualifications made it rather problematic. The Baptists, with a less exhaustive regime, filled the gaps in supply and demand in essence.

No, no no, it's because the Baptists had cartoons!

 

[OldTimeRadio]

The Baptists, with a less exhaustive regime, filled the gaps in supply and demand in essence.

Precisely what is "less exhausting" about obtaining a Ph. D. in English literature from a major public university than in receiving a B A. or an M. A. in theology from a Bible college?

 

[ted_bloody_maul]

The Baptists, with a less exhaustive regime, filled the gaps in supply and demand in essence.

Precisely what is "less exhausting" about obtaining a Ph. D. in English literature from a major public university than in receiving a B A. or an M. A. in theology from a Bible college?

Well, nothing is less exhausting about that particular example but as you've pointed out Baptists don't require any formal academic qualifications (unlike Presbyterians and, iirc, Anglicans who are required to study theology). Effectively the Bible is the only book they had to study. Presumably this made the Baptists more flexible when it came to establishing ministries in newly settled areas and in addition they didn't have to rely on provisions made by a less responsive and hierarchical organisation.

 

[OldTimeRadio]

Got you.

By the way, there's a wonderful quotation from the famous 19th Century British Baptist preacher Thomas Haddon Spurgeon which he used whenever he was criticized for reading too many books other than the Bible:

"I read many books so that I might better understand One."

 

[rynner2]

Clergy in crisis: Forget Father Ted... Ireland is running out of priests
With precious few candidates for the priesthood and rapidly emptying pews, the Catholic Church is being forced to accept radical change.
David McKittrick
Saturday, 30 August 2008

When the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, solemnly ordained this year's crop of new priests in his diocese last month, he called them all by their first names.

This did not involve any great feat of memory on his part since there were, after all, only three of them. Michael, Richard and Dan are the only newly ordained priests for Dublin's million-plus Catholics.

The tiny number is an ominous indication that Ireland, which once exported Catholic clergy around the world, is running out of priests. The manpower crisis for the Irish church is one which may well change its fundamental character. A new order is taking shape in which congregations will be sharing power with an ageing, shrinking priesthood. The faithful are now being invited not simply to be passively supportive, but to help rescue a church in deep trouble. This will represent a huge change for a country which the Rev Ian Paisley used to denounce as "priest-ridden".

The old model of the priest as a stern and authoritarian figure has long since gone, swept away in a more prosperous society. Now the church is coming to terms with the fact that almost no one in Ireland wants to be a priest any more. Michael Kelly, one of Dublin's three new priests, said: "When I told people I wanted to be a priest they were shocked and disbelieving. Some of them thought I should be committed."

This is in dramatic contrast to the pride formerly felt by Irish families when a son joined the priesthood. Malachi O'Doherty, author of the new book Empty Pulpits, confirmed: "Now if a youth says he wants to be a priest, there is huge discouragement. It is seen as a very silly career move."

Joe Mullan, a senior Dublin priest, agreed the slump in vocations had been startling. "It happened extraordinarily quickly," he said. "I was ordained 22 years ago, and when I was in the seminary there were a hundred of us, just for the Dublin diocese."

Fr Mullan is now nearly 50 but is regarded as unusually youthful, given that the average age of a Dublin priest is 63. He smiled ruefully as he recounted: "A woman in the sacristy at a wedding on Saturday looked at me and said, 'Are you the parish priest? God, you're very young.'"

Ireland still has thousands of priests, but they are ageing and many are in ill-health. They are supposed to retire at 75 but the chronic shortage means bishops often ask them to stay on longer. The Irish Catholic newspaper estimated that 160 priests have died in the past year. The paper's verdict that this is a crisis which is affecting morale around the country is readily confirmed by many clerics. The irony is that Protestant churches report no such problems.

"It's an almighty struggle for a lot of priests," said Fr Dan Carroll of Kilkenny, "and it's not going to get any easier. Morale can be low at times – you are just working so hard and there's nobody coming behind you."

So how many are in training for his diocese? "None," he answered tersely. "We have had no candidates for the priesthood for 12 years, maybe 15, no intake in that length of time."

Kevin Mullan, a Tyrone priest, remembered the old days when Ireland helped stock the world with clerics. "We used to have a superfluity of clergy," he said. "Way back we had so many priests they were sent on loan to Glasgow or England or America."

The decline in numbers is seen throughout the church. With few new nuns and monks, many imposing former convents and monasteries have been sold and transformed into modern apartments as Ireland has moved from austerity to affluence.

The church is still heavily involved in education, but the crisis is affecting this too. The Christian Brothers, for example, have had to relinquish the day-to-day running of their schools because of their dwindling numbers.

So how did the church lose out so dramatically in terms of personnel, finances, power and standing? Fr Mullan offered one explanation: "It's the secularisation of Ireland, the reduction in family size. Ireland has just caught up with the more secular Europe with its more libertarian values – good values around freedom and individuality and personal choice."

Others believe the church has brought many of its difficulties on itself. In particular, the child abuse scandals of the past decade dealt the severest blows to its reputation, partly because of the abuse itself and partly because of its defensive reaction.

But long before that the old authority was ebbing away. The Irish, like much of the Western world, disregarded the 1960s Vatican strictures against contraception, but the episode significantly eroded the deference to Rome. While abortion remains illegal in almost all cases, divorce and contraception have been legalised. The triumphant 1979 visit of Pope John Paul II seemed to confirm Ireland's status as "the most Christian country in the world," as hundreds of thousands turned out to see the pontiff. Yet with hindsight it was just another staging post in decline.

In the years that followed, the Pope's two most prominent warm-up men, a bishop and a prominent priest, were found to have secret sons. Ireland goggled as the bishop's mistress told of their affair on television: "It was like I was on gossamer wings," she trilled. The resulting damage laid the Irish church low, to the extent that one bishop said sorrowfully that society had become "to a very large extent de-Christianised".

Attendance at Mass has dropped sharply, though this was from a very high level and it remains higher than in many other European countries. The picture is patchy, however: in some of Dublin's poorest areas it stands at well below 10 per cent. Yet in other places the pews are almost full; the veteran Derry priest Oliver Crilly, for example, said that his church can be filled to overflowing. "Eleven o'clock Mass last Sunday was a full house," he said. "It really bolsters you, buoys you up, to see that."

He attributed this high turnout to his practice of co-opting parishioners into the running of the church; he has been something of a pioneer in introducing congregational co-operation. "Some priests would be fearful of this," he said, "but there's absolutely no need to be. They can see it as a sort of competition, they're afraid that if they give people more power they're going to lose power.

"But it isn't like that – it's a collaborative effort, a sharing of responsibility. It takes a lot of weight off the priest."

Confronted with the priest shortage, Archbishop Martin and some of the hierarchy are now convinced that involving the laity holds the key to countering the present crisis. The informal co-operation introduced by Fr Crilly and others is now to be formalised with a new structure of part-time and full-time workers. In other countries this might seem little more than common sense, but in Ireland it will be a sea-change. The Dublin diocese is to have a new system of lay people who will work alongside its priests. In Dublin every parish has been mandated to have a pastoral council. Parish pastoral workers will be properly salaried – and women will, the church pledges, be employed on the same basis as men.

"For us to be able to survive we must share the workload, said Fr Mullan, "but it's culturally quite a challenge for the community – and for us – to accept that this is the change that circumstances now demand."

Not every priest is in favour of such radical reform. Fr Mullan conceded: "It's quite threatening to the professional identity of the priest when non-ordained people come into work in the parish. They're to be paid more than the clergy, and perhaps in time their status will be equal to or greater than the clergy."

Despite the lack of universal enthusiasm, some veterans are highly receptive to the idea. Fr Sean McKenna, who works on the Derry-Donegal border and has been a priest for 23 years, is relaxed and supportive.

"It's up to us to reorganise things and adapt to the change," he said. "We have to recognise whatever God is saying to us about combining the roles of the clergy and the laity."

And the idea holds no terrors for an even more experienced cleric, Sean O'Dwyer of Co Tipperary, a priest for almost 50 years. His attitude is shaped by the fact that he served as a missionary in Peru. There, he explained, one priest could be looking after 50,000 people, and could only do so with the help of hundreds of volunteers.

In his opinion: "We have to learn from the missions system. The only answer to all this is with lay involvement. The co-operation of the people is essential." And the future of the church in Ireland? "Humanly speaking you might think it's going to get worse and worse," he said. "But it's God's church, and maybe he's putting us to the test to find other ways of stirring people."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 13326.html

 

[ted_bloody_maul]

When the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, solemnly ordained this year's crop of new priests in his diocese last month, he called them all by their first names.

--------------------

Attendance at Mass has dropped sharply, though this was from a very high level and it remains higher than in many other European countries. The picture is patchy, however: in some of Dublin's poorest areas it stands at well below 10 per cent. Yet in other places the pews are almost full; the veteran Derry priest Oliver Crilly, for example, said that his church can be filled to overflowing. "Eleven o'clock Mass last Sunday was a full house," he said. "It really bolsters you, buoys you up, to see that."

I'll bet Father Oliver Crilly would be quite pleased to be introduced only by his first name. :shock:

 

[JamesWhitehead]

When the Christian Brothers held a ceremony a year or so back to celebrate their withdrawal from my own alma mater, there were some serious attempts by old pupils to wrest from them a formal apology for their misdeeds. The Wikipedia page has been a battle-ground for the settling of old scores with names named.

Oddly enough, the vilest and most sinister man I ever encountered was the headmaster who reigned when I joined the school and his name does not appear on Wikipedia's list of Heads at all. I can find no trace of the name of Brother C. D. T. anywhere on the web. Maybe he had to change it.

Not all of them were psychopathic perverts and my heart does go out to some of the Brothers who have seen their order decimated by scandal. I understand that they continue to recruit in Africa and that is now the centre of their activities. Funny to think that future generations of C. B. pupils will not leave school with the cry of "Eejit!" ringing in their ears. It takes a thin, nasal County Cork accent to do it full justice!

 

[Anonymous]

Perhaps, with the exception of Americans, people are slowly coming to their senses pertaining to the likely existence of a non metaphoric deity.

The gullible or disturbed youth may be the only target left for the abrahamic religions and if it helps them become useful to society fair enough, although I have to admit that I am suspicious. I seem to attract religious loonies, I therefore have rather a dim view of them.

 

[OldTimeRadio]

Perhaps, with the exception of Americans, people are slowly coming to their senses pertaining to the likely existence of a non metaphoric deity.

As I wrote on another list just yesterday, the incredible vastness of the Universe, coupled with at least the theoretical possibility of an unknown number of other Universes beside, suggests that it does not behoove either one of us to be too dogmatic concerning our beliefs, that there is or is not some sort of Awareness behind it or them.

Of course you do have to consider the source, since I was born, raised, live and will most likely die in the land of loonies.

 

[Mythopoeika]

Anybody remember the 'It's great being a priest 98' episode of Father Ted?
The Catholic Church should hold an 'It's great being a priest 2008' recruitment convention for real.

 

[HollyDolly1]

Church uses comics to lure teens to priesthood.

8) I think they would do better if for vocation day, they actually got to spend time as a small group spend time with a local parish priest and see what they actually do.This would be arranged through the diocese vocations office and the kids could have an adult go with them to keep the kids out of trouble.
My great aunt,Sister Mary Generose was a School Sister of Notre Dame up in Milwaukee for over 60 years,until she died at age 99.
The sisters sent us some things belonging to her,mainly photos, including the odd one of the tombstone of some cousins in Himmelstadt,Germany.
Amongst these photos was one of a young priest.According to the info on the back, he was a student of hers.
She must have had quite an impact on him, to decide to be a priest.
One of the fathers who sometimes serves mass at my parish,is also a military chaplin in the US AIRForce. He told us he would be gone for awhile, doing recuiting work for the airforce. He mentioned there is a shortage of Catholic military chapelians in the military,hence going around to different seminaries around the country, trying to get men to join up.
Though i doubt the military itself lacks members.