… something positive about the Church, you know it’s hard to ignore. As a Postulant for the Lay Dominicans this article really gave me something to smile about. It would seem that, contrary to many other signs of trouble in the Church, vocations to the Dominicans are on the rise particularly in Ireland and the Northeastern US. Why? In part, as the article says, because they stuck to the fundamentals of the Order and continued to wear their habits and live in community.
“We made a conscious decision a few years ago to wear the habit because we had no vocations and we were in a bad way,” said Father Dunne, 46, who estimates that he has traveled nearly a half-million miles along Ireland’s country lanes and highways in search of recruits. “If we didn’t present ourselves in an authentic manner, who would join us? And that meant going back to the fundamentals.”
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Even as other orders close houses and parish priests in Ireland are vanishing at a time of clerical sexual abuse scandals, the Dominican order is growing, and not just in Ireland.
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In the United States, the largest northeastern branch is expecting 18 novices to enter its theology school in Washington, which was expanded three years ago. In the smaller southern region based in New Orleans, the Dominicans are scrambling to finance an influx of novices — six this year — with annual expenses of $30,000 for lodging and theology education over seven years.
Yes, despite what so many would like us to believe, the Church is continuing to win when people take a long hard honest look at what the culture offers them. Sometimes good news really is as simple as black and white.
H/T to Godzdogz.
