Collaboration with Foreign-Born Priests

Fr. Thomas McDermott, OPKenrick-Glennon SeminarySaint Louis, MO

The Church in the U.S. was heavily dependent on foreign-born priests from the 1700s to 1900s

• In the 1940s and 1950s there was a boom of vocations, so much so that many American priests were sent out as missionaries. American Catholics today often mistakenly take the immediate pre-Vatican II years—the 40s and 50s—as representing all past history.

“Americans seem to believe that this country has always been a source of missionaries to the rest of the world. They ask, ‘how did it happen that our nation, which has always given priests to missions to the poor countries, now needs to receive priests from those very same countries? What happened?’ This sentiment, although widespread, is based on myth and not fact, and it impedes the receptivity of foreign-born priests by many lay persons.”

-Hoge and Okure, International Priests in America, 6

Some relevant facts concerning foreign-born priests in the U.S. …

There are an estimated 5,700 foreign-born priests working in the U.S. 87% are diocesan priests; 13% are religious.

As of 2004, 22% of seminarians in the U.S. were foreign-born

Hoge and Okure estimate that about 16% of all priests in the U.S. who began ministry after 1985 are foreign-born.

The principal countries of origin are Mexico and Poland, followed by Colombia.

• Between 380 – 400 foreign-born priests enter the U.S. each year to work in pastoral ministry.

• Of the approximate 500 priests ordained every year in the U.S., a estimated 28% are foreign-born.

• The dioceses with the largest number of foreign-born priests are Los Angeles (384), New York (278), Newark (235), Miami (200), and Chicago (174).

• The average age of a foreign-born priest in the U.S. is 47, compared to 60 for an American-born priest.

On the other hand, there are approximately 2,531 American-born priests working overseas: 111 are diocesan (“fidei donum”) and 1,420 belong to orders or societies, the Jesuits and Maryknoll Fathers having the largest numbers.

• When asked, “Do you see yourself as a missionary within the Catholic Church?”, 86 – 90% of the foreign-born priests in the U.S. said “yes”.

• About 40% said they were not formally welcomed in the dioceses in which they serve.

• About 70% said they did not receive any program of orientation or acculturation on arriving.

When asked, “Do you feel welcome by other priests in your diocese?”, 58% said, “yes, totally.”

• When asked, “Do you regularly send money from your personal income to help support your family in your home country?”, 49% of the diocesan priests and 13% of the religious priests said “yes”

• When asked to identify their biggest single problem in the U.S., the majority said it was loneliness. By comparison, American-born priests ranked loneliness in third place among their own problems.

• When asked what they would recommend to help them in their ministries in the U.S., by far the most common recommendation was that the Church should provide acculturation training, including English instruction.

Four recommendations were also mentioned:

1. The establishment of periodic meetings and support groups;

2. Assure equal treatment to international priests, with no discrimination.;

3. Provide more support from the diocese;

4. Provide clearer rules and guidance.

The arguments in favor of inviting foreign-born priests to minister in the U.S. are generally three:

1. “ America needs them to serve immigrant parishes.”

• 2. “We need them to fill in the gaps in our priest shortage.”

But this reason has been criticized as “consumeristic” by some.

In a survey conducted by Hoge and Okure, “a director of an acculturation program for priests” said:

• “Cardinal Tomko wrote a letter about recruiting priests from developing countries that are much worse off than we are in the ratio of priests to people. … He raises this point, that we are taking from countries that are much worse off than ourselves. And I think as a nation we need to ask yourselves, have we moved this whole consumeristic notion into our ecclesiology and our theology of church? I think we have. The notion that we could purchase vendors from outside to meet our needs. Since we have the money, we can just buy what we want.”

• “I think having international priests is kind of indicative of an American mentality. We are five percent of the world’s population, and we use thirty percent of their resources. I don’t know what those figures are exactly. It’s kind of like we are doing it again in the church in America. It doesn’t matter if we don’t have priests. Somebody has them, so let’s go use theirs!”

-a parish director of religious education in the South

• 3. “They help universalize and revitalize American catholicism.”

• “Americans as a whole tend to be very provincial. We have no idea of either the misery of poverty or the beautiful values that are lived by other peoples around the world. We may have a lot to teach others in the area of technology and other material areas, but they have so much to teach us spiritually!”

–Rev. Virgilio ElizondoFounder

Mexican-American Cultural CenterSan Antonio, TX

A vicar for priests in the South wrote:• “I think a strong reason [for bringing in international priests] would be

to expose our culture to the universality of our church. Just like I would like to have so many vocations in the United States that we could send out priests to other parts of the world. But many people think more about their own needs than the rest of the world. We live in a world that thinks whatever is around me is what matters. But as a church we are constantly reminding people that we are part of a universal church, between our appeals and our teachings. So I see that as a teachable opportunity with the laity. I think we need to have a universal effort, seeing that it’s not just our need, and we can afford to serve that need, and we have an affluent culture. I think we need to look at the mission of the whole church in the world and to see how we use international clergy in the mission of the church universal rather than how they benefit us.”

In the words of Dr. Seung Ai Yang, Professor, St. Paul Seminary, St. Paul, MN:

• We should try “to understand why we think and behave differently and to make room for listening and acknowledging different voices and cultures. We then find the need to be willing to negotiate to find our common ground. The negotiation should be made on the basis of the gospel and the mission of the church, which will lead the people not to impose their own culturally bound ideas as absolutely correct or ‘universal.’ We will also be able to understand that the differences among us are often God’s gracious gift to us to recognize the limitedness of our nature and to recover from it by learning from each other and working together. Then we will no longer hate or blame others for our differences but will be able to give thanks to our God, who graciously provided us with abundant diversity.”

The late Cardinal Otunga, Archbishop of Nairobi, once said:

• “African culture contains seeds for flowers that have never been seen before.”

Arguments against inviting foreign-born priests to minister here…• “There are too many

problems with international priests!”

A summary of the “problems”…

• -Language (“(I can’t understand what he is saying”)

• -Cultural differences, e.g., the role of women in society and the Church

• -Different ecclesiologies: community-oriented vs. administrative models, sacramental vs. pastoral models.

• Preaching styles and content.

• Discomfort with the level of involvement of the laity in the parish

• Hierarchy vs. egalitarian models of the Church

• Entitlement vs. kenosis

• Finances and fundraising

• Not mixing with the American-born clergy

• Not being present for meals in the rectory

• Not always being conscious of time.

• “It postpones a much-needed restructuring of parish leadership.”

• It impedes the increased “empowering” of the laity

• It impedes the possibility of calling back into active ministry resigned married priests.

• It impedes the possibility of ordaining married men to the priesthood. (It is a “stalling tactic”).

What motives do foreign-born priests have for wanting to minister in the U.S.?

• The suspicion that foreign-born priests are“gold-diggers”

An older American priest speaks out about foreign-born priests:

• “Many of these people come over to this country to better themselves. But when we went out to missions in those foreign countries, you didn’t go out to better yourself, in fact, just the opposite. You were giving up everything to go out.”

What some foreign-born priests have said about their motives…• “I think everyone who leaves home has a tremendous emotional problem

that is a kind of pain that you bear whenever there are reunions or gatherings, when you miss your family, your language, your food, whatever. Personally, I suffer a great deal, coming from a small place, very family-oriented, and in a kind of ministry that was nothing to do with administration but was in direct contact with the people. There were a lot of youngsters, a lot of teens and kids, in a very informal way. The priest was everywhere, and the people enjoyed the priest and the priest enjoyed the people. When I came to America, I felt very lonely for a while, and also I had a try to manage my stress from the administrative things. To prepare weddings was very, very stressful for me: six-month preparation, dealing with divorces, papers coming from different countries, sending letters to the chancery, all that. So I would say in general, everyone suffers when they leave their own country.” --A priest in his forties from Argentina.

• “American priests have very little experience of what it is to be a foreigner and to be an outsider. Life is very good to them.”

-A priest from Zambia.

• “I was a stranger and you did not welcome me,” Mt 25:43

• “There is a problem of acceptance. When I was growing up, we had missionaries from Ireland and France and from this country [U.S.A.], and we were happy to receive them as priests. There was no dichotomy between whites and us, between one organization and the other. They came in and tried to bring Christ to us. We were happy to have priests celebrate Mass for us. They taught us that the church was one, fair enough. We read about Vatican II and allo of that, yes, the church is one. Then we came over here, and instead of being missionaries here, we become “imported personnel.” We are given names, we have accents, they say they can’t understand us. I mean, we are just treated as misfits, if you like. You discover that instead of being a priest in the midst of other priests, instead of feeling free and being accepted, if you ask a question, people turn around and say, “Where are you from? You have an accent!” These things are demarcations that you don’t belong. Whatever you do, you are a visitor. You are a stranger. You have an accent. You are black. Call it whatever you like, you don’t belong.”

--A mid-career priest from Gambia.

The “accent thing”…

• “If you are American, leave America and go to the Philippines or to Nigeria. If you go to the Philippines, you will have an accent among the Filipinos. If you go to Nigeria, you will have an accent among the Nigerians. This accent thing really drives me mad! Because all of us have accents! Even if you go to California, you will have an accent. Why is my accent a problem to you? I need to have an accent to have my identity, because I have to identify with my own people. So, let us not beat this accents stuff too much. Accept it, priests! Try to understand him, people!” --A mid-career priest from Zambia

• End of part one