Of these 56, One is younger than 40.  Five are between the ages of 40-49.  13 are between the ages of 50-59.  19 are between the ages of 60-69.  14 are between the ages of 70-79 and 4 are over the age of 80.  Presently we are serving 53 parishes with a Catholic  population presently around 56,000 and growing particularly amongst our Native American community and Hispanic community through the RCIA. 

The very startling news is that by the year 2015, that's nine years from now, 2/3rds of ourpresent priests will be retired and the median age will be 70!  By the year 2015  the number of active priests will be ( of what we have today. That is frightening, isn't it?

The good news and reason to have hope Dr. Gautier explained is that early in the 1990s, beginning in 1993 we embarked on an aggressive strategic planing process.  You remember that myself and Barbara Kozeliski traveled throughout the diocese facilitating the strategic planning in each deanery and beginning to formulate our six diocesan goals. 

In addition and maybe as a result, we have ordained numerous permanent deacons through our formation program and commissioned a large number of lay ecclesial ministers.  Even some women religious and lay leaders have become parish life coordinators.  That has freed our small number of ordained priests to focus their ministry on what is critical to them as ordained priests.  Our model of leadership today is no longer:  (Father does everything!(  A collaborative model of ministry within the entire diocese will be our only way of survival.  Nonetheless we need to be aggressive about ensuring our future and we need to seek out candidates for the priesthood amongst our young and even not so young second career candidates.  For this reason we are hoping to initiate a program known as (Called by Name.(  Each parish will be invited through our vocation director to select and (called by name( individuals who would seem to be good candidates for priestly ministry. 

You may think that our priests, here and nationally, must be discouraged and dispirited.  In fact, in a recently published book entitled: (The Joy of Priesthood,( Father Steve Rossetti, of St. Luke's Institute in Washington, D.C. says: (Even though many priests have felt battered since early 2002 when the nation wide extent of the clergy sex-abuse crisis became obvious, approximately 90% of our priests now report high satisfaction with their call and ministry.  Father Rossetti himself affirms that (priesthood is a lot better than I thought it was going to be... It is a lot tougher than I expected.(  He concludes that young people want to see a life of meaning and challenge.  (Priesthood, when lived with integrity is such a life.(

Most Catholics are aware that they cannot celebrate the Eucharist without a priest.  While this no doubt makes a priest feel needed, it can have an unfortunate side effect.  Sometimes it leads us to think of the Mass as something that the priest does for the rest of the Church.  In fact, the Mass is a celebration that we all do together.   You need a priest to lead you in Eucharist, but we need you to worship with us.  The celebration of the Eucharist is an action of the whole Church.   

In St. Luke's Gospel the evangelist talks about the institution of priesthood.  To St. Mark's account St. Luke adds Jesus( significant command: (Do this in memory of me,( thus authorizing or ordaining his apostles to renew this sacramental meal down through the ages so that all his followers may participate in the banquet in which he nourishes them with his being.  The observance of the Lord's Supper is consequently a commemorative meal, a meal of remembrance of Jesus( death and expectation of its fulfillment in the Kingdom of God.  As a communal observance, the celebration of the Eucharist links the Church in any generation with both its origins and the promise of God's fulfillment of redemption.  (Do this in memory of me.)

This indeed has consequences.  (Do this in memory of me( provides a challenge for each of us as priests.  The challenge to our ministry is to help our people in very concrete situations - people with illnesses or grief, people with physical or mental handicaps, people suffering from poverty and oppression, victims suffering from sexual abuse by some of our own, and today, people marginalized and unwanted as undocumented immigrants.  The challenge is to help our people to see and experience their story as part of God's on-going redemptive work in the world.  These insights and experiences heal precisely because they restore the broken connection between the world and God and create a new unity in which memories that formerly seemed destructive are now reclaimed as part of a redemptive event.

Finally our celebration of Eucharist as priests always concludes with a mission: (Go now and tell. Go, this is your mission.  Communion is not the end.  Mission is.  Communion, that sacred intimacy with our God is not the final moment of our Eucharistic life.  (Go and tell.(  That's the conclusion of the Eucharistic celebration, that too is the final call of the Eucharistic life.  What you have heard and seen is not just for yourself.  It is for the brothers and sisters and for all who are ready to receive it.  Go, don't linger, don't wait, don't hesitate, but move now and return to the places from which you came, and let those whom you left behind in their hiding places know that there is nothing to be afraid of, that he is risen, risen indeed.

What a challenge!  And that is why we are here this evening.  In a few moments these men seated here with you will renew their dedication to Christ as priests of the New Covenant.  Pray for them that they may be strengthened in their commitment to the Lord and to you, His Church and that through the gift of the Anointed One, they may be for you a living sign, a warm, human sign of God's compassionate and redemptive love.