Denver Catholic

2 JUNE 13-26, 2015 | DENVER CATHOLIC Archbishop's Page Denver Catholic (USPS 557-020) is published weekly except the last week of December and the fi rst weeks of January, and in June, July and August when it goes bi-weekly. Denver Catholic is printed by Signature O' set in Denver. Periodical postage paid in Denver, CO. SUBSCRIPTIONS: $35 a year in Colorado; $42 per year out of state. Foreign countries: $42 surface, all countries, 6-8 weeks for delivery; $135 air, all other countries (average). Mexico, $48 air; Canada, $55 air. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Denver Catholic, Circulation Dept., 1300 S. Steele St., Denver, CO 80210 or email circulation@archden.org. EDITORIAL: 303-715-3215 or denvercatholic@archden.org | ADVERTISING: 303-715-3253 or denvercatholicads@archden.org CIRCULATION CUSTOMER SERVICE: 303-715-3230 or circulation@archden.org General Manager KARNA SWANSON Director ANDREW WRIGHT Business Manager MICHAEL O'NEILL Published by the Archdiocese of Denver, 1300 S. Steele St., Denver, CO 80210 Archbishop's Column Most Rev. Samuel J. Aquila Archbishop Samuel Aquila, right, talks with a parishioner during his live town hall-like phone call May 28 as others listen. Some 6,751 participants listened to the archbishop fi eld questions about his initiative to restore the sacraments of initiation to their original order in the Archdiocese of Denver. The event drew 493 online participants and 106 questions were submitted to the archbishop. PHOTO BY ANDREW WRIGHT/DENVER CATHOLIC PHOTO OF THE WEEK @ArchbishopDen June 3 Stopped for lunch in #FortMorgan @ #lasamericas, met this wonderful family & the food was great! ARCHBISHOP'S SCHEDULE June 13: Vespers and institution of lectors for deacon program, St. John Paul II Center (5 p.m.) June 14: Mass, St. Anthony of Padua Parish, Denver (12:30 p.m.) June 17: Mass and sacraments of baptism and confi rmation for RCIA class, Je' erson County Detention Facility, Golden (9 a.m.) June 19: Mass, Catholic Heart Work Camp, Ranum Middle School, Denver (8 a.m.) June 20: Permanent diaconate ordination, Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception (10 a.m.) June 21: Mass, Steubenville of the Rockies, Crowne Plaza DIA, Denver (10:30 a.m.) June 25: Mass before Bella Natural Women's Care event, St. Louis Parish, Englewood (5:15 p.m.) T he great evangelist Archbishop Fulton Sheen once said, "When we surrender to God, we get our- selves back ennobled and enriched" (The Priest Is Not His Own). Every May I experience this truth when new men are ordained priests and others retire after years of loving, dedicated service to Christ and his Church. This ebb and fl ow of priestly life is wonderful to celebrate, but it also impacts many parishes as new clergy appointments are made to adjust for these changes. In the Acts of the Apostles, we hear that many Gentiles and Jews became believers in Antioch, the place where they were fi rst called Christians. The Scriptures say, "News of this came to the ears of the Church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch" (Acts 11:23). Barnabas, whose name means "son of encouragement," urged the local Church to remain faithful to the Lord and then brought Paul to preach to them, steadily increasing their numbers. When Barnabas was sent to Antioch, the Church in Jerusalem must have missed his charism of encouragement. But the Christians in Antioch were blessed by his gifts, too. This same dynamic plays itself out when priests are reassigned each year. Because Jesus founded our Church upon St. Peter and his successors, the decision about who to send where ulti- mately falls to me as a successor of the Apostles, unlike some of our separated Protestant brothers and sisters, who select their own pastor. I receive letters from people who are upset about their priest being sent to another parish, and other letters thanking me for giving the same priest a new assignment and sending the parish a new priest. As a priest and now as a bishop, I have learned that it is impossi- ble to keep everyone happy. The process of discerning who to send to a parish is taken seriously and involves lengthy consultation and refl ection with the deans—those priests who have been chosen to coordinate the clergy in their region of the archdiocese. The deans assist me with assignments and their advice is valuable. In the Archdiocese of Denver, we are blessed with a good number of priests and seminarians as compared to other dioceses, yet we must continue to pray for vocations. I am often asked about the number of priests in our archdiocese, and so I would like to share some statistics with you. The Church has two basic categories for priests—those who are diocesan priests and those who belong to a religious order like the Capuchins, Jesuits or the Dominicans. In our archdiocese, we have 185 diocesan priests (143 active and 42 retired) and 106 religious order priests (95 active and 11 retired), giving us a total of 248 priests in active ministry. In terms of vocations to the priest- hood, the archdiocese is blessed to have 44 men studying for the priesthood at St. John Vianney Seminary, 21 men at Redemptoris Mater Seminary, and 10 men at various other seminaries, giving us a total of 75 seminarians. What many people don't realize is how much we rely on foreign-born clergy. Out of the 75 men studying to be priests for our archdiocese, 29 of them come from other countries. The same pattern appears among priests in active ministry. Of the 248 priests in active ministry, 87 of them come from other countries and 79 are from other states. This means that only 82 of the men who are actively serving our archdiocese are from Colorado. These statistics emphasize both the importance of continuing to promote vocations locally and of being thankful for the generous sacrifi ces made by those priests and seminarians who have left their homeland to serve Christ and his Church in this archdiocese. With- out our foreign priests and vocations coming to us from other states, many of our parishes would be without the sacraments. If you attend a parish that is receiving a new priest and saying goodbye to your previous one, I encourage you to receive them with a warm welcome and give thanks for the gift of their priesthood, which brings Christ in the sacraments to you and your families. I came from the state of California, and decided to stay in Colorado and be ordained a priest here because I loved the beauty of Colorado. During my time as a parochial vicar and then as a pastor in this archdiocese, I experienced the loving and heartfelt welcome of many faithful people. I pray that if you are receiving a new priest, you will expe- rience the love of Christ from him and that you will welcome him as the Chris- tians of Antioch welcomed Barnabas and Paul. New pastors, new blessings DENVER CATHOLIC FILE PHOTO

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