By Lindsay Melvin
Memphis Commercial Appeal
June 8, 2008
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2008/jun/08/changing-the-trend-of-the-catholic-diocese/
To those who have never heard "the call," Dennis Schenkel explains his attraction to the priesthood by comparing it to the irresistibility of falling in love.
"I had a crush on her in high school, and I ran into her years later and she was even more beautiful," he said.
Three days before his ordination, the 42-year-old former computer network analyst was as anxious as a groom in waiting.
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| The Catholic Diocese of Memphis celebrated Deacon Dennis Schenkel's Presbyteral Ordination on Saturday. Photo by Mike Maple |
While cities across the country are suffering from a shortage of priests, Schenkel is part of a very different trend.
The Catholic Diocese of Memphis has one of the largest groups of men entering the priesthood in the country, relative to the number of parishioners they will serve.
With 18 seminarians and 73,000 parishioners, the Catholic Diocese of Memphis ranks fifth in the nation, according to the diocese.
"Our diocese is the exception to the rule," said director of vocations Father Keith Stewart.
The number of men studying to be priests is expected to rise to 25 by August — the most seminarians the diocese has seen since it was formed in 1971 — and it will likely elevate the diocese to No. 1 in the nation, he said.
The number of priests being ordained in the U.S. fell to 459 in 2007, less than half the number ordained in 1965, according to a poll by Georgetown University.
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| Deacon Dennis Schenkel (prostrate) is inducted into the order of Catholic priesthood Saturday at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. Photo by Mike Maple |
In places like Boston, Ohio and New Orleans, reasons for the shortage vary from changing demographics to fallout from sexual abuse scandals.
The local diocese has dealt with its own share of sexual abuse but not to the degree other cities have seen, Stewart said.
"I find the morale of the Memphis priests to be very good here," he said.
A relatively small Catholic community, the Memphis Diocese covers 47 parishes in West Tennessee.
Its success in recruitment is in part due to the tightly knit Catholic community.
"I can't imagine being a priest anywhere else," Schenkel said.
Raised in Memphis, he recalls being pulled to the priesthood as young as 16, after being befriended by a young clergyman at his church.
It's that person-to-person contact that has drawn many of his fellow seminarians into the vocation, he said.
"They're not afraid to share with other guys their own story," he said.
However, the forecast for Catholic priests in the area has not always been sunny.
In the mid-1990s the diocese went six years without a single ordination.
Bishop J. Terry Steib has since made a big push for attracting men into the priesthood.
Stewart was assigned to oversee recruitment, and programs were created to reach high school seniors and college students.
Hispanic Catholics are also part of the tide of priests entering the diocese.
They make up half of the current seminarians and next year the diocese will ordain its first Hispanic priest.
Stewart isn't shy to admit he's an aggressive recruiter.
"I'm a firm believer that Jesus calls men to the priesthood," Stewart said.
Nevertheless, there can be a lot of competing noise drowning out the call to serve, he said.
"I just turn up the volume."
Contact Lindsay Melvin at 529-2445.
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