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Pope Francis at 2016 Rome consistory, when "progressive" archbishops Cupich, Joseph Tobin, and Farrell were made cardinals.Steve Jalsevac / LifeSite

May 23, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – This week, Pope Francis noted that vocations to the Catholic priesthood and religious life are “hemorrhaging” in Europe.

From the Associated Press:

He said Italy and Europe were entering a period of “vocational sterility” to which he wasn't sure a solution exists.

In a speech to an annual assembly of the Italian bishops conference Monday, Francis blamed the priest shortage on such factors as demographic changes, scandals in the church and cultural trends that dissuade young people from making lifelong commitments and make them value instead the “dictatorship of money.”

“How many seminaries, churches, monasteries and convents will be closed in the next few years?” he asked. “God only knows.”

I am just a lay person, and not in Europe. I can’t help but notice, though, that Pope Francis and his allies have actively suppressed two flourishing orders in Europe: the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate and the Fraternity of the Holy Apostles of Brussels.

What else has led to this “hemorrhaging”?  

It’s pretty obvious wacky liturgies don’t attract young men to the priesthood. The lame music, mainstreamed liturgical abuses, and overall banality of typical Masses in the Western world have produced lots of fallen-away Catholics, a few angry ones and not enough priests.

If Pope Francis is worried about scandals in the Church deterring young men from the priesthood, why doesn’t he stop saying scandalous things?

Holy Mother Church needs manly priests and priestly men. Properly-ordered liturgies in which priests “say the black and do the red” seem to go a long way in this department.

How much of the Church is going to “hemorrhage” and bleed out, so to speak, before things get better? As the pope said, God only knows.

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As a journalist and editor for LifeSiteNews, Claire Chretien has written more than 1,500 articles about abortion, human dignity, bioethics, the Catholic Church, politics, and related topics. Claire holds a bachelor’s degree from The University of Alabama. It was there that she first became involved in pro-life activism.