Not on my watch

We need married priests because of the priest shortage, right? Not in the diocese of Lincoln Nebraska under the watch of Bishop Bruskewitz. With their own seminary and good Catholic schools, their ratio of priest to Catholics is 1 to 737. That is about 4000 better than the national average of 1 to 4723.

So what is their secret? Not married priests, not groups like Call to Action; they are a forbidden group for Catholics in Bruskewitz's diocese.

Many point to the dioceses being faithfulness to the Magisterial teaching of the Church. When you have a good sheperd, you have healthy sheep. But don't read faithfulness as political stance, according to Fr Matya.

“It’s not that we try to be overly conservative,” he told the Daily Nebraskan, “but as a diocese, we do try to act how God wants us to be, and I think that is very appealing to a lot of these young men.”

I know some people from the diocese of Lincoln. They couldn't understand not having good Catholic schools and plenty of priests. If there is one fault, it was that the priests were somewhat distant and not overly approachable. But I am not looking to the priests to be my drinking buddy or to be all warm and fuzzy if I can receive the Eucharist from a priest at Mass and Confessionals are readily available.