FINDING a priest to be at the bedside of the dying is becoming harder and harder across the America, so Catholics are now being urged to try and grab one BEFORE they are admitted to hospital for an “anointing of the sick” sacrament.
Once called the Last Rites or Extreme Unction, the death bed ritual has changed for Catholics in recent years. The once-obligatory deathbed rite has been replaced with a new bit of ju-ju known as the anointing of the sick.
New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond says that across the country there are fewer priests and fewer young men who want to become priests:
We are challenged to find young men looking for vocations. We are getting fewer, and the process of preparing for the priesthood can take six to eight years. It makes it difficult to have people who can step in for retiring priests.
He added:
It’s not like you used to see in movies with the priest anointing a dying man. Now we urge people to have it before they go into the hospital. It should be a community celebration, not something administered in isolation.
According to this report, hospital chaplains are now scarce: of the 23 hospitals in the Greater New Orleans Area, only five with Roman Catholic chaplains. And even in those hospitals, personnel are frequently unaware of the chaplains and don’t call them.
Said David A Lichter, Executive Director of the National Association of Catholic Chaplains:
The number of priest chaplains has declined sharply. Ten years ago we had almost 900 priests that were members; now it’s down to 458. And many of them are elderly.
There are more lay-chaplains in the 45-year-old organization now, Lichter said. But they cannot administer the sacraments, which means a dying person who wishes to have them must do it early, or hope someone can be found.
But at St. Vincent Mercy Medical Centre, made up of seven hospitals in northwest Ohio, there is no problem having a priest available, said Rev. Joseph Cardone.
We have a firm commitment to having priests on staff at every hospital. We want every person admitted to be seen by priest and celebrate sacrament of the sick.
There are 624 Catholic hospitals and 60 Catholic health systems in the country. St. Vincent is one of the largest.
For other hospitals, getting a priest for an emergency remains tough.
Said Rev Pat Williams, the executive direct for priests in the New Orleans Archdiocese:
There was a time in a previous generation when you would call a church and get a priest. In those days there was usually two or three priests there. Not these days.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
January 28th, 2010 at 12:28 pm
I didn’t realize that it took up to 8 years to learn to be a pedophile
January 28th, 2010 at 12:30 pm
Good news at last …
January 28th, 2010 at 1:11 pm
Conventional economic theory doesn’t seem to apply here, does it? I mean, if lots of Catholics ‘need’ priests, why aren’t more being produced? Well, God might take an ‘invisible hand’ in this particular marketplace.
January 28th, 2010 at 1:31 pm
Given the propensity of Catholics to breed like rabbits, it is indeed encouraging that among their large number so few join the brotherhood of paedophiles. I assume this is because of educational improvements – the high profile abuse cases may have helped. I sincerely hope this trend continues.
January 28th, 2010 at 1:42 pm
Poor priests must have their handsful, what with having to chase choirboys AND minister to the sick.
Also the comment where it takes 6 – 8 years to be a priest. Nonsense, give me 4 beers and I’ll talk shit in no time.
January 28th, 2010 at 2:01 pm
It’s interesting that there is a shortage of Catholic priests. I thought that one became a priest by vocation. This means that one is called to the priesthood by God. So the question is, why is God supplying too few priests? Is he losing interest in the organization or perhaps running it down with a view to closing it?
January 28th, 2010 at 2:52 pm
What do they spend up to eight years learning? No seriously! Do they have to pass written examinations or is that not the way they do it? How many fail? I would like to see the questions in the examinations they sit. You can learn to fly big jets in two. I don’t suppose the priest has to pass a simulator test every six months during his working life but maybe they should do something similar. Might curb the paedophile rash and the diabolical cruelty in the R.C. Children’s Homes.
January 28th, 2010 at 3:05 pm
A priest should pass a Mass Simulator Test? We’re deep in Father Ted country…
January 28th, 2010 at 3:21 pm
Can you imagine the looks a catholic priest gets from parents on a childrens’ ward?
At least an anglican only has to worry about getting called Gandalf.
Six to eight years to learn one book? That’s the reading age of their victims.
January 28th, 2010 at 4:15 pm
As a 21 year old at deaths door in BMH Singapore I woke up to find a priest giving me the last rites.I took great pleasure in telling him to f**k off.A few days later I was molested by a red cross lady,I couldn’t bring myself round to telling her the same.Strange world!
January 28th, 2010 at 6:20 pm
Many years ago while waking from a lengthy operation I heard a male voice saying: “and he took the bread saying ‘this is my body’….. In my wooziness I thought I was dying, but THANKS BE TO HER GOD it was only the other patient in my ward receiving communion, and she wasn’t dying either. I briefly considered suing the hospital for the potential harm I might have come to if I had not remembered in time that I was an atheist and that I had declined being visited by men in dress-up party clothes.
January 28th, 2010 at 8:11 pm
Valdemar: I hope so. I am a Father Ted fan. I loved the offence he caused to the R.C. Church. I heard he was an atheist. Shame he died.
January 28th, 2010 at 8:38 pm
SilverTiger is right: GOD calls people to serve Him, so any complaints regarding deficiencies in either quality or quantity need to be directed to the appropriate department! I wasted hours of my life listening to missionaries making heart-rending, highly-charged, emotional appeals for “Christian soldiers” to bear the message of the life-giving Gospel to the benighted heathen, only to then declare that only God Himself could call and equip someone for this “vital work”. All complete, self-contradictory poppycock, of course!!
January 28th, 2010 at 10:26 pm
As George Carlin noted, God isn’t very good with money so perhaps in these difficult times he’s making some staffing decisions.
January 29th, 2010 at 11:28 am
Well, I guess we are all sinners, and according to the catholics, all our sins must be confessed, absolved, and penance served, or they go to hell and burn forever.
Sad thing, I guess for the good catholic killed instantly in a car accident, who yelled, “oh shit!!!!” as his car slid toward the semi. That profanity cost him his eternal soul. No black robed leech on society could arrive in time to hear his confession. A catholic in hell must be like a cop in prison. Not good!!!!!
NeoWolfe
January 29th, 2010 at 6:05 pm
Isn’t the CofE having the same problem with shortages of vicars? When our local vicar retired I believe that he left three or four churches vicarless and it took months for him to be replaced. Eventually a vicar from miles away simply added these churches to his patch which I think meant that he ended up with about fifteen. Of course, as mentioned elsewhere, this problem is being offset by ever diminishing congregations.
January 29th, 2010 at 7:59 pm
Same here. The local man is now a Canon in the cathedral 30 miles away. I did offer to do a bit of preaching myself as I have always fancied a bit of the old Elmer Gantry hell fire stuff. They turned me down although they do stay quite friendly. The response was, “Many thanks. But we are not quite that desperate. Don’t call us. We will call you.”
January 30th, 2010 at 6:26 pm
“Catholic Church in the US is fast running out of priests to see off the dying”
Isn’t this a problem with its own solution?
September 19th, 2010 at 6:23 pm
VERY rude bigoted remarks here – our church DOES have its problems but remarks like the one from patriot are just the prattle of bigots