I must make a correction regarding a letter by Mr Hamilton Green titled “I support atonement Mass for Good Friday”(08.05.07). From what I read in a Stabroek News report last week the service around the Cenotaph area in Georgetown on Good Friday is not a Mass, a Roman Catholic Service where bread and wine becomes real flesh and blood after words of Consecration are spoken by a priest.
Similarly I would like to say to Dr John Fredericks on the issue of shortage of Roman Catholic priests within the Diocese of Georgetown that every single Sunday at a Celebration of the Mass, Catholics (some) emptily recite the words of the Prayer for more Vocations to the priesthood and religious life. Reciting such a prayer (refer to the New Catholic Hymnal) will not give us priests here in Guyana.
Why must we leave it all up to the Jesuits (who I believe have made a sterling contribution to the Catholic missions here in Guyana) to send priests to Guyana?
The other day my fellow parishioners here in New Amsterdam were overjoyed at the news that a priest (a Monsignor no less) was appointed to our parish after being without a priest for nearly a year: Msgr Terrence Montrose.
Some Catholic communities especially in the interior locations do not see a priest more than once a year, yet they faithfully continue the work of the Church, in their communities.
Where is the encouragement we need to give to our young boys and girls to enter the priesthood and religious life?
Are we opening their minds up to these possibilities or only telling them about marriage as the only option? We just sit back and say that the Jesuits or some other religious order will provide priests for our parishes?
I have said this numerous times (even to the Roman Catholic Bishop here in Guyana) that our Diocese must invest in an active vocations drive to recruit young men and women who will be the future priests, nuns, brothers and sisters of the holy Roman Catholic Church in our diocese.
We need to get busy!
Yours faithfully,
Leon Suseran
