Las vegas critical mass

According to McAuliffe, 10 to 15 retired priests are helping the Las Vegas diocese serve parishioners. Candidates to the Catholic priesthood begin by participating in a discernment process, during which they examine whether they do have a vocation to the priesthood. That can take a year. Once a man officially has been accepted as a diocesan seminarian, a candidate just out of high school will spend four years earning an undergraduate degree, typically in a discipline such as philosophy.

Seminarians who already have an undergraduate degree will take two years of pre-theology courses. Then comes four years of theology study, followed by a pastoral year, during which seminarians serve something akin to an internship at a local parish.

Only then can the seminarian be ordained a priest. My class, for example, we lost two-thirds by the time we got to the end. The next priest scheduled for ordination in the diocese is John Assalone, a former entertainment executive at the MGM Grand, who was ordained a deacon in May.

He is scheduled to be ordained a priest a year from now. In , the Review-Journal profiled Assalone and three other men who were exploring their call to the priesthood. Of that group, only Assalone still is seeking diocesan ordination. The Rev. After high school, he attended college with plans of becoming a physical education teacher. Some who have known him are curious about the new direction his life has taken.

Some, Garcia noted, even wonder if they, too, may have a calling to the priesthood. In promoting vocations to the priesthood, the Las Vegas diocese faces all of the obstacles every other American diocese faces, from a general de-emphasis on religion in American society to a greater societal emphasis on material success.

Also a problem is the transient nature of the city, Lule said, that can prevent newly relocated Catholics from identifying strongly with the Las Vegas Catholic community. But, for Lule, the primary obstacle to diocesan vocations is a lack of Catholic teaching and culture in many homes. At The Just One Project, about 50 volunteers assisted with the distribution of large boxes of fresh produce, frozen chicken, bread, eggs and other staples to about cars throughout the day.

A no-cost market, a Meals on Wheels program and delivered groceries are among the other ways it tries to alleviate food insecurity. I believe that most people are one or two paychecks away from being displaced from homes or not paying a car payment, or not being able to afford food. Willie Ham was one of the volunteers directing traffic on Friday.

A retiree, she said she enjoys feeling productive and knowing that her work helps others. We can use all the support we can get to help people most in need. Use this to log in to your account, receive notifications and get handy updates from us. Date of Birth? Please enter the account owner's birth date here. We based it off your Facebook details. But you can pick one that's 25 characters or less and includes a letter.

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