Dear Friends,
At 10:00 am on June 6, 1981, I and four of my classmates walked into St. Cecilia’s Cathedral to be ordained
priests for the Archdiocese of Omaha; forty years ago. Not sure where all those years went, but they went.
One of my classmates, Fr. Owen Korte, continues to serve as the pastor of Holy Trinity Parish in Hartington,
NE. The others are retired or have left ministry. I was barely 26 when I was ordained so I will keep going a
bit longer than the others – a youthful beginning equals a longer run.
The first Saturday of June this year, there will be no ordinations for the Archdiocese of Omaha. If you have
followed the annual poster of seminarians hanging in the church entry, then you know the number of young
men studying to be priests has been declining every year. Unless there is a dramatic change in the number of
men studying for the Archdiocese, we can expect a substantial drop in the number of priests serving parishes in
Omaha over the next decade. If you think it is difficult to find a priest today, it will be much worse in ten
years. The situation puts the availability of the Eucharist for Catholics at risk.
The number of priests per Catholic in the Omaha Archdiocese is still pretty good. It is much worse in other
parts of the world. In the Diocese of Huehuetenango, Guatemala, where our Ixim project works, they have
around 35 priests to serve over a million and a half Catholics. They have 30 major parishes with weekly Mass
and each of those 30 parishes serve an additional 25 to 50 smaller parishes where Mass happens a couple of
times a year. That could be our future.
Archbishop Lucas has asked the Archdiocese to have a special week of prayer (May 30 – June 5) and for
each parish to take a special time during that week to pray for vocations. We will be praying before the
Blessed Sacrament here at Cabrini on June 4th from noon until 3:00 pm. I encourage you to come to the
church and pray during that time – stay for a couple minutes or stay for all three hours. Ask our loving
God to inspire young people to say “yes” to the call to serve our local community.
The fortieth anniversary of ordination is normally a time to celebrate in the life of a priest (we may not make it
to 50). And we will celebrate! Just not the weekend of June 6th. I want to give the community a little more
time to heal from the Covid pandemic and for people to feel comfortable venturing forth into a crowd. We
will celebrate my 40th anniversary on Sunday, September 5, during Labor Day weekend. Please plan on
joining me.
The priesthood I have lived has truly been filled with wonder. I have thanked God each and every day for the
gift of it. I also thank God for you. You have been willing to open your lives to me. You invite me to share
your intimate moments of joy and of sorrow. At those most sacred times in your life, you have allowed me to
walk with you, shed a few tears, and offer a smattering of words to mold its meaning. I am honored. If I had only been offered one day of that, I would have been forever grateful, but I have had 14,610 days. Thank you.
While I am walking those sacred times with you, God is using me to be sacramentally present. His grace flows
through my hands and my words. Clearly, I am not worthy for such a task, but God is the one who makes us
worthy, not us.
Archbishop Lucas sent me a letter this week reassigning me to St. Frances Cabrini Parish for another six-year
term. He did say I could retire at 70 years of age if I so choose. Sorry to say that you are stuck with me for at
least another four years or as long as my health holds out!
Peace,
Fr. Damian