Changing face of the church

Re “New ‘Irish’ priests are Vietnamese,” April 15

If any article I have ever read accurately projected the changing face of the Catholic Church in America, it was this one. Living on the East Coast, I understand that the Vietnamese contribution to the Catholic Church is more prevalent on the West Coast. My own former parish, St. Francis of Assisi in the Highbridge section of the Bronx, came to mind after reading the article. Once made up completely of Irish and Irish American parishioners, the parish is now 100% Latino, and a group of 12 French missionaries has been serving the parish in various ways for the last four years. The Irish left the parish long ago, and it seems ironic that now French immigrant missionaries have come to help Spanish-speaking immigrants in the poorest urban area of the world’s biggest English-speaking nation.

MICHAEL MULRYAN

New Haven, Conn.

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I’m getting tired of hearing bishops and laypeople complain about the “critical cleric shortage” in the Roman Catholic Church, when many priests are feeling unsupported and left with no choice but to leave the ministry. As a gay but celibate priest, I served the church well for more than 10 years until early 2006. I was disturbed by the mounting, hysterical persecution of gay priests in the wake of the pedophilia scandals. The last straw for me was the Vatican’s 2005 ban on future ordinations of admitted gay priests. Among my acquaintances, I wasn’t the first gay priest to leave active ministry, nor the last. Other dedicated priests have over the years been sent packing rather than be allowed to get married, stand with immigrants and other minorities or campaign openly for needed change in the church. The church’s leaders and members shouldn’t be surprised that they are, in the words of Jesus, reaping what they have sown.

REV. CHRIS CARPENTER

Long Beach