Alaskan Church "Rumors" - Priests

So I have been "sitting" on something for a few days, because I wanted to get as much info as I could.

I feel like Rocco over at Whispers, and will try and do this justice:

It appears that Archbishop Schweitz is pulling in, or at least, accepting priests into the Archdiocese over the next year. It is unclear which direction the "requests" flow, but I have it on pretty good authority that there are at least two confirmed priests coming to the diocese over the next year. Both are already ordained; one is diocesan and the other is an order priest with diocesan experience. I don't know if these will be "permanent" or "on loan" placements, but regardless of their "status" it definitely helps...number-wise.

So how does that change the scenery? Well let's look [from the Archdiocese of Anchorage]:

Two archbishops (Archbishop Roger L. Schwietz, OMI and Archbishop Emeritus Francis T. Hurley), 10 active diocesan priests, 8 priests on loan from other dioceses, and 10 religious priests serve the Church in the Archdiocese of Anchorage. These 28 priests share in ministry with 43 religious women, 13 active permanent deacons, three religious brothers, and many lay people active in various ministries in the parishes, missions and throughout the archdiocese.


Five of the eight parishes in the Anchorage urban area have two (2) priests, the others have only one. With the ordination earlier this summer of two new priests for the archdiocese, there is the luxury of having more than one priest in the larger parishes. This is only a temporary situation, however, until these new priests are mentored and experienced enough to take on their own parishes – probably within two years or less. Outside of Anchorage, only seven parishes have a resident priest. There are many parishes and missions in the Archdiocese of Anchorage without a resident priest pastor. Resident pastoral administrators who are religious women or laypeople serve six of the larger of these parishes and missions. The others are served by local volunteers and by a corps of traveling/supply priests. These parishes and missions without a resident pastor host a supply priest about twice per month. 

28 priests, 33 "churches" [or missions]. Of those 33, 3 are AFB's, and 1 is a Chapel [Our Lady of the Snows at Girdwood] which means that 29 "churches" are under FULL Archdiocesan control. (These 4 are at least partially "controlled" by other entities.)

If you add these two priests, the number of priests goes to 30, and the number of "churches" is at 29. Seems like a good direction to go in... as long as we don't have any priests "leave." Or do these incoming priests foreshadow something else?

Now these numbers are also based on a somewhat "dated" About Us page, on the Archdiocese website. I know there have been recent shuffles amongst the priests, and therefore I don't have a firm grasp on whether the numbers still add up, the way they do on the AOA website. There are also at least 1 or 2 priests nearing "retirement" age. So how will things look in a year? Well, we will have to wait and find out, but it is good to know that at least an effort is being made to get more priests.