Catholics celebrated Baltimore?s 200th anniversary as an archdiocese as they looked to the next generation for answers to modern challenges.
“We Catholics cannot rest and never have rested,” said Archbishop Edwin F. O?Brien in his homily at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the country?s first cathedral.
He said a strong Catholic presence is needed within Baltimore youth to heal the homelessness and drug addiction that surround many in and around the city.
“Indeed in our midst are pastures poisoned with drugs, dark valleys overwhelmed with the hopeless homeless, fields plagued by abortion mills, reverberating with gunshots and murders,” he said.
In addition, he called on Baltimore?s young men to become priests, a need many churchgoers recognized Sunday.
The church should consider allowing women to be priestsand letting priests marry, said Diane Ryan, 48, of Baltimore City.
“I think some major changes need to be made for survival,” Ryan said. “There?s just a severe priest shortage.”
The total number of priests serving in the United States has declined 29 percent in the past 40 years, while the Catholic population has grown 40 percent, according to the Associated Press.
The Mass not only commemorated the bicentennial of the archdiocese, but honored Cardinal William H. Keeler, who served 18 years as archbishop before stepping down last July.
Keeler pointed to a renewed religious enthusiasm he sees among young Catholics.
“I see the future as one full of difficult challenges, but the church is going to be here, and it will be stronger,” Keeler said in an interview.
After the Mass, O?Brien unveiled a bust of Keeler, which was funded by Keeler?s family and the Basilica Historic Trust, which maintains the church building.
“This, I think, will remind us all of your presence in our hearts each day,” O?Brien said.
O?Brien said he would be in Washington, D.C., and New York for Pope Benedict XVI?s first visit to the United States. He is to arrive in D.C. on Tuesday.
“I think the time in America [the pope] spends with us will be a unifying experience,” O?Brien said.
