Archdioceses around the U.S. welcome largest ordination classes
Archdioceses around the U.S. welcome largest ordination classes — 16 new priests in Washington — with packed pews
The crowd filling the pews and aisles of the largest Catholic church in the United States witnessed the largest ordination class in Archdiocese of Washington in 64 years, as Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory ordained 16 new priests for the archdiocese during a June 15 Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
It is the archdiocese’s largest ordination class since 1960, when 17 men were ordained the year that John F. Kennedy was elected as the nation’s first Catholic president.
Besides the Washington Archdiocese, other U.S. archdioceses have seen record ordination classes this spring, including the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, with 13 new priests, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles with 11 and the Archdiocese of Milwaukee with nine.