So, is there a priest shortage?

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[american colleen]

So, is there a priest shortage?

It is fairly common for the press, Catholic or secular, to report about a shortage of Catholic priests that is usually described as a crisis for the Church. It is true that the number of priests in the US has been declining for over a decade. This has been a fairly small decline however, from 53,000 in 1991 to 46,000 in 2001. There has probably been a similar decline in the percentage of active Catholics during these same years, but this is harder to measure accurately. Keep in mind that there are less than 20,000 Catholic parishes in the US, far less than the number of priests. And just for example, if half of the parishes closed overnight, most Catholics would still have a shorter trip to Sunday mass than to their nearest shopping mall. (Thanks to a local bishop for that fact.) I live in an area where towns of less than two hundred people still have a priest serving their parish.

These statistics need to be interpreted in light of an important fact: The Catholic Church is an international, worldwide institution. Priests can and often do travel between nations to meet local needs. Some people think it a problem that the US has imported a few hundred foreign-born priests because our seminaries can't produce enough. Do these people realize that the US has imported half a million computer programmers because our schools can't produce enough?

You won't see much reporting about this, but worldwide the number of priests and seminarians is growing. Between 1990 and 2000, total priests worldwide increased from 401,000 to 405,000. Granted, this is slower than the percent growth in total Catholics, but remember that several other religions are shrinking in the modern, secularized world. In other words, "They wish they had our problems"! Add to this the number of permanent deacons, which exploded from 17,000 to 27,000 during these years. Permanent deacons are ordained clergy who perform baptisms, weddings and preach. They will play a growing role in the future of the Church, but they get very little publicity. The overall result is that the number of Catholic clergy has increased significantly in the last decade. And during those 10 years the number of worldwide Catholic major seminarians grew from 93,000 to 110,000, a very healthy increase. The lack of growth is mostly in the English-speaking nations. And even there the problem is more local than you might think.

Some US Dioceses are ordaining many more priests than others. By comparing the number of priests active in a diocese during 2001 with the same figure from 1991, we can see how the diocese is trending vocationally. The percentage figure represents the 2001 number divided by the 1991 figure. A higher percentage means the diocese is having more success attracting new priests. Compare these relatively successful dioceses:

Atlanta, GA. . . . 123%

Arlington, VA. . 121

Lincoln, NE. . . . 107

Fargo, ND. . . . 101

Rockford, IL. . . . 97

With these relatively unsuccessful ones:

Rochester, NY. . . 72%

Milwaukee, WI. . . 77

Albany, NY. . . . . . 79

New Ulm, MN. . . 79

Joliet, IL. . . . . . . . 80

I hate to use a cliche, but numbers don't lie. Anyone can see a huge difference here. Ultimately, the bishop of a diocese is responsible for vocations. I will leave it to you, gentle reader, to explore what many other Catholics have said about the men who were leading the Dioceses above during those years. I will say that if we had accountability in the Church like major business corporations do, Bishop Matthew Clark of Rochester would have been forced to resign long ago.

Standard business management practice would suggest that we study the Dioceses that are succeeding, see what factors are helping them, and implement these factors in other places. Bishops that fail to do this should be held accountable in some way. This is an area where some new kind of lay empowerment may be needed. If any readers are curious about the percentage figure for your local diocese, contact me and I will calculate it for you. For now, this may be the best "power rating" available to evaluate the performance of Catholic Bishops.

[NYer]

Paul VI granted his wish, and made him an archbishop. Sheen had no business being made a diocesan administrator. There's no shame in that; a very large number of the present occupants of episcopal sees don't belong there either!

THANK YOU for filling in the blanks! You are absolutely right ... there is absolutely NO shame in fulfilling the job that has been assigned. None!

My grandmother, God rest her soul, insisted that we watch Bishop Sheen as children. She grew angry with the church for not elevating him to the rank of cardinal. Your post explains why ... thanks, Sink!

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

Ultra-Wreckovation ping. The continuing "diabolical disorientation" of the clergy in America is a matter worthy of thorough investigation. These outrages continue as we speak. The Ultra-Wreckovationistas continue gutting the Church with wild abandon in the name of "the spirit of Vatican II." It's a sad and pathetic legacy.

American neo-modernist iconoclasm.

[sinkspur]

There's no episcopal figure in the Church today who is able to inspire the way Sheen did. None.

Of course, he was extremely intelligent, but he always ascribed his preaching power to making the Holy Hour in front of the Blessed Sacrament every day of his priestly life.

HE NEVER MISSED A DAY, even if it meant waking up sleeping pastors to open a Church he was passing so that he could make the Hour or (as he told us in a retreat he preached in 1973), climbing through an open window at the Basilica de Sacre Couer in Paris in the middle of the night.

When Sheen came to Holy Trinity Seminary for that retreat, he asked for only two things for his room: a dozen oranges and two boxes of Fig Newtons.

[Dajjal]

Catholic Church takes steps to reverse drop in priests
April 6, 1998

PITTSBURGH (CNN) -- Nationwide, for every 100 men enrolled in Catholic seminaries in 1965, there are 40 today, according to Dean Hoge, a professor of sociology at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

And the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University reported that from 1970 to 1995, seminary enrollment in the United States dropped by half.

The 25-year decline in the number of active priests is part of what experts say is a church-wide trend in the United States, as is the decline in the number of men entering the seminary.


Brave New Church

The Center of Applied Research in the Apostolate (Cara) provides the statistics. It tells us that the number of priests in the United States in 1965 was almost 36, 000. In 1998, that number had dropped to some 31,000, 7,800 of whom, says the Official Catholic Directory for that year, are “retired, sick or absent”. Religious order priests went from some 22,000 in 1965 to some 15, 000 plus in 1999. Of the 19,000 plus parishes in the United States, some 2,500 do not have a resident pastor (mostly in the West North Central part of the country.) The total number of priestly ordinations in our country in 1965 was 994. By 1997 it had dropped to 521. By April of 1998, only 346.

In practical terms, all the statistics presented here mean that, on the front lines, where we live, things are desperate. The Dubuque archdiocese, for example, which had 286 priests in 1985 is projected to have only 117 in 2005. The Archdiocese of Boston has announced that it ordained nine men in May of 1998. Such a number can’t come near to replacing the 25 to 30 who have retired or died that same year. Or, if you want to put it more dramatically, consider it this way: for the dioceses of Boston and New York combined with their four million Catholics and 800 parishes, only 14 men were ordained in 1999. How about this: in the four years from 1997 to 2000 seven dioceses with a combined Catholic population of more than one million had no ordinations at all. The Archdiocese of Newark expects to have only 192 priests twenty years from now compared to the 540 it has today. Major archdioceses like Boston, New York, Chicago and Los Angels all ordained fewer than 10 new priests in the year 2000. There is hardly a diocese in the country, then, that has not or is not planning parish closings or mergers. By 2005, three years from now, only one in eight priests will be under age 35 with the average age of priests close to 60. Many are also unaware of the small number of priests under 40 right now.

N.B. both articles devolve into anti-celibacy posturing, and are cited for the stats only.

[saradippity]

One thing I have noticed on posts from the far-sides,left or right alike,is the bemoaning of the crisis in vocations.When either side really wants to turn up the heat,they use the figures from the early years,which include all the little kids in minor seminary.For more recent years,since they no longer have minor seminaries,quite understandably,those boys,who previously beefed up the statistics,are not there.But those contrived figures serve both of you well with respect to alarming your fellow Catholics.

When you strange bedfellows unite,without knowing it you combine forces to destroy the very Church,you both claim to love for your own purposes.You should read the scriptures,particularly the passages about Solomon and the mother and the stepmother and the baby.

[NYer]

he always ascribed his preaching power to making the Holy Hour in front of the Blessed Sacrament every day of his priestly life.

Once again .... THANK YOU .... for this beautiful reminder. One would be hard pressed to find a more motivational story than this. It actually deserves its own thread.

What inspired Archbishop Sheen to make a Holy Hour before Our Lord in the Most Blessed Sacrament each day?

"Again and again I wander to and fro directing My children to remain close to the Eucharist, the Bread of life. But do not become misguided: Do not accept My Son's Body in your hands.
- Our Lady, July 15, 1978
 

THIS GREAT SACRAMENT OF LOVE A couple of months before his death Bishop Fulton J. Sheen was interviewed on national television. One of the questions was this:   "Bishop Sheen, you have inspired millions of people all over the world. Who inspired  you? Was it a Pope?"   Bishop Sheen responded that it was not a Pope, a cardinal, another bishop, or even a priest or a nun. It was a little Chinese girl of eleven years of age. He explained that when the Communists took over China,  they imprisoned a priest in his own rectory near the Church.  After they locked him up in his own house, the priest was horrified to look out of his window and  see the Communists proceed into the Church, where they went into the sanctuary and broke into the tabernacle. In an act of hateful desecration, they took the ciborium and threw it on the floor with all of the Sacred Hosts spilling out. The priest knew exactly how many Hosts were in the ciborium:  thirty-two.   When the Communists left, they either did not notice, or didn't pay any attention to a small girl praying in the back of the Church who saw everything that had happened.  That night the little girl came back. Slipping past the guard at the priest's house, she went inside the Church. There she made a holy hour of prayer, an act of love to make up for the act of hatred.   After her holy hour she went into the sanctuary, knelt down, bent over and with her tongue received Jesus in Holy Communion, *since it was not permissible for laymen to touch the Sacred Host with their hands.   The little girl continued to come back each night to make her holy  hour and receive Jesus in Holy Communion on her tongue. On the thirty-second  night, after she had consumed the last and thirty-second host, she accidentally made a noise and woke the guard who was sleeping. He ran after her,  caught her, and beat her to death with the butt of his rifle. This act of heroic martyrdom was witnessed by the priest as he watched grief-stricken from his bedroom window.   When Bishop Sheen heard the story he was so inspired that he promised God he would make a holy hour of prayer before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament everyday of his life.  If this frail, little child could give testimony and witness to the world concerning the real and wonderful Presence of her Savior in the Blessed Sacrament, then the Bishop was absolutely bound by all that was right and true, to do the same. His sole desire from then on was to bring the world to the burning Heart of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. The little girl showed the Bishop what true courage and zeal really is; how faith could overcome all fear, how true love for Jesus in the Eucharist must transcend life itself. What is hidden in the Sacred Host is the glory of His love. The sun in the sky is symbolic of the Son of God in the Blessed Sacrament. This is why most monstrances are in the form of a sunburst. As the sun is the natural source of all energy, the Blessed Sacrament is  the supernatural source of all grace and love. The Blessed Sacrament is JESUS, the Light of the world.   Excerpt from an article "Let the SON shine out" by Rev. Martin Lucia *Note: Communion should never be taken in the hand.  (Read more...) If you wish to make a holy hour before the blessed Sacrament, visit this site that has a listing of all the adoration chapels in the United States:  http://www.therealpresence.org/chap_fr.htm Links to other sites: The Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist  http://www.knight.org/advent/cathen/05573a.htm The Real Presence http://www.therealpresence.org/eucharst/euch_fr.htm Missionaries of the Blessed Sacrament Chapels   http://www.acfp2000.com/index.html

[sinkspur]

"Communion in the hand has not been, and will not be accepted by Heaven. This is a sacrilege in the eyes of the Eternal Father, and must not be continued, for you only add to your punishment when you continue on in the ways that have been found to be unpleasing to the Eternal Father." - Our Lady, June 30, 1984

Thank you for the story about Bishop Sheen, the hysterical rantings (like the one above, no doubt never said by "Our Lady" but attributed to her by someone who didn't like communion-in-the-hand) against reception of the Eucharist in the hand notwithstanding.

[sinkspur]

Nota: The hysterical rantings were on one of the links "No communion in the hand."

[Land of the Irish]

It's a sad and pathetic legacy.

Amen

[NYer]

"As the sun is the natural source of all energy, the Blessed Sacrament is  the supernatural source of all grace and love. The Blessed Sacrament is JESUS, the Light of the world."

[NeoCaveman]

Thankyou for the Bishop Sheen links and information. I've been enjoying his book "On Being Human" tremendously.

[Salvation]

**You won't see much reporting about this, but worldwide the number of priests and seminarians is growing. Between 1990 and 2000, total priests worldwide increased from 401,000 to 405,000.**

This is interesting!

[Tantumergo]

"Cardinal Mahoney can't ordain 5 folks a year for 4 million Catholics."

Seriously!!? Are you sure you have your numbers right? (I hope you do!)

"His brand of Catholic priest is clearly dying."

From your lips to God's ear!

[sitetest]

Dear Tantumergo,

I ain't makin' it up, Tantum. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles is ordaining men, on an annual basis, in the low single digits. With 4 million Catholics. You can do the arithmetic. Even if the average priest serves 50 years, that's perhaps a sustainable number of 250 diocesan priests. For 4 million Catholics and growing.

The upside, obviously, is that Cardinal Mahoney's sort of priest isn't multiplying. The downside is that in the short term, more and more of the LA Archdiocese will be run by folks even less worthy.

But priests eventually become bishops. And in places like my archdiocese, many worthy men are becoming worthy priests. And some of them are definitely worthy of the episcopate. And eventually the likes of Cardinal Mahoney will have to be replaced, and their won't be enough of his sort. The bulk of the bishops will eventually come from the sort that we have here.


sitetest

[Tantumergo]

"The bulk of the bishops will eventually come from the sort that we have here."

I sure hope so!

On the subject of the characteristics of current intake to seminaries, I was at a day of lectures last week by a retired bishop who was at all sessions of Vatican II and considers himself to be "an authority".

The only encouraging thing I heard that day was when he said "I do despair of the quality of so many men entering the seminaries at the moment. They are so right wing that there is a danger they will undo all the progress we have made since the Council."

Despite his epithet of "right-wing", it did make me wonder if the tide is actually starting to turn.

[american colleen]

They are so right wing that there is a danger they will undo all the progress we have made since the Council."

That has been my observation here in the Arch of Boston. I'd take one orthodox priest being ordained over 20 lukewarm or progressive priests who just continue to spread the apathy and partial Truths and experiencial catechisis that has been part and parcel of Catholicism since about 1970. Stand for nothing and you'll fall for anything.

[american colleen]

Please look at the sources you are using! My gosh! CNN and a website which extolls the virtues of RENT-A-PRIEST?!?

From the article: "But, since its very existence makes an ironic point, it is worth looking at. Rent-A Priest was started in 1992 by a traditional Catholic lady who couldn’t find a priest to visit her mother in the nursing home" --- the author of this piece has an incredible agenda. The "traditional Catholic lady" is none other than Louise Haggett who hails from about 40 miles from my doorstep. She resides in a city where there are five Catholic parishes and the area is surrounded by large cities with many parishes in each city. Ms. Haggett is the founder of "Rent-A-Priest", the founder of "Celibacy Is The Issue (CITI)", a member of "Call to Action" a member of "Voice of the Faithful" and a recipient of the "Corpus Life Achievement Award" - nice resume.

The article you cited uses a woman who was recently quoted in a local newspaper:

"Married priests are the real honest priests," said Haggett, who considers herself a devout Catholic. "Deacons are married and you don't see problems with them molesting children. The same with rabbis, protestant pastors and Catholic married priests. There is definitively a connection there."

The married priests of CITI have been holding masses at the Unitarian Universalist First Parish every Saturday at 5 p.m.

Everybody is welcome, said Haggett, including those with issues regarding clergy sexual abuse, divorce/remarriage, interfaith marriage, birth control, sexual orientation, abortion and disillusionment because of the sexual scandal.

You can do better than that!

[Dajjal]

... they use the figures from the early years,which include all the little kids in minor seminary. For more recent years, since they no longer have minor seminaries, quite understandably, those boys, who previously beefed up the statistics, are not there.

Brave New Church

The Center of Applied Research in the Apostolate (Cara) provides the statistics. It tells us that the number of priests in the United States in 1965 was almost 36, 000. In 1998, that number had dropped to some 31,000, 7,800 of whom, says the Official Catholic Directory for that year, are “retired, sick or absent”. Religious order priests went from some 22,000 in 1965 to some 15, 000 plus in 1999. Of the 19,000 plus parishes in the United States, some 2,500 do not have a resident pastor (mostly in the West North Central part of the country.) The total number of priestly ordinations in our country in 1965 was 994. By 1997 it had dropped to 521. By April of 1998, only 346.

In practical terms, all the statistics presented here mean that, on the front lines, where we live, things are desperate. The Dubuque archdiocese, for example, which had 286 priests in 1985 is projected to have only 117 in 2005. The Archdiocese of Boston has announced that it ordained nine men in May of 1998. Such a number can’t come near to replacing the 25 to 30 who have retired or died that same year. Or, if you want to put it more dramatically, consider it this way: for the dioceses of Boston and New York combined with their four million Catholics and 800 parishes, only 14 men were ordained in 1999. How about this: in the four years from 1997 to 2000 seven dioceses with a combined Catholic population of more than one million had no ordinations at all. The Archdiocese of Newark expects to have only 192 priests twenty years from now compared to the 540 it has today. Major archdioceses like Boston, New York, Chicago and Los Angels all ordained fewer than 10 new priests in the year 2000. There is hardly a diocese in the country, then, that has not or is not planning parish closings or mergers. By 2005, three years from now, only one in eight priests will be under age 35 with the average age of priests close to 60. Many are also unaware of the small number of priests under 40 right now.

Exactly which of these numbers is affected by "little kids" in minor seminaries?

[sinkspur]

He did. Check the CARA statistics in the post after yours.

[american colleen]

When either side really wants to turn up the heat,they use the figures from the early years,which include all the little kids in minor seminary.For more recent years,since they no longer have minor seminaries,quite understandably,those boys,who previously beefed up the statistics,are not there.But those contrived figures serve both of you well with respect to alarming your fellow Catholics.

Thanks! I never even thought of the numbers of kids in minor seminaries being added into the numbers. How dishonest! For crying out loud, my dad and most of the boys he grew up with were in minor seminary back in the 50s. They were great schools.

Call me stupid, but I trust in God to provide for our needs. Did you know the Legionaires have 500 men in seminary right now?