Is There a Priest Shortage?

CERC ^ | May/June 2003 | Lay Witness

[Salvation]

Is There a Priest Shortage?  LAY WITNESS

The number of seminarians worldwide has grown 73 percent during the pontificate of John Paul II. In 1978, there were 64,000 seminarians — compared to more than 110,500 in 2000. The greatest increases were in Africa, where the number tripled; and Asia, which showed an increase of 125 percent.

As of 2000, the worldwide number of priests in active ministry increased by 189 over the previous year. This brought the total to 405,000 priests, which reflects an overall increase of nearly 800 diocesan priests, and a decrease of 600 religious priests.

Baptized Catholics represent 17.4% of the world's population, with the highest concentration found in the Americas — where 49.4 percent of the people are Catholic.

- adapted from the Vatican Yearbook

NOTE: This article is meant to accompany the article "I Will Give You Shepherds: Addressing the Priest Shortage."

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Vatican Yearbook. "Is There a Priest Shortage?" By the Numbers: Lay Witness (May/June 2003).

This article is reprinted with permission from Lay Witness magazine. Lay Witness is a publication of Catholic United for the Faith, Inc., an international lay apostolate founded in 1968 to support, defend, and advance the efforts of the teaching Church.

Copyright © 2003 LayWitness
 

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[Salvation]

NOTE: This article is meant to accompany the article "I Will Give You Shepherds: Addressing the Priest Shortage."

[Salvation]

I Will Give You Shepherds: Addressing the Priest Shortage

[Salvation]

**Baptized Catholics represent 17.4% of the world's population, with the highest concentration found in the Americas — where 49.4 percent of the people are Catholic.**

Had any of you seen this statistic before? I can see that with South and Central America it could be accurate, but I would hesitate to say that 49.4 percent of the people in North America were Catholic.

Maybe 33%

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What do you think?

[Colofornian]

Is There a Priest Shortage?

Only if you define "priest" according to the institutional, unbiblical definition...

Martin Luther only partially resurrected the biblical concept of the priesthood of all believers (it was never really put into practice): {Jesus}"has made US to be a kingdom of priests to serve his God and Father" (Rev. 1:6)and the original priest, Peter, said: "...you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood...But you are a chosen PEOPLE, a royal priesthood, a holy NATION, a PEOPLE belonging to God..." (1 Pet. 2:5, 9).

So when is the church-at-large going to kick it into biblical gear & stop defining priests as garbed single men who hear confessions (James says to confess your sins to ONE ANOTHER)? It's only been Satan's 2000-year strategy to reduce the force of which he has to fight.

"No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs--he wants to please his commanding officer." (2 Tim. 2:4)

Sorry, folks. No such thing as "only" a lay person. LAOS in Greek= people of God. Peter says "people of God"=priesthood. No such thing as "only" civilians in the pews. All are priest-soldiers in God's army. No such thing as "volunteers" in churches. Bible knows of no such words. Only disciples, believers, brothers, etc.

[Salvation]

**Only disciples, believers, brothers, etc.**

And just what sacrament might these people have received other than Baptissm?

[Colofornian]

And just what sacrament might these people have received other than Baptissm?

The sacrament of holy communion: "For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup you are retelling (proclaiming) the message of the Lord's death, that he has died for you. Do this until he comes again." (1 Cor. 10:26)

It's not only the institutional priests who are to proclaim the Lord's death until He comes again. It's us!

There are no passages in Scripture that talk about ordination. There are some that talk about laying hands on someone and conferring the blessing of the Holy Spirit upon them to be set aside for specific service. There are, of course, pastors listed in Scripture. But pastors are to equip the living saints (us) for the work of ministry (Eph. 4:11-16). Pastors in NT times were part of the PLURAL leadership of the church...not one-man ministry shows.