Good News!
I would think this is a lagging indicator, considering how long it takes to go through the study process before ordination—meaning that this is a trend that has been building for some time, in spite of the usual “everyone’s leaving Christianity” narrative.
So despite this recent 25% improvement, ordinations are still down 40% overall since 1965.
Good News ping ...
One of them will be one of my friends. He’s a later in life priest. His wife died a few years ago and he heard the calling. He gets ordained on May 30 and he’s gonna be a wonderful priest!
This is excellent news, as the shortage is really starting to be felt. Of the priests in my parish, one is about to retire, and the other two are in failing health.
Great news, hope there are no pedophiles among them.
Hopefully there will be more information out soon.
Looking at the data:
I have to suspect that a large number of candidates delayed graduation for some reason last year. The number of ordinations fell for no reason I can tease out of the mere numbers I see. If so, this number is somewhat inflated, but part of a more steady improvement.
If we can stabilize the number at about 600 over the next several years, we can achieve a working priest population of over 25,000. That would be roughly sufficient for our parish needs: There are about 17,000 parishes, but because of the uneven distribution of Catholics within the parishes, those 17,000 parishes need about 25,000 working priests.
I’ve read where Catholic seminaries are a good place for homos to hang out because nobody wonders why they don’t have girlfriends or wives. Makes a good cover for them.
I just hope and pray they haven’t been indoctrinated with modernest apostasies. Good news on the 25% increase though.
So, we are going from 4 to 5?