What priest shortgage?

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In 1965 there were 60,000 priests in the US, by now there are 40,000 mostly aged priests, and the trend is that the number will be stabilized in 50 years around 12,000.

12,000 priests can serve no more than 25 million Catholics, as it is opposed to the recent 80+ million.

It is true that conservative dioceses have more vocations. Partly because the bishops and the clergy are conservative and they push for vocations; but more importantly because parents are conservative and they push their sons toward the vocation.

The vocation is from God, and it is realized when the bishops calls the candidate for ordination, but for that the candidates had to be sent to the seminaries Even half of the recent 400 ordinations (average age over 30) are based on their childhood, on their parents.

Until even traditional parents say that I will not oppose if my son wants to be priest, but I leave the choice for him; there will be not enough priests; and the parents will have no viaticum when they are dieing.
 
Hmmm… and in my Lutheran church body, though we certainly don’t have a glut of priests, the ones who are most traditional and catholic in outlook have the hardest times getting placed in a congregation. In fact, many congregations are infected with low-church pentecostalism, and figure they don’t need priests at all, so laity just assume the duties to themselves.

Huh… Roman Catholic dioceses with far too few priests… Lutheran dioceses with too few congregations who even want the ones they have…

Creates quite a dillema for this very catholic minded Lutheran priest…

Lord have mercy on us all.
laszlo said:
In 1965 there were 60,000 priests in the US, by now there are 40,000 mostly aged priests, and the trend is that the number will be stabilized in 50 years around 12,000.

12,000 priests can serve no more than 25 million Catholics, as it is opposed to the recent 80+ million.

It is true that conservative dioceses have more vocations. Partly because the bishops and the clergy are conservative and they push for vocations; but more importantly because parents are conservative and they push their sons toward the vocation.

The vocation is from God, and it is realized when the bishops calls the candidate for ordination, but for that the candidates had to be sent to the seminaries Even half of the recent 400 ordinations (average age over 30) are based on their childhood, on their parents.

Until even traditional parents say that I will not oppose if my son wants to be priest, but I leave the choice for him; there will be not enough priests; and the parents will have no viaticum when they are dieing.
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Just as an aside, that article is from 1996; it was written 15 years ago!

The article is more about how to not discourage vocations. To those dioceses and Catholics that follow this, they experience a growing priesthood. The real point is, vocations are being discouraged, or at least not nurtured, and consequently many dioceses do indeed have a shortage.

Let us pray for our priests, seminarians, those discerning a call…and let us pray also for all Catholics that we provide a nurturing environment in our homes and parishes so that we may experience a growing priesthood.
 
Nowadays parents are the one who stop or discourage their sons to follow the vocation to priesthood. This is from a survey, I’ll try to find it and post it.
 
EnglishTeacher said:
His premise is the same as Michael Rose’s in his book “Good-bye, Good Men.” Fortunately, it sounds as though the situtation in seminaries and vocations offices has gotten better since the 1990s (when the book and above article were written).
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You’re right. Things have gotten better. I posted the article, even though it was published some years ago, to point out that in some cases, suitable candidates for the priesthood were being rejected because they didn’t accept certain modernist ideas. And because I know some Catholics wonder why certain things were the way they were.

Peace,
Ed
 
considerpriesthood.com/parents/a-note-to-parents/

A Note to Parents taken from ConsiderPriesthood.com

"Parents’ driving desire for their children is to lead happy, fulfilled lives. When a son begins discerning the call to priesthood, it can be a confusing and uncertain time for both him and his parents. The choice is certainly counter-cultural, and just seems odd, especially when we consider today’s media as representing financial wealth and sexual conquest as the dominant measuring sticks of success for a man.
More importantly, parents know the joys they receive from a loving spouse and raising children and want their own children to experience those joys as well. It is hard to imagine living a life without these experiences because of a career choice. However, the priesthood cannot authentically be presented as just another “career option” because it is not. The priesthood is a call to a life radically opposed to many of the ideals held by secular culture where chastity, obedience and detachment from money are ridiculed and mocked. The priest, though, by his life, proclaims to the world that something far greater than the rewards of today awaits us. In the end, the life to come is worth more than anything in this world.

Pope Benedict challenges us saying: “The pastoral care of vocations needs to involve the entire Christian community in every area of its life. Obviously, this pastoral work on all levels also includes exploring the matter with families, which are often indifferent or even opposed to the idea of a priestly vocation. Families should generously embrace the gift of life and bring up their children to be open to doing God’s will. In a word, they must have the courage to set before young people the radical decision to follow Christ, showing them how deeply rewarding it is (Sacramentum Caritatis, 24)”
 
WorkerPriest said:
Hmmm… and in my Lutheran church body, though we certainly don’t have a glut of priests, the ones who are most traditional and catholic in outlook have the hardest times getting placed in a congregation. In fact, many congregations are infected with low-church pentecostalism, and figure they don’t need priests at all, so laity just assume the duties to themselves.

Huh… Roman Catholic dioceses with far too few priests… Lutheran dioceses with too few congregations who even want the ones they have…

Creates quite a dillema for this very catholic minded Lutheran priest…

Lord have mercy on us all.
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The reasons are the same: secularization. Everything around us says that we, human beings are sufficient to resolve our problems.

The problem is not new, and only the collapse of our civilization will resolve it. That will bring humility.
 
laszlo said:
In 1965 there were 60,000 priests in the US, by now there are 40,000 mostly aged priests, and the trend is that the number will be stabilized in 50 years around 12,000.

12,000 priests can serve no more than 25 million Catholics, as it is opposed to the recent 80+ million.
Click to expand...
Of course, this is only the USA.

In Africa, Latin America and the Philippines the shortfall situation is endemic right now. There are several places around the world where the ratio is 8,000 laypersons per priest or worse, with many miles over poor roads for the faithful to travel. The statistics are available for all to see.

That’s why it is criminal to entice African and Asian priests to the USA to make up the currently perceived shortfalls, they are more seriously needed in their home countries right now. The North American and European situation needs to be fixed, or it will drag the rest of the church down with it.
 
WorkerPriest said:
Hmmm… and in my Lutheran church body, though we certainly don’t have a glut of priests, the ones who are most traditional and catholic in outlook have the hardest times getting placed in a congregation. In fact, many congregations are infected with low-church pentecostalism, and figure they don’t need priests at all, so laity just assume the duties to themselves.

Huh… Roman Catholic dioceses with far too few priests… Lutheran dioceses with too few congregations who even want the ones they have…

Creates quite a dillema for this very catholic minded Lutheran priest…

Lord have mercy on us all.
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No dilemma, become Catholic, problem solved! 🙂 God will provide for you.
 
At the time this article was written, I had a close family member enrolled in the Master’s of Divinity program in Milwaukee’s (since closed) seminary (though not as a seminarian). They had a grand total of SIX seminarians at various stages of seminary enrollment and their typical dropout rate was 50%. The powers that ran the place effectively screened candidates and classified anybody who actually believed in catholicism (as traditionally defined) as “rigid” and refused them entry. Worse, it’s my understanding that this classification went in a sort of case file that is typically referenced if the person goes and tries to discern at another seminary, a sort of blacklist if you will.

This family member of mine has not been the same since.
 
manualman said:
At the time this article was written, I had a close family member enrolled in the Master’s of Divinity program in Milwaukee’s (since closed) seminary (though not as a seminarian). They had a grand total of SIX seminarians at various stages of seminary enrollment and their typical dropout rate was 50%. The powers that ran the place effectively screened candidates and classified anybody who actually believed in catholicism (as traditionally defined) as “rigid” and refused them entry. Worse, it’s my understanding that this classification went in a sort of case file that is typically referenced if the person goes and tries to discern at another seminary, a sort of blacklist if you will.

This family member of mine has not been the same since.
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How sad and messed up. It sounds as though this sort of thing was not at all uncommon in the '80s and '90s.
 
manualman said:
At the time this article was written, I had a close family member enrolled in the Master’s of Divinity program in Milwaukee’s (since closed) seminary (though not as a seminarian). They had a grand total of SIX seminarians at various stages of seminary enrollment and their typical dropout rate was 50%. The powers that ran the place effectively screened candidates and classified anybody who actually believed in catholicism (as traditionally defined) as “rigid” and refused them entry. Worse, it’s my understanding that this classification went in a sort of case file that is typically referenced if the person goes and tries to discern at another seminary, a sort of blacklist if you will.

This family member of mine has not been the same since.
Click to expand...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rembert_Weakland

Cough, cough :rolleyes:

Its no wonder they had to bring in Archbishop Dolan to fix a mess of that size…
 
The priesthood is just about extict. No suprise as this was prophesied in scripture.
 
The future of the priesthood is good in my area. My Diocese currently have 35 seminarians on different stages of formation. God willing all be ordained.
 
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