Why is there a shortage of priests?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Epistemes
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
E

Epistemes

Guest
As the subject line says, why is there such a shortage of vocations to the priesthood?

I tend to think that God is calling me to the priesthood, but unfortunately my financial situation right now more or less prohibits me from acting on that, from attending seminary, etc. Maybe in six years I’ll see what the Holy Spirit is saying.
 
Epistemes said:
As the subject line says, why is there such a shortage of vocations to the priesthood?

I tend to think that God is calling me to the priesthood, but unfortunately my financial situation right now more or less prohibits me from acting on that, from attending seminary, etc. Maybe in six years I’ll see what the Holy Spirit is saying.
Click to expand...
Because families today are smaller and few encourage their few 1 to three children to consider Religious life. Instead the preparation is on career, business, preparing for the world, etc.

Religion is no longer mentioned in public schools where the majority of career choices are fostered.
 
Br.Rich_SFO said:
Because families today are smaller and few encourage their few 1 to three children to consider Religious life. Instead the preparation is on career, business, preparing for the world, etc.

Religion is no longer mentioned in public schools where the majority of career choices are fostered.
Click to expand...
Not to mention Society’s preoccupation with sex. Priesthood=no sex…ever.

More than a few diocesessessss haven’t done any favors in this area either…allowing the priestly abuses to get to the point where it had…and the negative publicity and general lowering of the social status of priests over the years.

Many factors involved…
 
Epistemes said:
As the subject line says, why is there such a shortage of vocations to the priesthood?

I tend to think that God is calling me to the priesthood, but unfortunately my financial situation right now more or less prohibits me from acting on that, from attending seminary, etc. Maybe in six years I’ll see what the Holy Spirit is saying.
Click to expand...
Have you made your sense of calling known to the local vocations director? If not, I say do so. Discerning a call is a two-part thing. Interior call (what you are describing), and exterior call (the Church dtermines this which, incidently, is why women who discern a call to be priests are wrong). The process will usually ferret out if you are called or not.

Incidently, statistically, there are places where there are no priest shortages, or at least are less of a problem: dioceses that are explicitly faithful to traditional Church teaching and practice. The loopy ones are always scrounging because why join something indistinguishable from the usual it’s-all-good teenager theology, Up with People or a Mary Kay seminar? As I’ve heard, a diocese gets no more or no less vocations than it deserves.
 
Western society is not one to embrace sacrifice or to acknowledge the redemptive aspects of suffering. Priesthood, as viewed through a Western viewpoint, offers little more than heaping helpings of both.
  1. You spend a lot of your life in higher education, yet don’t make the salary to “justify” it.
  2. You are “forced” to give up marriage and children.
  3. You spend your time (hopefully) upholding some very hard teachings of an institution that is embarrassingly archaic and refuses to morph into a reflection of the times.
None of these things are activities that are valued by the Western secular culture. And since, as another poster pointed out, most Catholic families are the same size as the average Western family, and there is little promotion of the good that priests do (and much of the lurid), many families are unwilling to effectively promote religious vocations.

Personally, I think every single Catholic should spiritually adopt a priest or other religious and offer sacrifices and prayers for them every single day, since the lack of support they get from all aspects of society is appalling.
 
Because so many current priests and bishops are weak and do not encourage it. I’ve rarely heard a priest talk about the need for vocations during a homily and most people I know who were subjected to Catholic school in this area ended up leaving the faith altogether.
 
Well, for one thing, more people like the idea of occupational mobility. Something like 10-12% of the working populations changes occupations each year. Contrast that to a challenging vocation that you must commit to for life.

Minor seminaries and Catholic girls’ schools have all but disappeared, replaced with co-educational schools. Fewer priests and religious are available to fill teaching positions, from grade school through high school. Daily contact with the role models for the priesthood and religious life isn’t there, while daily contact with prospective spouses has taken its place. Meanwhile, the “college prep” aspect of Catholic high schools has increased relative to the “Catholic” aspect.

There are many more professional positions of status available now. You don’t have to come from a rich family to hope to become a doctor. (Some graduates of Harvard Medical School used to advise those following in their footsteps to marry a rich girl!) Instead of rich young men of academic ability sacrificing a high standard of living to become doctors, less affluent young people aspire to a higher standard of living by aiming toward medical school. Since the advent of penicillin and technogical advances, the prospect of how much of a difference you can make as a physician has advanced…and you get the wife and kids, too!

Because fewer people go to confession regularly or take their kids to confession regularly, and because catechesis concerning the Mass has lost ground, the appreciation of what huge difference a priest make has taken a serious hit in the meantime. As for sisters, you don’t have to enter a convent to be a teacher or a nurse for a lifetime. You can marry and keep on working in those helping fields…and with the husband and kids, too!

Increasing financial prosperity has shifted family values from the spiritual to material. Far fewer Catholics practice the faith at home on a daily basis. For a variety of reasons, more parental hours per week are devoted to career demands. As noted, parents encourage their kids to produce grandchildren, and have fewer children to produce those grandkids. Sadly, parents who encourage kids to enter the priesthood or religious life are not only more rare, but those who actively discourage it are more prevalent.

Modernist sentiments, which reduce religion to a merely psycgological phenomenon, are more prevalent in society. Societal forces, the media and the entertainment industries in particular, are more suspicious and less admiring of clergy and religious, and even openly mock these groups, which used to be held in respect and some affection, even among non-Catholics. The separation of church and state has swung to the point of excluding religious thought from the public square. This diminishes the importance of profesional religious, as well.

In other words, I think the perception among the young can easily be that you give up more than what they would have thought you give up in th past, while what you become is percieved to be less than it used to be thought to be.
 
People younger than I am don’t recall the effect of ‘church climbing’–that is, if you become a priest or nun, you can do a lot better than the rest of your family. This is especially true if you came from a large poor immigrant family, with no hope of a college education or anything other than the menial work of your father or the drudgery of endless child-bearing of your mother. But becoming a sister meant a college-education–eventually-- real respect in the community and a respected job as a teacher or nurse–as a priest, even better, much better. I knew a Passionist priest who had a sibling who lost six children in a fire–who probably lived in a slum. The priest lived in a nice monastery. The most famous church climber of our time was Angelo Roncalli–Pope John XXIII–the oldest of a large peasant family in Italy, who was recognized by his parish priest as being very bright, and recommended to the local seminary–the rest is history. His siblings remained poor illiterate peasants, which he might have been had not the local priest intervened.

Most Catholics now are in the middle class and don’t have to enter religious life and give up a spouse and a family to achieve success.

Men are in the post need of a spouse and children–a family. A priest can’t rely on a large friendly extended family anymore–they are fewer in number, scattered, and may not want to include “Father --” in their activities, particularly if they don’t agree with the church. So a life of overworked loneliness awaits.
 
Cari said:
Western society is not one to embrace sacrifice or to acknowledge the redemptive aspects of suffering. Priesthood, as viewed through a Western viewpoint, offers little more than heaping helpings of both.
  1. You spend a lot of your life in higher education, yet don’t make the salary to “justify” it.
  2. You are “forced” to give up marriage and children.
  3. You spend your time (hopefully) upholding some very hard teachings of an institution that is embarrassingly archaic and refuses to morph into a reflection of the times.
None of these things are activities that are valued by the Western secular culture. And since, as another poster pointed out, most Catholic families are the same size as the average Western family, and there is little promotion of the good that priests do (and much of the lurid), many families are unwilling to effectively promote religious vocations.

Personally, I think every single Catholic should spiritually adopt a priest or other religious and offer sacrifices and prayers for them every single day, since the lack of support they get from all aspects of society is appalling.
Click to expand...
I also think that the priest is too often seen as something of a “foreign” substance, elevated or separated from the everyday so much that one has a difficult time identifying with them or thinking of oneself as potentially among their membership.

That said, (and there are a LOT of reasons why there is a seeming shortage), I want to concur with the underlying idea expressed in this post. Allow me to summarize it thusly: we (in the U.S.) live in a society which is highly Calvinistic. This doesn’t foster an attitude which includes the kind of Catholic principles which are essential to sustain the Catholic priesthood. In Europe, they have another problem, one of radical relativism which makes the Church irrelevant.
 
:newidea: I think you all have given very valid reasons why there is a shortage of priests and nuns. The main one being people nowadays don’t want to sacrifice or endure hardships and anytime things don’t work out like in marriage so they get a divorce, instead of working things out.I think you all know what I’m trying to say. new religious communities are springing up all the time, and those who stay true to the tradtions of the Church and her teachings do seem to get candidates while others are forced to amalgamate or die out for whatever reason.
Yes,I’ve heard of Church climbing.Being the village priest in Europe in the old days meant something just as you posted.
I have relatives on my dad’s side in Germany who are priests and nuns.But from german records the family tended to climb more in the secular realm, like being burgermeisters , officers in the military,etc.

Today,being a priest doesn’t mean much,and certainly not in America. And the sex abuse and other scandals in the church don’t help.And it doesn’t seem like there is much encouragement for vocations in diocese as someone pointed out.
And there aren’t the priests and sisters around today like in years past.Plus,half the time you can’t tell if they are a member of the clergy anyways.
When my great aunt died at the age of 99,the School Sisters of Notre Dame sent us some photos and things that belonged to her.
One of the photos was of a young priest.He had been a student of hers.I don’t know what my great aunt,Sister Generose did to make him decide to be a priest,but it must have been something mighty powerful,in the way she acted and behaved .The Holy Spirit must have been working through her for sure.
And that’s what’s needed.More religious out there to show how wonderful a life lived in Christ can be.
 
1234 said:
…Most Catholics now are in the middle class and don’t have to enter religious life and give up a spouse and a family to achieve success…
Click to expand...
Success. We’re getting more like that camel, trying to get through the eye of a needle…
 
Three possibilities:
  1. God isn’t calling as many.
  2. Our ears aren’t open to the call.
  3. Our hearts aren’t obedient.
My guess is God is still calling. But we probably don’t hear Him because we aren’t used to listening to Him. We don’t think He talks to us any more, and we aren’t sitting on the edge of our seats, just waiting for God to put us in the game. So, when he calls our name, we miss the call.

Or, we hear the call, but “value” our lives too much to hand them over to Him. Being “sold out” to Christ just looks too weird.

A lot falls on families. How many parents do you know who actively encourage their kids to be open to vocations? (Priests are great…but it’s not for MY kid).

By the way, the problem is not only a shortage of priests. It is a shortage of “faithful.” We’re not bad – just not passionately committed.

Here’s a suggestion (not a solution, just a suggestion). The next time you are at Mass, let your eyes go over the congregation. Ask God to show you who He might pick to be a priest or nun. Then commit to pray for that person, regularly. Even (especially) if that person is your own son or daughter.

We’ll get more priests when we in the pews get into the fight!
 
I think it has a lot to do with the prayer life and spirituality of the local church. I live in the Diocese of Lafayette-in-Indiana and were going to have 28 seminarians this year, with about 7 of them starting studies this year, and a record year for our seminarian fund appeal. So things here are looking up while some dioceses aren’t having as many answered calls
 
i’m probably repeating …

but i think it is becaue this society values materialism and sex…

that is ALL i ever see on TV… esp that last one…

unless i watch educational shows but it is often even there…

i also think that there is not enough time spent by Catholics before the Blessed Sacrament… To be in Christ’s real Presence is… well… what words can i use?? 😦

If more people actually knew Christ, maybe they wouldn’t be s o reluctant to devote their lives to Him and his Church…
 
Epistemes said:
As the subject line says, why is there such a shortage of vocations to the priesthood?
Click to expand...
I tend to believe the #1 cause is because those who should be asking for priests are NOT.

As it stands right now, the ratio of priests to laity is about the same as it was in 1900.

There has ALWAYS been more work than workers, this will not change. But in the near future, I expect the sharp upturn in vibrant young vocations to increase, dramatically.
 
God calls who He wants. There is a shortage of priests for a reason. Personally, I believe God was calling fewer for about three to four decades so we laymen (and women - certainly don’t want to offend anyone on here) get off our butts and participate in parish life, including taking charge of our own community (parish). The priest(s) cannot do everything and should not have to. He is human you know! It’s about time we run the finances, educate the kids, feed the poor, visit the sick and imprisoned, help the lame, and love everyone. I think God’s Church learned a lot over the last several years. We cannot sit idle in society and rely on the priest to be our only model of goodness. We are all called to serve God’s people. Mother Theresa is our best example of a modern laymen (non-cleric) to take charge and create peace and love. We need to follow her example and the example of Pope John Paul II. God is now providing more priests/seminarians today than in the past several years. Many seminaries are up slightly (or drastically) in numbers. I know the undergraduate seminary program at the University of Notre Dame (Old College) is at full capacity. …and many other orders also continue to do well. So, maybe we learned from this experience? …or are continuing to learn.

Just my two cents!

Peace of Christ to all!
 
Maybe because people don’t want priests.

Look at the Dioceses with few priests, is there a real desire from the ones in charge and the ones involved for Priests? I am in a Diocese with a shortage of Priests, we constantly have people advocating female priests, married priests and lay people doing the work of Priests. Our parish administrator does virtually nothing for vocations, she would love to be a Priest and having another seminarian goes against her desire to be a Priest.

Having a shortage is good for her having too many Priests is bad for what she wants. Now multiply that out around a diocese and you will see part of the problem.

There are many who actively desire a crisis, a shortage of Priests.

Now what percentage of those people who are involved who want married priests\woman priests work hard to help out with vocations, knowing that more vocations go against the married priests, woman priest movement?

Couple all that with a Church that has lost it’s Catholic identity across most of the country, a society that doesn’t holy Catholic values and the active contraceptive mentality of many Catholics and you will have fewer Priests.

We need to rediscover the Catholic faith which many discarded about 40 or so years ago, but with a renewed vigor as Vatican II intended.

God Bless
Scylla
 
I believe that there are many good reasons posted above for the decline in vocations to the priesthood. There is one that has not been mentioned.

Perfectae Caritatis mandated that religious communities rediscover their original charism and the intents of their founders.

Prior to Vatican II many religious communities of men had become communities of parish priests, for many reasons that we won’t discuss here.

When these communities went back to their roots they realized that they had to do two things:
  1. They had to stop placing men in parishes. They were not founded for that purpose. Many were founded to live as contemplatives, itinerant preachers, youth ministers, educators, missionaries, scholars or to serve the Church in other ministries that were not parishes.
  2. Some religious communities realized that they were ordaining too many men. They were not founded as communities of priests. They were communities of Brothers, such as all the Franciscan Friars of the First Order. Vocation Directors and Major Superiors had to tell young men that the reason for entering the community was to be a Brother, not a priest. This turned off many young men who wanted to be priests in certain orders.
They had to explain to young men who came inquiring that they must first demonstrate a vocation to the religious life, undergo many years of formation to make final vows as religious and only after they were committed to the Order until death, could they be considered for the priesthood. They had to inform these young men that the final determination whether a man had a vocation to the priesthood or not was made by a joint vote between the religious house where the individual religious resided and the Major Religious Superior.

In other words, a man would be a religious, bound for life to the religious order and could be denied ordination by a vote of his brothers or his religious superior.

Even if he was allowed to be ordained, the order made no guarrantees that he would serve in a parish, these orders are not orders of parish priests. They continue to be orders of brothers. A man could be ordained and be assigned to be a high school teacher or to perform some ministry within the community that does not involve the laity.

In addition many communities of men returned to their original infrastructure. Those religious who were priests were no longer in charge of the order. Every religious can be a superior, hold any office in the community, perform any ministry except sacramental ministries and get as much education as he needs to perform his ministry. In many communities, a Religious Brother can be the superior of the Order, the region or the house and need not be a priest.

As the religious communities of men return to their roots, the possibilities for serving the Church are broader than they were before Vatican II. They have now recovered their founder’s intentions and the mission for which they were founded. This means that they need not become priests to serve the Church as religious. It also means that the community can regulate the number of men who become priests to keep their religious congregation from turning into a congregation of priests.

I recently read an article by one of the General Superiors of the Capuchin Franciscans entitled Just A Brother. It was very interesting. The friar was reminding the members of the Order that their primary vocation is to be Religious Brothers as was St. Francis. And he encourages them to focus on the primacy of community life over ministry.

This is another reason why we see less priests in parishes, especially priests who belong to religious communities. For example: you don’t see one of Mother Teresa’s priests in a parish, a Trappist Monk who’s a priest, a Franciscan Friars of the Eternal Word, Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, Little Brothers of the Poor, and less and less Capuchin Franciscan Friars.

The Major Superiors will not commit themselves to parish ministry as long as their are other ministries that are other ministries that allow the religious to live community life first.

I think the laity has to get used to the idea that many religious orders were founded to live as Brothers, not to take care of our needs 24/7. In part, the withdrawal of religious who are priests from our parishes is as much the fault of the laity as the fault of the religious.

The laity doesn’t want to take up pastoral responsibilities and wants the religious to lead it all. The religious did not do a good job at helping the laity understand that their priests were there to support the local bishop and the local diocesan clergy, but that they could not sacrifice their community life any more than married persons or parents can sacrifice their families for the sake of the apostolate. Religious have their own family that comes first. They have their own vocation and it’s not always to serve the laity in parishes. This was done in the past because the United States was a mission country and the Church needed priests to serve the Europeans who came over. We are no longer a mission of Europe.

Here is one more reason why we have less priests in our parishes.

Fraternally,

JR 🙂
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top