[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.

[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!