Dear sinkspur,
"Even 'orthodox dioceses' are not recruiting sufficient numbers of men to replace those who leave, retire, and die."
We are in Washington. Since the coming of Cardinal McCarrick, vocations have doubled here in Washington, going from about 5 per year (which would lead to an overall decline of priests of perhaps 20% or more) to 9 and 10 per year. Interestingly, seminary entries have increased beyond that, but the full effect hasn't shown up yet, because we appear to still be in the upswing. Even at 10 per year, we will eventually see about a 15% increase in the number of diocesan priests in the archdiocese. However, if ordinations increase proportionately with entries to the seminary, we will, in a few years, be ordaining about 15 priests per year, which will eventually result in an increase of about 50% in the numbers of diocesan priests in our archdiocese.
In the short term, though, the number of diocesan priests will fall, as we have a big bulge of folks who are approaching retirement age (or who have even exceeded it, and have not yet retired).
At least at the present time, the Archdiocese of Washington appears to be moving out of a vocations dearth.
As a side note, there were about 800 seminarians at the Mass at the MCI Center prior to the March for Life in Washington, DC. This must account, I'm guessing, for about 1 out of every 5 or 6 seminiarians in the United States. This, to me, is evidence of the growing orthodoxy of our newer priests.
Blessed be God forever.
sitetest
**As a side note, there were about 800 seminarians at the Mass at the MCI Center prior to the March for Life in Washington, DC. This must account, I'm guessing, for about 1 out of every 5 or 6 seminiarians in the United States. This, to me, is evidence of the growing orthodoxy of our newer priests.**
Oh, what good news!!!!!
Thank you, God, for the gift of these seminarians!
"In the short term, though, the number of diocesan priests will fall, as we have a big bulge of folks who are approaching retirement age (or who have even exceeded it, and have not yet retired)."
This "big bulge" you speak of seems to be a major factor which accentuates the crisis, and makes it appear worse than it really is.
There was a massive flood of men entering the seminary across the developed world following World War II and all our diocesan structures and numbers of parishes were built around these inflated numbers as though they were normal.
To some extent the decline in vocations is little more than a return to the trend prior to the war, although it is exacerbated in particularly corrupt dioceses.