58 French Dioceses Have No Ordinations This Year

The Catholic Herald (UK) ^ | 7/4/18 | Staff Reporter

[marshmallow]

Traditionalist priests now account for 20 per cent of ordinations in France

The number of new ordinations in France has fallen this year, from 133 in 2017 to 114.

According to figures from La Croix, 82 of these new priests are diocesan, while the rest are members of various orders and societies of apostolic life.

Paris and Bordeaux are the dioceses with most ordinations – six each – however, this still marks a considerable decline for Paris, which had 10 in 2017 and 11 in 2016.

Lyon, Versailles and Fréjus-Toulon follow with five each, then Evry with four.

However, a total of 58 dioceses had no ordinations at all.

In contrast, the “traditionalist” communities, where priests primarily celebrate Mass in the Old Rite, are continuing to grow. La Croix calculates that 20 per cent of new priests this year come from communities classed as “traditional” or “classical”.

These include three ordinations for the Institute of the Good Shepherd, two for the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter (FSSP) and two for the Institute of Christ the King. Younger priests are particularly well-represented among these groups.

[Bishop_Malachi]

I need to redouble my prayers that the RCC has a revolution and returns to the Faith of our fathers. I suppose I’ve just assumed that it’s a lost cause due to the present Magisterium and Pope. Still, I pray against all hope that it is revived.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

The french have not been majority Christian of any stripe since the revolution.

It is a mission field and should be treated as such.

[Retvet]

Why should anyone become ordained in the Catholic church when the Popes statements on global warming prove, yes prove he doesn’t have faith in God?

[irishjuggler]

The Bergoglio Effect. This papacy has been toxic to vocations.

[Salvation]

Prayers for these Bishops. Something is wrong in their dioceses and they are not fixing it with a Director of Vocations.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

The Catholic church used to rely on recruiting “second sons” of families, as it was an alternative employment for them since the first sons would inherit the entire estate.

These days, their best bet would be to recruit young boys from the ghettos of the world, offering them an education and employment with the idea of their becoming some level of clergy, with a small stipend to their family to help them rise from poverty while their son is training.

A sensible way of doing this would be to recreate all the tiers of clergy that used to exist, as only some of them would eventually achieve holy orders. The rest would get support roles, whose value is underappreciated.

[Falconspeed]

“to recreate all the tiers of clergy that used to exist...”
Excellent plan. Thanks. True.
Sad how all the minor orders have been reduced to two: deacon and priest.

[Buckeye McFrog]

France has been a radically agnostic country, almost since the day the blood dried on the guillotines.

[pbear8]

The Catholic church used to rely on recruiting “second sons” of families, as it was an alternative employment for them since the first sons would inherit the entire estate

That sounds much more like the Anglican church.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

It was already common in the time of the Teutonic order in the late 12th and early 13th Centuries, who provided both knights and clergy, usually of 2nd and 3rd sons, in support of the Crusades.

They were strongly funded by bequests from Christian leaders, which mattered, since funding was one of the limits of military anything at the time, eventually leading to hiring mercenaries to fight wars as they were far cheaper than having a standing army.