Although it will never reach the national best seller list, or join the works of John Grisham and the exploits of Harry Potter, a recent book by the president of an archdiocesan seminary has made quite a stir among Catholic clergy and church watchers during the past few months. “The Changing Face of the Priesthood”, authored by Donald Cozzens and published by the Liturgical Press, addresses the shifting identity as well as maturity and integrity of priests, with comments on priest shortage, aging of clergy, the question of celibacy, the percentage of gay priests, the increasing conservatism among younger priests and seminarians and the small but devastating number guilty of pedophilia and related abuse. At his home diocese of Cleveland the priests’ senate proposed that Fr. Cozzens be censored and removed as head of the seminary; around the country the almost universal reaction was that he just wrote about what everyone is already thinking and already knows and believes. Tomorrow (August 21) nineteen priests of our diocese are spending an afternoon together discussing the book, but we are certainly not the only ones talking about, and even disagreeing about, the state of the priesthood.

When the U.S. Bishops met in June they confronted for the first time (!) as a body the priest shortage and strategies to combat it. One bishop stated, “The best kept secret is the shortage of priests. We have kept it from the laity. We have covered it up in every way imaginable and pretend it doesn’t exist”. Meanwhile another archbishop suggested that “we stop talking about the shortage of priests” since “it gives a bad impression” and “discourages the laity”.

Here are a few basic facts about priests and the U.S. Church which has approximately 50 million members and 19,000 parishes. The average number of Catholics per parish is 3,100 (here at Christ the King we are at least three or four times that).

While the total number of priests is 46,700, there are only 27,000 active parish priests with a national priest-Catholic ratio of 1 to 2,185 that is far higher in the west where startling growth and great ethnic diversity combine. Two thousand three hundred and thirty-four parishes have no resident priest and 437 parishes are officially “pastored” by a lay person or deacon. Since at least 1980 the number of ordinations has not kept up with the number of priests’ deaths. Departures from the priesthood have further reduced members by about 400 per year during the last five years of the century. Meanwhile the average age of the clergy (currently 57 for diocesan priests and 63 for religious) continues to climb. Some bishops blamed the culture and parents for not encouraging vocations. Together the bishops called for more intense vocation and recruiting programs. Privately other bishops felt that some dioceses with numerous seminarians are not adequately screening their candidates. Those that conducted the study and discussion said that ordination of married men or women did not come up for discussion.

I’m sure I’ll get some fresh ideas and insights at discussion of Fr. Cozzen’s book, but right now I see four steps that we need to take: (1) increased development and involvement of laity in the ministries and leadership of the Church – so that it is not priests alone but the Church together that is responsible for the life of the Church; (2) frank and open discussion of the challenges and problems of priesthood – so that denial and optimism do not replace realism and truth; (3) prayers for and encouragement of vocations to priesthood, lay ministry and religious life: (4) maintaining and, in most cases, actually raising the standards for acceptance in seminary and accountability in priest ministry- so that quality rather than sheer numbers be our first goal.

Your Pastor,
Brian T. Joyce