The average Roman Catholic priest being ordained in 2008 is 37 years old, white and born in the U.S. He was raised by two Catholic parents, attended Catholic elementary school, worked a full-time job before entering the seminary, and a friend or classmate has tried to talk him out of joining the priesthood.
Since 1998, the U.S. bishops’ conference has been keeping tabs on men entering the priesthood through yearly surveys. This year’s class, which includes 401 potential ordinands (335 responded to the survey), largely continues recent trends. Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate conducted the survey for the bishops.
Though the survey did not mention it, the 2008 class–particularly its size–also exhibits the church’s steep decline in vocations. In 2000 the church ordained 442 priests.
Men, especially those joining religious orders, are entering the priesthood later in life. Half of the ordinands are 34 or older; the average age is 37; among men joining religious orders it’s 39; priests ordained for dioceses on average are 36.
And I’ll bet they’re mostly faithful to the Magisterium and reviving traditional Catholic practices, like nocturnal adoration and public novenas. I’ve had occasion to know many RC priests, and the older ones (the Vatican II generation) refer to these younger ones derisively as “John Paul priests.”
Well I say, God bless the John Paul priests! They’re one of the reasons I joined up!
I am a member of a RCC “training parish”. That is, priests just out of the seminary are assigned to us working as the parochial vicar under the guidance of our parish priest . I have seen a new priest every year, and each and every one has been very orthodox and very, very inspiring. Most have been older …. as the article has stated. They are mature and thoughtful and so very, very dedicated. They have amazing backgrounds.
One interesting thing: Mexico will not accept older men as seminarians and so they are coming here. Again, these men bring tremendous gifts. We miss them when they are assigned to their new parishes.