I know we have been told for years that there are no vocations and that there is an immanent priest-shortage. Generally within the same breath people who assure us this let us know that we need to ordain married men, women, and have “greater lay participation. By the latter, as near as I can tell, they are generally pushing for a “clericalization of the laity”… No one who participates at Mass on the altar or in prayer in the pew can be said to NOT have great participation…
Anywho, for as long as people have been willing to listen to me, I have maintained that there ARE vocations, there IS growth, and that there will ALWAYS be a “vocations shortage” inasmuch as the field will always be ripe and we will never have enough workers. In other words, we can always use more!
But lest anyone think that we are not getting more or that there are none out there, take a look at these two stories.
VATICAN CITY, FEB. 29, 2008 (Zenit.org)From year-end 2005 to year-end 2006, the latest date for which numbers are available,, the number of Catholics in the world increased from 1.115 billion to 1.131 billion, a growth of 1.4%.
Over the same period, the number of bishops grew to 4,898 from 4,841, an increase of 1.2%.The number of religious and diocesan priests passed from 406,411 in 2005 to 407,262 in 2006 (a growth of 0.21%).
The number of priests has grown steadily from 2000 to 2006.However, the distribution of priests differs from continent to continent. Their numbers have fallen in Europe and America, and increased in Africa and Asia.
Students of philosophy and theology in diocesan and religious seminaries number 115,480, an increase of 0.9% from year-end 2005 to year-end 2006.Read the rest here.
Of course it goes without saying that as they rise, inquiries have to rise… More on that:
Catholic News Agency STAFF, Feb 29, 2008 (CNA).- A new survey has revealed that Catholic religious communities in the United States have increased the number of individuals they have in initial formation by 30 percent. Furthermore, 62 percent of communities participating in the survey reported an increase in vocation inquiries last year.The figures come from the VocationMatch.com Second Annual Survey on Trends in Religious Vocation. The survey was sponsored by VISION Vocation Guide and published by TrueQuest Communications of Chicago on behalf of the National Religious Vocation Conference.
The results come from surveys of 1096 discerners, of whom 320 responded, and 476 vocation directors, of whom 225 responded. Researchers also examined and compared, inquirer profiles, using 3,422 profiles from late 2007 to mid-2008 and 5,591 profiles from late 2006 to mid-2007. (READ ALL…)
H/T: Room With A View
H/T: Roman Catholic Vocations
David Bennett
Jennifer
asimplesinner
Fr. J.
Chad T.
Jorge Flores
Jonathan B
carmelbennett
nicenehobbit
Jason S
jaybird68
papaz
Dave Hartline
faceman
Don’t forget — the St. Louis Archdiocese is currently in the process of raising funds to double the size of the seminary because they have such an overflow of vocations! The tide is turning and the Church is winning!!
[...] Boston (and that despite its recently checquered history), and Madison. (Indeed, a commenter on Per Christum noted that the Diocese of St. Louis is now raising funds to double the size of their seminary.) [...]