Solving the vocation crisis inside the Catholic Church should be based on what is currently working, not on abstract progressive ideas unlinked to reality. Once success is defined, vocation directors should target those most likely to be priests.
A recent report to the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) defines who is attracted to the priesthood today. The study found that “this year’s average candidate [for the priesthood] is a 34-year-old cradle Catholic who regularly prayed the Rosary and went to Eucharistic adoration before entering seminary.”
Such findings coincide with other surveys that found that the liberal progressive priest among the newly-ordained is practically extinct. Most new priests define themselves as either conservative or very conservative. Priests want to be priests, not social workers, activists or community organizers.
Long gone are the images of the activist priests of the sixties and seventies, who failed to capture the imagination of young Catholic men. The number of seminarians at that time plummeted.
The report to the USCCB, titled “The Class of 2024: Survey of Ordinands to the Priesthood,” is a solid sign that times are changing. The survey questioned 309 ordinands, men who are scheduled for ordination sometime during the year 2025. The results are eye-opening.
The first and most significant finding is that over three-quarters of the men preparing for ordination (78%) participated in Eucharistic adoration regularly before entering the seminary.
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Those who participate in this devotion understand its implications. First, it implies that these men not only know about the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation but that it played a definable role in their lives as they contemplated their vocations. When these men are deployed into a Church where only one-third of members believe this ageless and essential doctrine, the effect must be positive.
Closely related to the first important finding is that almost three-quarters regularly prayed the Rosary. Perhaps the most succinct assessment of this excellent trend appeared in a recent article in the National Catholic Register.
“Satan hates the Rosary. He hates Mary. He hates the Gospel. He hates God. He hates Christ the Lord. He hates the Lord’s Prayer. He hates the Hail Mary. He hates you. Every time you pray the Rosary, because of what I outlined above, you are entering the territory that he wants to claim as his own…—you take that from him.”
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A priest armed with a Rosary is a powerful part of the Church militant.
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The third important finding is that these men made informed decisions. The average respondent will be thirty-four years old at the time of his ordination. He began considering the priesthood at the age of sixteen. That means he spent more than half of his life discerning his vocation. In a culture as impatient as modern America, taking eighteen years to make a single decision, no matter how important, is virtually unknown. His vows are not mere whims to jettison at the first breeze of temptation. He knows what he is doing, what he is giving up and, above all, what he is gaining.
Buttressing all those years of decision are the experiences gained during the years of discernment. Two-thirds (66 percent) of the Ordinands worked full-time in a non-church-related workplace. Almost that many (63 percent) completed either a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree before entering the seminary. These men are not abandoning the prospect of a life they never knew but embracing a life with rewards they cannot imagine.
Having spent so much time and effort attaining the priesthood, these young men are better equipped to deal with the constant temptation to abandon their vocations. They are less likely to diminish the authority and role of the priest through their own teachings and actions. From the nadir of the sixties, the priesthood as an institution has been bouncing back despite the negative influence of postmodern culture, and these young men are an essential part of that process.
Vocations directors everywhere should take note and target young men with these pious habits and positions. It’s working.
Photo Credit: © August Hagborg, CC BY 4.0