On the one hand, the core role of the priest is clear and never-changing. On the other, there has been a dramatic change in what priests do and in the presence of priests within the Catholic Church in the United States.

Think about a priest in 1950 and think about one today. In 1950 there were 652 Catholics per priest, most of whom were in active ministry. By 2000, there were 1,257 Catholics per priest, and nearly a third of all priests are retired or over the age of 70.

Today, priests collaborate in ministry with a wide variety of specialized lay ecclesial ministers and deacons who serve as Directors of Religious Education, youth ministers, pastoral associates, and many other roles. Of the more than 19,000 Catholic parishes in the United States, a little more than 4,000 have more than one priest. On the other hand, over 2,000 parishes have a pastor who simultaneously pastors another parish. Another 8,000 parishes are served by a single priest-pastor who pastors no other parish.

Frequently Requested Church Statistics
	1965	1975	1985	1995	2005	2007
Diocesan priests	35,925	36,005	35,052	32,349	28,702	27,971
Religious priests	22,707	22,904	22,265	16,705	14,137	13,478
Total priests	58,632	58,909	57,317	49,054	42,839	41,449
Priestly ordinations	994	771	533	511	454	456
Graduate level seminarians	8,325	5,279	4,063	3,172	3,308	3,274
Permanent deacons	---	898	7,204	10,932	14,574	15,409
Religious brothers	12,271	8,625	7,544	6,535	5,451	5,015
Religious sisters	179,954	135,225	115,386	90,809	68,634	63,699
Parishes	17,637	18,515	19,244	19,331	18,891	18,634
Without a resident priest	549	702	1,051	2,161	3,251	3,238
Catholic population in millions	45.6	48.7	52.3	57.4	64.8	64.4
Percent of US population	24%	23%	23%	23%	23%	22%

Priests live in their parish communities—typically the same building where parish offices are located, "above the store" so to speak, often with a minimum of privacy. Almost all diocesan priests in active parish ministry are on call 24 hours a day—more than 90 percent, according to one recent survey of priests conducted by CARA, the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.

From 1970 to the present, the total number of priests fell by 20,000, or one-third of the total number of priests in 1970. Yet priests' dedication to their people has dramatically cushioned this remarkable reduction in numbers. As a result, almost all Catholics say they are aware that there are fewer priests, but only one in four report that this has affected them (CARA Catholic Poll 2000).

Like Protestant seminarians, Catholic seminarians are now spread across the entire age range. More than a third of seminarians are over the age of 35. Combined with fewer vocations to priesthood in general, this means that there are now dramatically fewer priests under the age of 35. In 1965, one in five of all active diocesan priests were under 35. By 2000, fewer than one in twenty active diocesan priests were under 35. Priests are older today and there are simply fewer priests to whom they can turn for assistance and support.

Today, more than any time in the past generation, priests who serve a diocese are a mini United Nations. About 20 percent of them were born outside the United States, not merely outside the diocese in which they minister. When priests get together today, they need to be sensitive to the different accents and different food preferences of their brother priests as well as the different kinds of parish communities and ministry challenges they experience. Cultivating unity within the priests of a diocese is much harder today than in years past.

In spite of all these challenges, priests are not merely satisfied in their ministry; they report being highly satisfied. Only a handful of priests say they would not become a priest if they had it to do all over again. In a survey conducted for the Los Angeles Times, just 7 percent of all priests who were polled felt this way. In a survey conducted by CARA, nearly 9 in 10 of all priests polled said they were happy in their ministry. As many as 93 percent of priests who were formed before the Second Vatican Council, 69 percent who were formed during the Vatican Council, and 78 percent of the youngest generation "strongly disagree" that they have seriously thought about leaving in the five years, according to a CARA poll of priests completed in 2002. This compares to a survey of 5,000 Protestant ministers from the early 1990s where over a third said they had thought of leaving in the past year alone.

This does not mean that Catholic priests do not face huge challenges today. The realities of fewer priests, the pressures and headaches of administration, and the just plain ordinary struggles that have always characterized the human side of the Church are not easy and perhaps are especially challenging today. Yet these morale challenges cannot take away the fact that priests experience something enormously satisfying in helping others, celebrating the sacraments, and preaching, areas they identify as among the greatest joys of priesthood.

In the mid-twentieth century, the greatest increase in priests came from members of religious communities—Jesuits, Franciscans, Benedictines, and many others—as compared to diocesan priests, who ordinarily serve the diocese for which they are ordained and whose primary calling is to serve as parish priests. Fifty years later, the greatest declines in numbers of priests had come from this same group. As a result, according to the study on fewer priests conducted by CARA for the U.S. Bishops' Conference, more than 40 percent of priests 75 years old or older are members of religious communities. Of those age 40 and younger, only about 20 percent belong to religious communities.

During the first half of the 20th century, growth in numbers of priests far exceeded the growth in numbers of Catholics. Between 1900 to 1950, the Catholic population increased by 165 percent while the total number of priests rose by 266 percent. In the second half of the twentieth century, Catholics increased by 107 percent but priests grew in number only by 6 percent.

Most noteworthy perhaps has been the sheer change in scale of the typical parish. In 1900, the average Catholic parish would have had 1,759 Catholics. By 1950, that number had increased to 1,843—but by 2000 the average parish had 3,112 Catholics. Yet the average number of priests serving in the typical parish declined from a small core community of 3-4 priests to a single priest with no natural, resident community of fellow priests.

Today, most diocesan priests live alone. Immigrant priests or others on loan who serve the Eastern Catholic Churches in the United States may be married, and it is commonly said that there are about 75 married priests within the Latin Rite. These are former ministers or priests from other Christian traditions who were accepted for priestly ordination by the Catholic Church.

In conclusion, there are many fewer priests today, particularly if we subtract out retired priests. And yet Mass is celebrated, parish life is attended to, and many Catholics would hardly know that there are significantly fewer priests. Why? The answer has to do with priests themselves. They have responded generously to the call to serve the People of God, often at great personal cost, and with limited acknowledgement or appreciation by the people they serve, whether bishops or parishioners. They continue to work to lift up and serve the People of God through the power of the sacraments and the joy of helping people connect with the sacred in their ordinary, everyday lives.

The sheer giving nature of priests. It's something to celebrate. It's something for which we need to thank God. It's something for which we need to thank priests.


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