Ministry News

Mamas Don't Let Their Babies Grow Up to Be Priests

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Friday, 24 April 2009 15:14

Church growth, no matter how it's defined, typically starts with leadership. With this in mind, a recent study of Catholic priests in the United States is shedding plenty of light on declining numbers in the Roman Catholic Church.

Almost 45 percent of priests seeking ordination this year say they were discouraged from going into the priesthood, according to a survey of 310 priests by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University. Yet exactly who was offering the persuasive advice is just as telling of the change in this nation's spiritual climate. Almost 60 percent of priests said a mother, father or other family member had discouraged them, while 51 percent said they'd received the same negative input from a friend or classmate. (Respondents could select more than one category on the survey.)

In the last five years, the number of Catholic priests in the U.S. has dropped by almost 5,000 to a total of 40,600 in 2008, and the trend that's been continuing since the 1970s. [Religion News Service, 4/22/09]