Italy is full of people who believe in God but who don't believe in priests.1 instead
don't believe in God but do believe in priests..." This was the answer given ten years
ago by the actor and director, Nanni Moretti, of the film <The Mass is Over>, in reply
to a question as to why he had chosen to center his latest film on a priest. The episode is
related in <Il cinema e la fede>, a book recently published by two journalists working
for the <Osservatore romano>. What then might have seemed the anti-conformist view
of an intelligent director is nowadays much more widespread. Ten years ago the figure
of the priest was taken up by advertising which then used it to sell products ranging
from cars to olive oil. There are priests who are opinion-leaders, regularly canvassed by
the press, priests who are regular guests on television programs and sometimes even
act as anchormen, priests hailed by the mass media for their social commitment, for
their work against organized crime, priests who are then slammed by the same mass
media when involved in some squalid sexual scandal the press never fails to
emphasize.
But what is a priest at the present moment? What are his defining features? Is the crisis
of the 1960s over? While the Church is puzzling over the role and training of priests,
getting to the point of establishing that the problems of sexuality and of couples should
be studied in the seminary (as set down in a recent document from the Congregation
for Catholic Education), while various grassroots groups are insistently demanding that
his role needs to be radically reviewed and the traditional rule of celibacy abolished,
we have instead decided to look at the statistics.
The Trend in Ordinations
In 1978 priestly ordinations in the Catholic world numbered 5,918 (3,824 new diocesan
priests and 2,094 religious), 1.42 percent of the overall total of priests. Fifteen years later
in 1993, new ordinations came to 8,734 (6,313 diocesan and only 2,421 religious)
2.19 percent of the total. It was a very positive increase when one remembers that in the
years prior to 1978 there had been a progressive decrease. Over a 15-year period the
number of new priests had grown by 47.6 percent and until 1982 this significant growth
was exclusively owing to an increase in new diocesan priests, given that ordinations of
religious continued to decline up to that year. In 1983, after a decade of continuous
decline, the negative curve for priests belonging to religious orders bottomed out and
there has since been a slow but progressive upswing.
But if these figures are positive, how come that many geographical areas once well-
endowed with priests are suffering from an increasingly glaring lack?
A Debit Account
The numerical gains are not evident because of deaths of elderly clergy and because of
priests leaving. In the last 15 years the death rate has been slowly increasing as a
consequence of aging given the crisis in vocations: 6,748 in 1974 (4,388 diocesan priests
and 2,360 religious, i.e. 1.62 percent), 8,020 in 1993 (5,121 diocesan and 2,899 religious,
2.01 percent). The number of defections, however, has instead noticeably decreased: the
percentage of those who have decided to abandon the cloth has halved and in 1990 it
was 53 percent lower than it was for 1978, even if it has
slowly begun to rise again in the last three years. The "escapees" came to 2,037 in 1978
(1,253 diocesan, 784 religious, 0.49 percent); 1,092 in 1993 (679 diocesan, 413 religious,
0.27 percent). This percentage is by now considered par for the course in calculations
made by the Vatican. Another phenomenon that has recently emerged, in contrast to
the overall drop in the number of defections. is the increase in the number of very
young priests who take their decision in their first or second year of priesthood. The
exact data are not available but the trend is worrying. This was confirmed for
<30DAYS> by Crescenzio Sepe, Secretary of the Congregation for the Clergy and shows
that there is something wrong in the training of young priests.
Hope for the Future
Taking into account the figures for new ordinations, for deaths and for defections, there
was an overall decline in the numbers of priests throughout the world between 1978
and 1993. Fifteen years ago there were 416,329 and in 1993 404,570. But it should be
said that in relative terms the decline is slowing noticeably. If the increase in the
number of ordinations and the trend towards diminution in the number of defections
continue the debit balance should reduce still further, not least because the injection of
new priests will tend to off-set the death rate. These forecasts are backed by the present
trend in priestly vocations. Older seminarians have been increasing in numbers since
1978, to the point where in 1993 they accounted for over 65.5 percent of those in 1978,
increasing from 62,670 to 103,709. And since trends in vocations anticipate those in
ordinations by some years, it is likely that figures for the latter will continue to increase
in the future. It is true that the data are calculated for the world as a whole and that the
increase is in no way homogeneous. While Europe and America are in precipitate
decline, Asia Africa and Latin America are becoming the nurseries for the priests of the
future.
The "Repentant" Phenomenon
The Catholic Church also has its repentants, priests who having given up the cloth so as
to have families, then have second thoughts and ask to be re-admitted. The surprise is
that their number is noticeably increasing. "Whereas a few years ago we used to get
five or six requests a year," the Congregation for the Clergy explains, "lately they have
been on the increase and now they hover between 30 and 40." The fact is all the more
significant when one considers that these are the demands arriving at only one of the
Vatican congregations involved. Other, and ever more requests, are being received by
Propaganda Fide and the Congregation for the Eastern Churches. Increasing numbers
of priests, faced with the real difficulties of a married life, often idealized, are regretting
their prior state. How does the Church deal with such cases? First of all, if a priest has
undergone a civil marriage, he must divorce from his wife to whom he can no longer
remain bound by any legal tie. Then there is the problem of children. Where they exist
and where they are still minors, the Holy See prefers to wait to welcome the "penitent"
priest since he still has weighty responsibilities as a father. There is no such problem for
men whose children are grown-up.
This article was taken from the No. 10, 1995 issue of "30Days". To subscribe contact
"30Days" at: Subscriptions Office, 28 Trinity St., Newton, NJ 07860 or call 1-800-321-
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