The National Catholic Register has an article on anecdotal evidence of young priests leaving the priesthood a year or a few years after ordination. You can read it HERE.
I find the article a bit too long and going into anecdotal evidence that sounds somewhat superficial to me.
But I have my own opinion on what some of the causes of the recent anecdotal evidence from the Register’s commentary, concerning those young priests leaving the priesthood.
1. Pressure is placed upon those in the seminary, especially the major seminary, to stick it out and get ordained even when the seminarian is voicing reservations about his calling to seminary personnel or diocesan vocation directors. The pressure might be coming from seminary staff, diocesan vocation offices, usually the vocation director, and maybe even the bishop. In most cases, the bishop may not know of the seminarian’s reservations, another problem of not-so-good management.
2. Seminary life is conducive to encouraging a vocation and in particular the two promises priests make at ordination, that of obedience to one’s bishop and life-long chaste celibacy missing in today’s rectory life.
A. There is community life
B. There is spiritual and emotional counseling, spiritual direction required
C. There is a common spiritual life with the Liturgy of the Hours prayed in community, for the major hours.
D. There is daily Mass in community
E. There are common meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner provided by qualified cooks at the seminary
All of these contribute to a sense of well-being, being cared for and community life that supports celibacy and obedience.
AND ALL OF THESE ARE LACKING IN MOST PARISH RECTORIES SINCE VATICAN II BUT MORESO WITHIN THE LAST 30 TO 40 YEARS!
This is what diminishes the support needed to live a healthy obedience and celibacy in today’s Church:
1. Priests have become lone rangers, in private practice, with little to no supervision or direction, especially immediately following ordination—an abrupt end to all that the seminary provided—a common life, with support, common prayer and common meals, a sense of community, being cared for and support.
2. Seasoned pastors are not encouraged or trained to be mentors to their parochial vicars, especially the newly ordained and offer little to no supervision, advice and correction.
3. When I was ordained 1980 and for the first 11 years of ordination, the two rectories where I lived had full-time housekeepers, Monday through Friday. They provided breakfast, lunch and dinner, kept the rectory clean and priests were expected to eat at the rectory. Going out to eat was normally limited to one’s day off, weekends when no meals were provided or going to visit parishioners for meals.
Very few rectories today have full time housekeepers/cooks. Priests are on their own to either make their own meals or go out. This exacerbates the crisis of obesity in the priesthood and general culture as fast food, junk food and indiscriminate eating occurs, sometimes to the point of addiction. Alcohol can be a problem too.
In my first 11 years too, there was common prayer for at least some hours of the Liturgy of the Hours with the pastor and parish staff.
There were regular staff meetings. In other words, community life was encouraged among the priests and the parish staff.
Certainly there are other reasons for youn priests leaving active ministry.. Prior to Vatican II certainly priests got into trouble and some left the active ministry. That escalated with discipline changes immediately after Vatican II when so many heterosexual priests left to get marry. Then things calmed down a bit but now seem to be on the uptick today. I don’t think, though, that it has risen to the levels of the late 60’s and 70’s.
If we had a married priesthood, meaning one marries before getting ordained, we would also see a problem of divorce in the priesthood. Would we have more priests if married men could be ordained? Would there be less problems? Or just different ones?
Your thoughts….
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