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. In most rectories all of this is 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 young priests leaving active ministry.. Prior to Vatican II some 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….
8 comments:
I fondly remember the parish rectory of my childhood: 4-5 priests living together, creating a family atmosphere. I suspect being a lone ranger takes an emotional toll even on the strongest of men. I was very involved in parish life and frequently shared meals with these priests at the rectory. Good times
Father McDonald, I appreciate your insight in regard to the topic in question.
You are a holy priest. You have long served as a priest. Your voice should...must be heard in regard to this issue.
May Pope Leo XIV tackle this issue in successful fashion.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
In the east, and at this juncture, our priests are majority married. This creates family pressures with family coming first (under many circumstances), but at least there's a support system in the rectory. Divorce is unfamiliar, but, and realistically, it's a possibility.
Agree with your thoughts, the priesthood can be lonely, it requires fraternity to be healthy (which I've personally witnessed) with the house becoming its own family unit.
Priests are spread too thinly anymore. The ratio is too wide. One cannot be solitary in most things simply going from task to task 6 days per week. It must seem hopeless to some. Others can handle such demands. I can only imagine that in older parishes, where post holidays brings a spike in passings, how some can get pushed to the point of crumbling. Not everyone has the same tenacity and mental strength/health. Just being realistic.
With the scandals, many priests walk on egg shells not because they are predators, most are fine people, it's just that the diocese no longer has a priest's back in the face of accusations. I've witnessed this many times over.
The vocation itself, in the NO world, is, and to me, wounded. Not feeling as masculine as it was at one time, and, true, some who are occupying such a role ought not to be there, the dynamic is just seems off. My observation is a tired, sometimes cranky presbyterate who are weary of much then being compounded by falling plaster and balky furnaces. Priests have had to become money/fundraising nags anymore just to maintain physical plants that many have stopped attending. The Church and the people are to blame - I can't necessarily conclude equally - nonetheless, blame is overall shared.
TLM parishes might not be val hala, but, many do seem healthier because of sheer numbers which result in more hands doing the work in addition to positively trending vocations. To me, liturgical discipline and heightened demands on the faithful creates an environment that challenges believers, particularly men.
In the East, we were always smaller, are small today, yet we are surviving. With more people and funds, what we could accomplish! Though not immune, the scandals were not/are not for us such a raw state of affairs and memory. As well, our liturgy provide rock-solid stability. All the above, contributes to a healthy outlook. On the whole, we are positive flocks not as burdened by some earthly/worldly cares.
Synodality won't solve the Church's problems. It's just talking and searching for solutions while ignoring core problems and challenges. To be fair, modern society, technology has led to social shift that is increasingly challenging to compete with; but believers/Nones are perhaps not properly focused. More talking and more "active participation" isn't going to change this. Instilling an urgent need to know Christ, love Christ worship Christ (as best as we possibly can) leading to loving each other and, perhaps, evangelization is the remedy. The Divine Physician of souls and bodies cannot help those who do not or will not recognize the tender mercy that is available.
But, continue creating confusion with needless talking and James Martin types.
I could go on, but, I've written too much....
Well said, ByzRus!
Note that the community life, liturgy of the hours prayed in common, daily community mass, and meals shared in common are marks of monastic life. Often, seminaries, like mine, were set in the rural countryside, away from the "distractions" of urban existence. The seminarians, many who came from city life, were inserted into a somewhat foreign milieu where the nearest neighbors might be dairy farmers. In many cases, if the seminary was in or near a city, there was a great wall/fence around it.
Maybe for good reasons, seminaries were established with these qualities. Maybe the time has come to take a very different look at how seminary life is structured. Fr. Donald Senior, once the president of the Chicago Theological Union, wrote a piece with a title something like this: The Urban Seminary.
The seminary environment should closely resemble what the lived experience of the priest will be like rather than rely on the monastic model.
One of the things the Register article said: "...a man leaving the priesthood within five years indicates an issue with his seminary formation..." is something I would take issue with. As Fr. McDonald has said often, a seminary is not a place where a person with significant "problems" can be fixed. It seems obvious to me that home life BEFORE seminary is where the person is formed, where strengths are developed, where good habits are inculcated, and where a person learns (or should learn) to deal with frustration and disappointment happens.
So, your home life before entering the seminary is your problem. Makes sense, how else can you explain your obeisance to the Party where abortion is "healthcare?"
Father McDonald,
This has nothing to do with this post but this link is to one of Bing Crosby's least famous movies as a Catholic priest, Say One for Me, which came out in 1959 when Hollywood portrayed the Catholic Church in a favorable light. Debbie Reynolds and Robert Wagner also star in this movie. A wonderful Christmas song, "The Secret of Christmas" is featured.
https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=say+one+for+me+1959&mid=678034D68104FC5B0A31678034D68104FC5B0A31&FORM=VIRE
Oh please, grow up. TJM! Hasn’t the needle worn through the groove yet?
Mark J.
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