Trusted relationships with priests key to vocations

Study says lower parishioner-priest ratio is important to foster bonds

Published: March 28, 2023

By Gina Christian
OSV News

OSV News / CNS file, Marek Dziekonski via Detroit Catholic

Seminarians chat in front of Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit Oct. 5, 2021. A new report from Vocations Ministry "looks at the vocations crisis under the microscope" to understand the "severe lack of priests most dioceses experience, and how to fix the problem," says Rhonda Gruenewald, founder of the Texas-based ministry focused on creating a culture of vocations in Catholic parishes and education.

OSV News / CNS file, Marek Dziekonski via Detroit Catholic

Arkansas in better situation than most

In the Vocations Ministry report, the Diocese of Little Rock was analyzed among 59 other dioceses with 100,000 to 300,000 Catholics. The report shows the diocese was in the “best situation … heading forward” based on ordination and seminarian statistics.

Among those dioceses, the Diocese of Little Rock tied for second with the largest numbers of ordinations in 2021 with five, but it needed only three ordinations to maintain the priest replacement rate. It ranked second in average number of ordinations from August 2017 to 2021 with 5.8.

The report said the diocese had 32 seminarians in 2021 but only needed 25 to maintain the “base need ordination rate.” Each active priest in the diocese served 1,257 parishioners, ranking fourth out of 60 dioceses.

Each diocese was placed in a quadrant based on those statistics. It determined the Diocese of Little Rock and similar dioceses “generally have good numbers of active priests and smaller numbers of parishioners that each priest serves. Ordinations are relatively high compared to the other dioceses in the demographic group. Since each priest serves smaller numbers, access to priests is greater and relationship potential, which has been shown to be necessary for the development of vocations, is more possible.”

“The dioceses in this quadrant, even though it may not be ordaining as many as it would like, is in the best situation of all the quadrants heading forward. Since ordination rates are higher, and the replacement of existing priests is ongoing, as we approach the high retirement rates of baby boomer priests, this group will most likely handle this situation the best of the four quadrants.”

The success at Christ the King Church in Little Rock with 10 parishioners becoming priests from 2012 to 2022 was highlighted in the report.

A new study cites trusted relationships with parish priests as a deciding factor in cultivating vocations and reducing the priest-to-parishioner ratio as essential for making such encounters possible.

The 2023 "State of Priestly Vocations in the United States" by Texas-based Vocation Ministry concludes that "the overall role of priests in fostering vocations is significant," with "around 70 percent of those ordained" reporting that they were invited by a priest to consider the calling.

"We know the priest is the number one factor for a young man saying 'yes' to the priesthood," Vocation Ministry founder Rhonda Gruenewald told OSV News.

But as ordination numbers decline while many parishes close or merge, priests are becoming responsible for a greater number of parishioners, Gruenewald said. With increased administrative and pastoral responsibilities, clergy often have little time and energy to mentor teens and young men who might be interested in religious life.

"If that (priest-to-parishioner) number is lower, then priests can create relationships that foster vocations," said Gruenewald, whose report draws on data from the Official Catholic Directory along with input from vocation directors and seminarians from around the country.

According to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University (CARA), in 2022 there were 34,344 priests (24,110 diocesan, 10,234 religious) and 452 priestly ordinations in the U.S., serving 16,429 parishes and 66.5 million "parish-connected" Catholics. Just 66 percent of the diocesan priests were in active ministry, with an average of one active diocesan priest per parish.

The Vocations Ministry study grouped the nation's Catholic dioceses into four tiers based on the size of their Catholic population, and then calculated how many replacement priests, seminarians and ordinations are needed in each diocese for pastoral viability, based on current conditions.

Gruenewald concluded that the 2021 vocation data showed only 33 dioceses ordained enough men to satisfy a "base need ordination rate," while 17 were meeting their "base need seminarian rate." Another 42 dioceses had no ordinations during that period.

She admits that the data "might be difficult for some to digest."

CARA executive director Jesuit Father Thomas Gaunt, who reviewed the Vocations Ministry report, told OSV News the study did not account for shifts in the Catholic population across the U.S., which have led to a "massive movement of Catholics out of the cities and into the suburbs, and from the Northeast and Midwest to the South and West" of the nation.

However, Father Gaunt noted the report was correct in its "overall contention on targeting the importance of relationships in encouraging vocations."

Of the four population tiers in the Vocations Ministry report, the highest-performing group was that with the lowest population and the lowest priest-to-parishioner ratio. Dioceses in this tier — which included Lincoln, Neb.; Tulsa, Okla.; and Reno, Nev. — typically ordain six times as many men as do the nation's most populous dioceses.

Gruenewald stressed that Catholics have plenty of options for countering the declines in priestly vocations, such as regular prayer, education about vocations and how to foster them, affirmation of current priests and seminarians and youth ministry.

"Priests and parishioners need to find those pockets where young people are and bring the vocations message to them," she told OSV News. "Instead of throwing our hands up and saying, 'Oh well,' we need to be intentional and strategic. Vocations can happen if you believe. Let's get to work."

Download the report for free at vocationministry.com.