Vatican III: On the Nature and Mission of the Sacred Priesthood

As I reflect upon the shortage of priests in the United States, I wish to note that the problems addressed in this article are by no means an especially American phenomenon.  Even with the small but notable exception of a modest rise in priestly vocations in Africa and Oceania, the critical decline in vocations is a quantifiable and demonstrable fact.

No matter how one tries to spin it, one cannot deny the reality that there are not enough priests or priests-to-be in the seminary pipeline to replace the those presently serving in parishes now and in the foreseeable future.  The average age of a priest engaged in pastoral service in the United States is presently 65 years. Within the next five years, roughly 45 percent of priests presently serving as pastors will reach the age at which Canon Law requires them to submit their resignations from pastoral office to their respective diocesan bishops.

In the face of this growing crisis, what are bishops to do?  What solutions has the Vicar of Christ along with his brother bishops recommended to assure that the Catholic faithful's assurance of Sacramental assistance will be available to them?

Thus far, the bishops have been left to address the problem individually and with little direction or assistance of the Holy See.  In dioceses where the problem has reached crisis proportions, the solutions most bishops have opted to enact are to either suppress the priest-vacant parish and incorporate its parishioners into a neighboring parochial community or to assign a pastor to administer a number of parishes in a relatively close geographical area.  In both cases, aging or infirm priests are being called upon to take on greater and greater pastoral obligations and responsibilities.

Imagine the physical, psychological and spiritual strain which such solutions place upon these priests.  Imagine a priest of 70 years or older being charged with the administration and pastoral care of thousands of parishioners or multiple parishes.  And, in most cases, these priests are being asked to fulfill these additional obligations alone and without the assistance of a brother-priest.  At best, this strategy is but a short-term solution to a growing crisis which threatens to deny the accessibility which the Catholic faithful will have to the Sacred Liturgy and the Sacraments for generations to come.

In 1962, I entered the minor seminary in the Archdiocese of St. Louis.  There were 186 freshmen in my class.  Less than 10 percent of us were ordained.  Shortly after my ordination, I returned to that same minor seminary as a part-time teacher.  During my years of teaching, I became aware of the fact that the average percentage of those entering seminary who would eventually be ordained was a statistical constant, roughly 10 percent or less.  That percentage remains the same today.  And so, with seminaries experiencing fewer and fewer admissions, the numbers of priests available for pastoral care in the future looks grim indeed.  The Church needs to address this growing crisis to be sure.

I propose that the most serious response should come in the form of an Ecumenical Council (the highest teaching authority of the Church) focusing specifically on the nature and mission of the Sacred Priesthood.  Ecumenical Council Vatican I defined the Papacy and declared that the Pope was infallible when speaking ex cathedra on matters of faith and morals.  Vatican II essentially defined that nature of the episcopacy restating the ancient truth that, in his diocese, the bishop is the vicar of Christ who, in union with the Pope, teaches, sanctifies and lawfully governs those entrusted to his pastoral care.

 A future Ecumenical Council Vatican III will need to address the very nature of the priesthood and the critical role of the parish priest in the life of the Church. While the Church is often considered in its universal character and mission, the reality is this:  the Church is experienced in the day to day, week to week, year to year celebration and proclamation of the Catholic Faith in the parish setting.  It is at the parish level that the average Catholic touches and its touched by Christ and His Mystical Body.  Redemption takes place in one's neighborhood, in the pews of one's parish church.  It is here that the ancient wisdom of the Fathers of the Church is validate, namely, the fact that where there is no priest, there is no parish and where there is no parish, there is no Church.

This is the crux of the crisis for the Church in the modern world.  Vatican III will needs be the answer to this crisis.  The College of Bishops and the Vicar of Christ in unison must speak authoritatively and in unity in addressing the crisis in vocations and in defining the nature of priesthood in such a way that the pastoral care of the faithful will be assured.

Let us pray that the Holy Spirit will move the hearts and minds of the Holy Father and the Bishops to ask God's guidance in providing such a solution to the generation crisis in the priesthood and the life of the Church which we are experiencing in our time.