Priests Urged to Recruit Young Men for the Pulpit

October 15, 2005

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Source from: The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/

Faced with wounded morale and diminishing numbers in the priesthood, Roman Catholic bishops in the United States began a program yesterday to remind priests why they serve and to enlist them in a recruitment campaign.

In past generations, it was common for American priests to encourage young men to make lifetime commitments to the church. But a recent poll by the bishops found that one out of three priests were doing that now, said Bishop Blase J. Cupich of Rapid City, S.D., chairman of the bishops' committee on vocations.

"This program," Bishop Cupich said, "aims at having priests step back for a moment, reflect on their own service and their own vocation call and then not only use that as an opportunity to renew themselves, but also to encourage them to share their story with others who can then be called to follow in their footsteps."

The bishops made their announcement as their counterparts from around the world met at a three-week synod in Rome. Among the topics being debated there is how to deal with the worldwide shortage of priests. Although some bishops support allowing priests to marry, many others oppose lifting the celibacy requirement.

The shortage of priests is so dire that more than 3,200 United States parishes are without resident priests, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.

In 25 years, the number of priests in the United States has declined 26 percent, to 42,500, as the number of Roman Catholics rose 29 percent, to 65 million.

The Rev. Edward J. Burns, executive director of the bishops' Secretariat for Vocations and Priestly Formation, said priests in a recent workshop said that among the reasons so few actively promoted the priesthood were low morale, fear of rejection and the sexual abuse scandals.

In response to the scandals, the Vatican has been wrestling with whether to admit gay men to seminaries. Vatican investigators have been instructed to visit each seminary in the United States to look for "evidence of homosexuality" and see whether seminarians are being properly prepared to live celibately.

Father Burns said polls showed that 90 percent of priests were happy in the priesthood and had no regrets. But many priests believe that "morale is low for everyone else," he said, so they hesitate to encourage others to join.

He said another factor in the shortage was that contemporary culture discourages commitment of any kind and that many professions requiring service to others like nursing and teaching were also short of candidates.

The shortage feeds on itself. More and more priests are in their 60's or older, few have time to work as youth pastors, and many divide their time among multiple parishes, affording little opportunity to mentor future priests, said Mary L. Gautier, senior research associate at the Georgetown center.

"When your pastor is 75 and he's there all by himself, it's hard to imagine that as a role model," Ms. Gautier said.

The bishops call their new initiative "Fishers of Men," a reference to the biblical account of Jesus' call to two brothers casting their nets at the Sea of Galilee, "Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men."

The program has been tested in six dioceses, Father Burns said.

The plan is for priests to meet in their dioceses, relate histories about how and why they became priests, and learn ways to invite others to join.

The program includes a new video that features a young boy who is inspired to become a priest after watching a priest at the scene of a car accident administer last rites to a dying victim. Father Burns said the video was based on a true case.

"The program will make some difference, but I don't think it's going to make enough difference," said Sister Christine Schenck, who directs FutureChurch, a liberal Catholic group that advocates the ordination of women and married men as a solution to the priest shortage.

The nun spoke in an interview from Rome, where she is monitoring the bishops' synod.

"With the numbers of priests we need, there are not that many that are called to celibacy," she said. "Even if the bishops start an all-out campaign and it's wildly successful, there's just no way they can catch up."