The following article appeared in the May 2007 edition of Columbia

THE MYTH OF A 'PRIEST SHORTAGE'

Father McGivney's story helps to ' unveil the myth of a priest shortage. The number of Catholics attending Mass and requesting the sacraments during his lifetime was not dissimi­lar to our present priest-to-parish­ioner ratio. (An 1875 Catholic alma­nac estimated the priest-per-Catholic population at one priest for every 1,298 Catholics; the report did not include statistics from the large dioceses of Brooklyn and Baltimore. In 2006, the ratio is one priest for every 1,636 Catholics.)

Likewise, the contemporary situ­ation of priests having more than one parish was not uncommon during Father McGivney's era. He pastored two parishes himself after he left St. Mary's in New Haven (and, I might add, he did not have a car to travel between both of them).

Our most com­mon mistake is forgetting that God will always provide for his Church. He will send us the priests we need to convey the grace he wish­es to give us. Indeed, a case could be made that there has always been a priest shortage. After all, we originally started off with only 12. The problem is that we were spoiled by an unusual abundance of voca­tions during the middle part of the 20th century.

An interesting set of statistics can be found in Paul D. Sullins 2002 study, "Empty Pews and Empty Altars: A Reconsideration of the Catholic Priest Shortage." Sullins tells us that the decline in vocations actually began before Vatican II, and he points out that the decline in the priest-to-parishioner ratio after Vatican II has been largely offset by the decline in Catholics attending Mass and requesting the sacraments. He then reminds us of the many dea­cons who now help with preaching, baptizing, marrying and counseling — help that past generations of priests did not have. Finally, he reports this sobering fact: "...up until about World War II, about a third of Catholic churches did not have a pastor in residence; after mid-century, that proportion has gradual-y declined to about a fifth. As is evi-dent, far from being unusually high, the rate of nonresiding priests is current at its lowest point in the centu­ry."    

The current fabrication of a priest shortage is being promoted as  an excuse by those who wish to remove the   celibacy   requirement   and/or  want  to  open   the  priesthood   to women. This alleged shortage has induced  a  psychological  sense  of hopelessness in many priests, causing­- ing them to acquiesce to the idea of expanding  ordination beyond celi­bate males. Jesus knew that lies are the devil's tool, and warned against buying into this defeatist attitude. He said, "The harvest is indeed great, but the laborers are few" (Mt 9:38). He also said to St. Paul, "My grace is enough for you", (2 Cor 12:0).

I hope that in these reflections you may recognize in your PARISH PRIEST part of FATHER MCGIVNEY'S story

Would it be nice to have more priests? Sure! But the. shortage has ex­isted from the beginning of the Church, and look what has been accomplished! We should never be immobilized by seemingly overwhelming odds. Challenge is exactly what heroes thrive on.

RECOMMENDATION The facts,
pertaining to the priest-parishioner
ratio should be provided by Church
officials and placed in diocesan
publications.                                              ;

Father Michael P. Orsi is a priest of the Diocese of Camden, N.J. He is presently serving as chap­lain and research fellow in law and religion at Ave Maria School of Law in Ann Arbor, Mich.This article appeared in the February 2007 edition of Homiletic and Pastoral Review and is reprinted "with permission. Father Orsi is a  member of Flatbush Council 497 in Brooklyn, N.Y.

      COLUMBIA/MAY 2007                          WWW.KOFC.ORG