New priests continue younger trend in 2012

Men being ordained to the Roman Catholic priesthood. Credit: Mazur

The 2012 priesthood ordination class continues a six-year trend towards younger priests, according to a survey that indicates new priests come from larger families and are more likely to have attended Catholic schools and colleges.

Two-thirds of the men in this year’s ordination class are between the ages of 25 and 34. The men to be ordained, called “ordinands,” have an average age of 34.6, and a median age of 31.

Most ordinands have been Catholic since birth, though six percent are converts. Eighty-four percent had two Catholic parents, while 37 percent had a relative who is a priest or a religious.

Nearly 70 percent of ordinands said they regularly prayed the Rosary and 65 percent participated in Eucharistic Adoration before entering the seminary. About 75 percent had been altar servers, while more than half participated in a parish youth group.

Ordinands first considered a vocation to the priesthood at an average age of 17.

The survey from the Georgetown University-based Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate was commissioned by the U.S. bishops’ conference’s Secretariat for Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations. About 63 percent of the estimated 487 ordinands responded to the survey.

The family size of new priests was also surveyed. Fifty-five percent of ordinands say they have more than two siblings, with 28 percent reporting that they have five or more siblings. One third of the ordinands are the oldest child in their family, while 22 percent are the youngest child.

About 71 percent of ordinands said their primary race or ethnicity is Caucasian, European American or white. Fifteen percent identified as Hispanic or Latino, while nine percent were from Asian or Pacific Islander background. Compared to the Catholic U.S. population, Hispanics were underrepresented.

Thirty percent of ordinands were born outside the U.S., the CARA report says. The largest numbers of new foreign-born priests come from Vietnam, Colombia, Mexico, Poland, and the Philippines.

Almost half of respondents attended a Catholic elementary school, a rate slightly higher than all Catholic adults. They are also somewhat more likely than other Catholics to have attended a Catholic high school.

The 2012 class was much more likely to have attended a Catholic college – 47 percent of ordinands did so, compared to seven percent of U.S. adults.

About 27 percent of respondents had school debt when they entered the seminary, at an average of slightly over $20,000 in debt.

Priests ordained for a diocese lived there for an average period of 15.6 years before they entered seminary, while religious order’s future priests knew members of their religious institute for an average of 9.3 years.