State of Priestly Vocations in the United States Report

This report is an attempt to address the vocational health of the Church in America by exploring what trends rise to the surface as pivotal factors in vocation promotion.

40 pages, including analysis, charts, and appendices of formulas.

This study, conducted by Vocation Ministry, is the fruit of hundreds of hours of work dedicated to understanding the state of vocations to the priesthood in the Catholic Church in the United States today. With shrinking numbers of priests and seminarians nationwide, along with other demographic shifts in both the Church and culture, many diocesan priests report being overworked and with increasingly less support from their local diocese. As the overall number of available priests in active ministry declines, many bishops have to consolidate parishes, cluster regions of parishes, and in some cases close parishes altogether. So, the question everyone asks is “Why aren’t there more priests?”

With this question in mind, Vocation Ministry has set out to explore the answers. This report is an attempt to address the vocational health of the Church in America by exploring what trends rise to the surface as pivotal factors in vocation promotion, noting where the Church is seeing success, and identifying areas that need to be re-evaluated.

40 pages, including analysis, charts, and appendices of formulas.