The greatest gains came under John Paul II. In 1978, the year Karol Wojtyla was elected pope, vocations worldwide totaled 63,882. In 2005, the year he died, they totaled 114,439. The numbers continued to rise during the reign of Benedict XVI: Vocations reached their modern peak in 2011, with 120,616—an increase of 6,177 since the papal transition year. After 2011, they drifted downward: to 120,051 in 2012, and 118,251 in 2013, the year of Benedict’s resignation. Thus, vocations in 2013 were down 2,365 from their height under Benedict, and up 3,812 from their height under John Paul.Yet the problem is less the decline than the reason for it. It has been presumed that the decline is due to the resurgence of the progressive wing of Roman Catholicism under Pope Francis. It seems that Rome is keeping a watchful eye on those religious orders that might be described as traditional in doctrine and worship. Their sin seems to be that these also tend to be the dioceses and religious orders that foster religious vocations and in which priestly vocations have either increased faster than the other wings of Rome or failed to decline.
In March 2013, Pope Francis emerged from the conclave as the new ruler of the Church. Data suggest that his pontificate has not accelerated the decline in vocations from their height in 2011, but has not reversed or arrested it, either. In 2015 there were 116,843 seminarians—a drop of 1,408 from 2013. If this rate of decline continues, then in a year or two vocations will be roughly where they were when John Paul died. Yet we will actually be in worse shape than we were then. As Catholics grow more numerous worldwide, the Catholics-per-priest ratio worsens. For instance, there were 2,900 Catholics per priest worldwide in 2010, and 3,091 in 2015.
In 2016, there was just one new seminarian in Munich, the historic capital city of German Catholicism. In Belgium, the situation is perhaps still worse. In 2016, there was not a single new Francophone seminarian in the country.
In other words, it is more important to have the right kind of seminarian (progressive) than it is to have seminarians. . . or it is better to suppress vocations from those quarters less friendly to the liturgical changes in the wake of Vatican II.
Lutherans might watch with some concern here. We face the same kinds of tensions between those who take doctrine and worship seriously and those who find it merely a means to an end (whatever works at the moment is the best). While we are not nearly in the troubled circumstance of Rome with respect to the numbers of seminarians, we have seen our own numbers decline (though perhaps for other reasons than worship wars). Yet the vitality of the Church always lies with those who take worship most seriously, whose faith and life flows naturally from and back to the means of grace, and who expect that this is or should be the norm for all within the church.
6 comments:
A man who might want to attend an LCMS seminary should
base his decision on whether he feels this is God's will
for his life.
It should make no difference who the LCMS President is at
the time of his decision. Our current low enrollment at our
2 LCMS seminaries has nothing to do with President Harrison.
The recruitment problems of the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran
Church are miles and miles apart when it comes to seminarians.
A Roman Catholic seminarian will not be allowed to enter the estate of
Holy Matrimony. He will never know what it is love a wife and love
the children that marriage produces. Not too many men are comfortable
with the concept of life-long celibacy. It is a blatant disregard for
Holy Scripture that enables the RCC to deny marriage to their clergy.
Rev. Peters: "we have seen our own numbers decline (though perhaps for other reasons than worship wars)"
Anon.: "Our current low enrollment at our 2 LCMS seminaries has nothing to do with President Harrison."
Then, if not worship wars nor President Harrison, what does our current low enrollment at our 2 LCMS seminaries have to do with?
To never know marriage nor children would guarantee a lonely life. Celibacy has been mandatory since the year 1075. Rome automatically inherits the estates of deceased Roman Catholic clergy. That would amount to a lot of money over the course of nearly 1000 years........
What kind of man is able to control sexual urges in order to serve as a Roman Catholic priest? No wonder so many men struggling with homosexual tendencies are attracted to the priesthood. No wonder why a disproportionate number of Roman Catholic priests are convicted of pedophilia in comparison to priests and pastors in Lutheran and Protestant denominations....
Regarding Lutherans: Who would like to graduate seminary with $60,000 in student loan debt in order to take a job that pays only $30,000 a year (gross pay). The math doesn't work. In addition, we hear stories of pastors thrown out on CRM status through no fault of their own. Under those circumstances, who would be stupid enough to sign on as a Lutheran pastor?
Anon: Regarding Lutherans: Who would like to graduate seminary with $60,000 in student loan debt in order to take a job that pays only $30,000 a year (gross pay). The math doesn't work. In addition, we hear stories of pastors thrown out on CRM status through no fault of their own. Under those circumstances, who would be stupid enough to sign on as a Lutheran pastor?
Precisely right. Every 2 or 3 years I reexamine my desire to go to sem, held since I was an undergrad. My habit is always the same: ask current seminarians and the recently graduated about their experience, and to delineate pros and cons. Every time the answer is the same: "It's prohibitively expensive without student loans, and you graduate serving 2 masters (Fanny/Freddie and Christ), but you should totally do it because faith/trust/love God, etc." That's not compelling reasoning, least of all to me, knowing personally as I do three pastors who separated from their congregations (for one reason or another) in the past year alone; one moved his large family in with the in-laws to evaluate the next move, one is trying to find religious work wherever possible, and one went back to work in his previous field. All graduated within the last decade, no doubt with considerable debt outstanding.
Meanwhile many rural congregations are closing or asking for worker priests. A good steward of time and treasure runs the numbers before risking such a large amount (4 years graduate work and $60k MINIMUM) on a wager. The Synod has not weighted the odds in their favor, so while they still recruit the most idealistic men to the sem (nothing inherently wrong with being idealistic, BTW), the ones who are more analytical say in ever greater unison: "No thanks."
Adding more financial concerns for seminarians, on Friday U.S. District Court for Western Wisconsin Judge Barbara Crabb (a leftist appointed by Jimmy Carter in 1979) declared as unconstitutional a law that gives clergy tax-free housing allowances. The decision was made in Gaylor v. Mnuchin (Case number 3:16-cv-00215; formerly Gaylor v. Lew).
Crabb had tried to strike down the law in 2013. However the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed her ruling, saying the co-presidents of the anti-religion group, Freedom From Religion Foundation, who challenged it didn’t have standing to bring the lawsuit because they had never been denied the exemption.
In 2015, Freedom From Religion’s co-presidents requested the tax benefit and were rejected by the IRS, leading them to file a new lawsuit last year.
While Crabb ruled the law unconstitutional, she gave the parties until October 30, 2017, to file supplemental briefs on whether any additional remedies are appropriate and whether relief should be stayed pending a potential appeal. Response briefs are due November 8, 2017.
In 2014, the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, along with other religious organizations, filed an amicus brief in the case of Gaylor v. Lew that was before the 7th Court of Appeals, which later overturned Crabb's initial decision.
Becket, who provided counsel for some defendent churches, said that the churches will appeal this decision to the Chicago-based United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, with oral argument expected in 2018.
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