New Priests' Average Age 35; One of Three Foreign Born, Some With Advanced Professional Degrees

Matt Hurley sends along a news story with some interesting statistics concerning vocations to the Catholic priesthood:

WASHINGTON, April 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The average age of men ordained in the United States to the Catholic priesthood in 2007 is 35, and one out of three of them is foreign born. In addition, most entered the seminary with a college diploma, some with advanced degrees in areas such as law, medicine, and education.

The information was compiled by the Georgetown University-based Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) for The Class of 2007: Survey of Ordinands to the Priesthood. CARA conducts the survey annually for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Secretariat for Vocations and Priestly Formation.

Researchers gathered information from 282 seminarians, estimated to be approximately 60 percent of the 475 potential ordinands. These 282 seminarians include 221 ordinands to the diocesan priesthood and 60 to the religious priesthood.

Major findings noted that

- The average age of ordinands for the Class of 2007 is 35. This is approximately the same as it was in 1998, the first year for which data are available.

- On average, diocesan ordinands lived in the diocese for which they will be ordained for 17 years before entering the seminary. Religious ordinands knew the members of their religious institute an average of six years before they entered the seminary.

- Seven in ten responding ordinands report their primary race or ethnicity as Caucasian, European American, or white. Compared to the U.S. adult Catholic population in general, ordinands are more likely to be Asian, but less likely to be Hispanic/Latino. Religious ordinands are less likely than diocesan ordinands or the U.S. adult Catholic population to report their race or ethnicity as aucasian/European
American/white.

- One in three ordinands was born outside the United States, with the largest numbers coming from Vietnam, Mexico, Poland, or the Philippines. Religious are more likely than diocesan ordinands to be foreign-born. The percentage that is foreign-born (31 percent) is nearly the same as it was in 2006 (30 percent), but has increased from the 24 percent reported in 1998. On average, responding ordinands who were born outside the United States have lived here ten years.

- Nearly all ordinands have been Catholic since birth, although 6 percent became Catholic later in life.

- More than six in ten ordinands completed college, and one in five had attained a graduate degree, before entering the seminary.

- Half of responding ordinands attended a Catholic elementary school, as have almost half of all U.S. Catholic adults. Ordinands are somewhat more likely than other U.S. Catholic adults to have attended a Catholic high school. They are much more likely than other U.S. Catholics to have attended a Catholic college.

- About two-thirds of ordinands report having full-time work experience before entering the seminary, most often in education. Slightly less than one in ten has served in the U.S. Armed Forces.

- On average, the responding ordinands report that they were about 17-and-a-half when they first considered priesthood as a vocation.

The complete survey report can be found at http://www.usccb.org/vocations.

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