Small US dioceses outpace large ones in attracting needed priestly vocations
November 22, 2023
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CWN Editor's Note: Small US dioceses are most likely to attract the priestly vocations needed to sustain the mission of the Church, according to a Pillar analysis.
The “’ordinations needed per year’ metric is based on the assumption that a diocese needs a number of annual ordinations equal to 2.4% of its current number of priests, and also equal to one annual ordination per 120,000 Catholics,” according to the analysis.
By those measures, 60% of dioceses with under 100,000 Catholics, and 45% of dioceses with 100,000-300,000 Catholics, had a sufficient number of priestly ordinations between 2018 and 2022. In contrast, only 20% of dioceses with 300,000-750,000 Catholics, and no dioceses with more than 750,000 Catholics, had a sufficient number of ordinations.
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