The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops commissioned the Center for Applied Research (CARA) at Georgetown University for an annual survey.

From January to March of this year, CARA surveyed almost 400 seminarians who are scheduled to be ordained to the priesthood in 2024.

Survey findings

More than 80 percent of respondents were to be ordained diocesan priests, while almost 20 percent were from a religious order. The largest group of respondents, 80 percent, were studying at seminaries in the Midwest.

The survey found that half of the graduating 2024 seminarians, "ordinands," will be ordained at 31 years or younger — younger than the recent average. Since 1999, ordinands were on average in their mid-30s, trending slightly younger.

This year's ordinands were involved in their local communities growing up.

As many as 51 percent had attended parish youth groups, while 33 percent were involved in Catholic campus ministry.

A significant number (28 percent) of the ordinands were Boy Scouts, while 24 percent reported that they had participated in the Knights of Columbus or Knights of Peter Claver.

Involvement in parish ministry was also a key commonality for this year's ordinands.

Surveyors found that 70 percent of ordinands were altar servers before attending seminary.

Another 48 percent often read at Mass, while 41 percent distributed Communion as extraordinary ministers.

In addition, just over 30 percent taught as catechists.

The path to priesthood

Most seminarians first considered the priesthood when they were as young as 16 years old, according to the survey. But the process of affirming that vocation and studying to be a priest takes, on average, 18 years.

Encouragement helps make a priest, according to the CARA survey.

Almost 90 percent of ordinands said that someone (most often a parish priest, friend, or parishioner) encouraged them to consider becoming priests.

Discerning the priesthood is not always an easy path, and 45 percent of ordinands said they were discouraged from considering the priesthood by someone in their life.

That person was most often a friend, classmate at school, mother, father, or other family member.

The survey also found that most ordinands had Catholic parents and were baptized Catholic as infants.

Eighty-two percent of ordinands reported that both their parents were Catholic when they were children, while 92 percent of ordinands were baptized Catholic as an infant.

Of those who became Catholic later in life, most converted at age 23. Read more

• Kate Quiñones is a staff writer for Catholic News Agency and a fellow of the College Fix.

Furthermore, since 2000 the statistics show a decline in the number of new priests in Poland, as well as a rise in the number of those leaving the priesthood.

Around 350 new Catholic priests have been ordained each year in Poland in the last few years. There were 1,272 in 2017, the last year for which data are available.

The total number of priestly ordinations worldwide in 2017 was 5,800.

While the overall number of diocesan priests around the world has been growing since 2000, reaching 281,000 in 2017, the opposite trend is true for Europe. There, numbers have fallen to 125,000 - down from almost 141,000 in 2003 and 132,000 in 2011.

The other major trend highlighted by the data is a rise in the number of those leaving the priesthood.

While data varies from year to year, the global trend was a reduction until 2009.

This was followed by a steady rise in resignations throughout the world. In 2017, 739 diocesan priests left the priesthood.

In Europe too, more diocesan priests have been leaving in the last decade, although a much higher number was recorded in 2012, with 222 cases, than the 146 from 2017, reports Deon.pl.

Even though in Poland, 73 priests resigned in 2017 (half the European total), the Church is still considered very influential in Poland.

Over 90% of Poles say they are Catholic.

However, a Pew Research survey in 2018 showed church attendance among the younger generation is falling in Poland at the fastest rate in the world.

Only 26% of those below the age of 40 go to church every Sunday, compared to 55% of the over-40s.

• La Croix
• Image: Wikiwand