More Area Catholic Ordinations Challenge a National Trend
By Helen T. Gray
Monsignor William Blacet rises early to start his prayers. He celebrates Mass every day at Our Lady of Good Counsel. He hears confessions and gives counsel. He conducts weddings and funerals. He cruised past his 90th birthday in December. “I was not ordained to retire,” explains the oldest pastor in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph. “As long as I can do the duties of pastor, that’s what I want to do.” But is the spirited and beloved priest at the Westport church a poster child for the aging Roman Catholic clergy? Nationally, the average age of all priests is now 63, up from 35 in 1970, according to a study of the widely acknowledged problem. In the Kansas City area, that number is only slightly better. Yet local church officials are pleased to be bucking the trend a bit. Seven men were ordained this year in the diocese, the largest single-year number in the last 30, said a somewhat mystified but definitely pleased Monsignor Bradley Offutt, diocesan vicar general. Also, 10 men are beginning studying for the priesthood this year. “Here we are in a period of unprecedented upheaval in the diocese. Yet more young men are coming to the diocese to enter seminary than in two generations,” he said. “And I don’t know why.” Things are looking up, too, in Kansas, where 32 are in seminaries. The Rev. Brian Schieber, vicar general for clergy of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, remembers spring of 1993, when there were only three. “In the Midwest, we are doing far better than the coasts,” he said proudly. A recent study by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate was published in “Same Call, Different Men: The Evolution of the Priesthood Since Vatican II.” The aging trend, the authors noted, was “by far the most striking trend to come from these data, and probably the one trend that is having the most immediate impact on priestly life.” In 1970, only 3 percent of priests said they were retired. By 2009, the time of the last survey, it was more than a fifth. This reflects not only the graying of the baby boomers, but also the smaller number of men entering the priesthood and more later-in-life ordinations. “There is a steady growth in (number of) Catholics, but not enough men coming into the priesthood to compensate for those who entered in the ’50s and ’60s (when ordinations were at their peak),” said Mary Gautier, a senior research associate at the center. The upheaval to which Offutt referred includes the trauma of the sex abuse scandals that have rattled the Catholic hierarchy from Boston to Los Angeles. Recently, Bishop Robert W. Finn was founded guilty of failing to report suspected child abuse regarding a priest and sentenced to two years probation. But it is more than just the black eye from pedophile priests. “There are things going on that I don’t understand,” Offutt says. “The emphasis on the good life and sensuality and the decline of the family unit.” The church continues to add members, making it ever more difficult to staff parishes, especially among Hispanics. In northern cities, parishes are being consolidated. The highest-growth areas in the South and Southwest are where church roots are not as deep. Locally, that trend was seen in the new parish established in Topeka and consideration of other startups in Johnson County. At the same time, a shortage of pastors in rural areas of the Kansas archdiocese leaves some serving more than one church, as the center’s researchers found: “Ten percent of the priests responding to this survey are assigned to more than one parish in a situation that is most often referred to as clustered, paired, twinned, yoked, or linked parishes.” The study, which received about 1,000 responses and, from that number, conducted 50 interviews, also noted another aspect of the shortage. “One demographic characteristic that is beginning to change among priests is their nativity and ethnic heritage … as more bishops bring in priests from outside the United States to compensate for the dwindling local supply. … About a quarter of all seminarians now studying in U.S. are foreign-born and 3 in 10 newly ordained priests are born outside the United States.” In the Missouri diocese seven priests are from overseas; the Kansas archdiocese has 12. But in each case, the percentages are relatively low. In the 1970s, there were 1,500 Catholics to every priest. Today that figure is 3,600. As a result, older clergy are found in the pulpit or wherever they can help carry the load, such as visiting the sick and conducting weddings and funerals. Some parishes without pastors use deacons, laypersons, religious sisters or brothers, who can conduct a word or prayer service. In 1998, the Rev. John J. McCormack came to live in retirement in South Kansas City at the Little Sisters of the Poor. Two years later when the chaplain there left, McCormack, now 80, was asked to take his place. Age does not dictate retirement from the pastorate, Offutt says, but most dioceses hope priests will accept assignments until 70. Blacet and McCormack are typical. “Most priests enjoy the ministerial side of the work and want to keep their hand in it. The administrative part, they can walk away from that and not look back,” Offutt says. “It’s like being married for life. When people turn 65, they don’t say, ‘You go your way, and I’ll go mine.’?” To Blacet, taking care of 350 households is not really “work.” Fran Cobb of Kansas City, a parishioner since 1990, said of Blacet: “Nobody gives his age a thought. We think of him of being 30 because he has so much energy and a strong voice. I compare him to John Paul II. Young people are drawn to him because he teaches the truth and that’s what they want.” At Church of the Ascension in Overland Park, Monsignor Thomas Tank has responsibilities of 3,000 households, and he doesn’t want to quit, either. The 71-year-old says he wouldn’t know what to do with himself. “You may retire as a pastor, but you don’t retire as a priest.” He acknowledged the help he gets on weekends — retired priests. Still, the statistics cited by the center’s study are stark: More than 40 percent of all American priests are older than 65, while for the U.S. population as a whole, that demographic is only 13 percent. In 1970, the median age of active diocesan priests was 45, close to that of other professionals with graduate degrees, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor data. By 2009, a marked difference appeared, the study found: “The median age of the general labor force increased just slightly (5 percent) from 39.8 to 41.8. Doctors and attorneys followed the same pattern, with their median ages increasing by 3 and 5 percent, respectively. Active diocesan priests, by contrast, had a median age in 2009 of 59, an increase of 31 percent from the 1970 figure.” Counting all who wear the collar, including the more-or-less retired, the ranks of the Kansas City diocese averages 62, just a year younger than the national average. According to numbers released by the diocese, its active priests, however, look considerably less gray at an average of 54, compared with the national norm of about 60. On the Kansas side, the average age for all priests is 60, and the average for active priests is 53, a more even age distribution than found elsewhere, Schieber said. “Sixty percent are under 60,” he said of his archdiocese. “This is not typical. The central U.S. has traditional values, and young people want to give their lives to something they believe in. They believe in the teachings of the church.” In the ’70s the average age for ordination was the mid-20s, compared with the mid-30s today, Gautier said. “Despite the sexual scandals, some young men say, ‘I know there are some good priests out there, and I know the church needs me.’?” Locally, they are still relatively young — most in their 20s. The numbers of expected ordinations in Kansas — four in 2013, five in 2014 and eight in 2015 — are encouraging, the vicar general said. “I’d like to think the reason is that young people are looking for meaning in their lives,” Schieber said. “Most Catholics judge the priesthood on their local priest. Young people want to be part of the renewal of the church.” The Rev. Richard Rocha, the diocesan vocations director, said the total from the Missouri diocese in seminaries is 26. Many parishes are investing a lot on youth ministry, said Mitchell Zimmerman, Kansas archdiocesan vocations director. Also, during the summer seminarians work in the community, and youth come in contact with them and some want to be like them. “We have 32 seminarians now but could use 50,” he said. “But I feel we are gradually going to replace the older priests.” The Rev. Adam Johnson, who was ordained in May at age 27, said that when young men see joyful priests, happy in their vocation, they are more likely to be attracted to the priesthood. “I can tell you stories about the priests who inspired me, about going to seminary, but in the end all I can really say about becoming a priest is that I fell in love,” said Johnson, who is associate pastor at St. John LaLande in Blue Springs. “I fell in love with Jesus Christ and his bride, the church. I fell in love with the Gospel. I fell in love with providing people the Sacraments. I fell in love with the priesthood.” To reach Helen Gray, call 816-234-4446 or email hgray@kcstar.com
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