In the Catholic Church - a personnel crisis. Those who want to become priests every year less and less

The main thing from the publication of The Wall Street Journal

Over the past decade, the number of young men who want to become priests has sharply decreased among Catholics. They are attracted to other career capabilities and scares the obligatory lifelong vow of celibacy (celibacy), the article by The Wall Street Journal said.

Since 1970, the Catholics around the world have become twice as much, and the number of priests has declined. Elderly clergymen die, and young people are not enough to replace them. Some parishes were left without a rector. Theological seminaries are closed throughout Europe, which once prepared most priests and sent them to preach around the world.

The new dad Lev XIV (in the world - Robert Extra) called on those who consider the opportunity to become a priest, not to give up. “Despite the signs of the crisis, permeating the life and mission of priests, God continues to call and remains faithful to His promises,” Papa said at a meeting with seminarians and priests in Rome in June 2025.

Leo XIV also urged believers to more actively attract young people to the church. He himself also tries to work with young believers. In the summer, the pontiff accepted Catholic influons in the Vatican and participated in the Catholic Youth Festival in Rome, which was visited by about a million young people from many countries of the world. In early September, the Vatican canonized the first holy generation of millennials - teenager Carlo Akutis, who talked about his faith on the Internet. He died of leukemia in 2006.

The number of students in seminaries in the West decreased for decades as the culture became increasingly secular. In the past five years, the number of young people entering the seminary in Latin America and Asia has also been steadily declining. Small growth is observed only in Africa. All over the world since 2011, the number of seminarians has declined by about 14 thousand people. In 2023 there were 106.5 thousand.

The spiritual seminary of St. Patrick near Dublin was once considered the largest in the world, 500 seminarians were trained there. Now on average 15 new seminarians per year come there. The spiritual seminary of St. John in the south of England, designed for 100 seminarians, closed in 2021 due to the lack of new training applications.

The extensive campus of the Milan archbishop in Venguno, which was built with the expectation of 600 people, including students of the parish gymnasium, is now almost empty. The gymnasium was closed, and only 54 people study at the seminary - a third of the number of students ten years ago.

In Italy, as the Wall Street Journal writes, clergymen lost a high position in society. Polls show that the number of Italians who consider themselves Catholics decreased to two -thirds of the country's population, while 50 years ago almost all were Catholics. Over the centuries, the priest's path to choose the path meant to get education and work. Now the economic opportunities for young people have expanded greatly.

The 29-year-old Andrea Switch, a last-course of the seminary in Venguno, believes that this trend may have positive aspects: “Today no one becomes a priest for the sake of salary or because of social status.” The switch left his physiotherapist’s career and broke up with a girl to become a priest. His sisters did not approve his choice. Of the 20 seminarians who began training with him, eight then changed their minds.

The Wall Street Journal notes the “historical shift” in the Roman Catholic Church, which is increasingly dependent on priests from Latin America, Africa and Asia. According to the Vatican, in the Democratic Republic of Congo there are now more seminaries than in Poland, and in India - more than in Italy. On the recent papal conclave, the European cardinals first ended up in the minority, said Rev. Thomas Gont, an expert on church demography from Georgetaun University.

However, as the standard of living, the number of seminarians is reduced outside the Western countries. In Asia in 2023, there were less by 4.2%. Growth was noted only in Africa - but only 1.1%.