Stronger Families; Stronger Priests
In 2022, The Catholic Project at The Catholic University of America – where I serve as director – conducted the largest study of American Catholic priests in more than half a century. This National Study of Catholic Priests (NSCP) looked at many aspects of how American priests are faring.
Our study showed that American priests are, by and large, flourishing. They demonstrate high levels of satisfaction in their vocations and enthusiasm for their work as pastors. The youngest cohort of American priests are, by their own description, the most theologically conservative and politically moderate of any cohort.
These young priests are also the most likely to demonstrate elevated signs of burnout in their ministry.
There are several likely reasons for this. For one, older priests are more likely to have settled into the priestly life and adapted to life in the parish or religious community. Then there is the simple fact of attrition. Men in older cohorts who did not adapt well to priestly life may have already left ministry, leaving fewer members in older cohorts who report burnout.
It used to be the case that a newly ordained priest could look forward to five, ten, or even fifteen years as an associate pastor before being made pastor. The first decade or so after ordination served as an apprenticeship in the “tradecraft” of priestly life. Older priests in the parish served as mentors from whom younger priests learned how to handle (or how not to handle, as the case may be) the challenges of running a parish.
For priests in many dioceses, things are very different today. Fewer and fewer parishes have more than one priest in residence. More and more young priests are being asked to serve as pastors at younger and younger ages. One priest I know was, immediately upon ordination, appointed pastor of six parishes. That is surely an exceptional case, but the overall trend is that more is being asked of younger priests than at any time in living memory.
