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Geelong Deanery |
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Facing The Future - Priests StatisticsThe Diocesan Pastoral Leadership Board has released a newsletter called "Facing the Future". The executive secretary Fr.Maurie Cooney has presented the following article. Amongst the various perspectives that continue to drive the Board’s work, there is the continuing awareness that the number of priests available for appointment in the Archdiocese of Melbourne continues to diminish. Figures released recently, accurate as at 1st March, (see below) are a clear indication of the need to take planning seriously and to entertain the possibility of having to take some major steps in ensuring that good leadership continues to be provided in parishes. An interesting and essential exercise is to attempt to predict the numbers of priests that will be available for service in, say, ten years. There are fourteen seminarians in the eight-year seminary program at the moment. Perhaps two-thirds of them will proceed to ordination. Then there are a further unknown two years to complete that ten-year range.
Number of Seminarians for Melbourne Archdiocese
at Corpus Christi College (1-Mar-96)
Year 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th Total
Numb 1 3 4 0 3 1 1 1 14
There will be 67 priests who reach the retirement age of seventh-five over the next ten years, and 9+ priests who enter the lower 10 year range over the same period. There are, of course, unknown variables within this simple way of projecting figures. For example, there may be deaths, sick leaves and resignations in the next ten years which cannot be accounted for in projections.
Cumulative Age Distribution of All Diocesan
Clergy on Appointment as at 1-Mar-96.
AGE Priests(#) Cum(#) Cum(%)
80-84 2 2 0.6
75-79 4 6 1.9
70-74 22 28 9.1
65-69 39 67 21.7
60-64 53 120 38.8
55-59 43 163 52.8
50-54 53 216 69.9
45-49 34 250 80.9
40-44 28 278 90.0
35-39 23 301 97.4
30-34 6 307 99.4
25-29 2 309 100.0
A further consideration is that amongst the 309 priests currently on appointment, 25 are on ‘special appointment’ (eg. chaplains to welfare organisations, positions in diocesan offices), 5 on study appointment, 9 ‘on loan’ (including Melbourne Overseas Mission), 6 in military chaplaincy, and 5 bishops. So there are 259 priests in the 210 parishes of the Archdiocese in the care of diocesan priests (some of whom, of course, are doing double roles). It is suggested that there will always have to be some two-priest parishes even when the demand for priests gets more acute. This would apply for priests who have been recently ordained; it would apply in some very large parishes; it could apply where a priest works best in the company of another priest. There will be changes in the way that priests are allocated to parishes. An important project for each parish will be to ensure that it has a substantial leadership structure so that parish life stays strong, whatever the changes to the appointment of a priest may be. |
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