Priest Patron and Priest Statistics

Priest Patron and Priest Statistics August 4, 2012

 

The Church celebrates today the feast of Saint John Marie Vianney, patron saint of parish priests, who died on August 4th, 1859.  Sent to the rural and remote village of Ars, France in 1818 because he was not considered very smart, Saint John Vianney became an unsurpassable model for priests, transforming the lives of the villagers of Ars and of the thousands of pilgrims who came seeking him.

Saint John Vianney ministered during the aftermath of the French Revolution, one of the most difficult periods of history for the Church.  Thousands of priests and religious were executed or abandoned their calling.  Monasteries were suppressed, the Church threatened, cathedrals turned into Temples of Reason, stables or markets, and the faith ceased to be taught in whole regions of France.  By trusting in God’s grace and diligently working in Ars, the little piece of God’s Church entrusted to him, Saint John Vianney helped transform the soul of a whole nation.

This great saint is an inspiration for all priests, especially today when in the past four decades the number of priests has remained the same while the number of Catholics worldwide has doubled.  The number of faithful has increased from 653 million in 1970 to 1.16 billion today while the number of priests has dropped relatively little from 419,728 in 1970 to 409,166 (CARA).

This statistic reveals that compared to 1970, a priest today has twice as many parishioners under his care.  Providing relief for this doubled responsibility is the number of permanent deacons which has increased from 309 deacons worldwide in 1970 to 36,539 today (CARA).  The role of lay people has also increased in the contemporary Church as they have assumed non-sacramental responsibilities previously entrusted exclusively to priests, such as taking communion to the sick and homebound.

In the United States we are blessed to have almost 10% of all priests in the world while we are only 5.5% of the universal Catholic population.  In our diocese, we do well by having one priest for every 812 Catholics (2011).  In contrast, the diocese where I was born in Peru has one priest for every 34,014 Catholics (2005).  That is not a typo, it is thirty-four thousand fourteen.

The Lord has provided in difficult times and continues to provide for His faithful.  Saint John Vianney lived in the aftermath of the French Revolution while we live in a time of secularism and consumerism.  We continue to pray for vocations to the priesthood and religious life so there may be plenty of workers in the vineyard of the Lord.  We must trust the Lord is with us and that He has already won the victory.

 

 

House of Saint John Vianney
House of Saint John Vianney, his room
Basilica in Ars
The Tomb of Saint John Vianney
Pictures are mine, all rights reserved.

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