Full Pews and Empty Altars, by Richard A Schoenherr and Lawrence A Young
McNamara, Patrick H
CAN THEY MULTIPLY? FULL PEWS AND EMPTY ALTARS Demographics of the Priest Shortage in United States Catholic Dioceses Richard A. Schoenherr and Lawrence A. Young The University ofWisconsin...
...What we are given, however, is an absolute gem of meticulous scholarship that defies ready summary...
...Why do larger Hispanic Catholic populations generate fewer priests...
...If you're looking for an easy read, forget this book...
...25...
...Even under the most optimistic scenario, however, "the number of active priests in 2005 will be about 23,000, over 34 percent fewer than the 35,000 recorded for 1966...
...They give two compelling reasons...
...Births, deaths, and events in between were recorded for each of 36,300 priests: ordination, migration, sick leave, retirement...
...The authors think the probability is low...
...Though some degree of centralized structure and control is necessary for Catholicism to preserve its unique identity, "the need to decide whether to preserve the eucharistic tradition or to maintain compulsory celibacy and male exclusivity looms ever larger as the priest shortage grows...
...The Pacific coast and south Atlantic dioceses were hardest hit...
...Resignations in the peak years were concentrated especially among clergy aged twenty-nine to thirtyfour...
...65 percent above the Catholic population of 1966—but registers a 40 percent loss of diocesan priests over the same period...
...diocesan priesthood since the close of Vatican II...
...It's heavy going...
...Patrick H. McNamara tardate 2005...
...Its eventual publication, they argued, would promote the ordination of married men and women and discourage priest recruitment efforts—a self-fulfilh'ng prophecy, in other words...
...24 As a believer, I know the Holy Spirit can renew hearts and institutions alike, but I can't miss the lines of fatigue on the face of our local pastor, a wonderful priest running a huge suburban parish all by himself How soon the empty altar...
...Perhaps the American church has erred by "not aggressively recruiting or retaining Hispanic seminarians...
...2) pessimistic: relatively low ordination, but higher retirement and resignation rates occurring during certain years are likely to continue...
...3) moderate: the "in-between" rates observable from 1980 to 1984 in their data will prevail...
...Nevertheless, "the sobering message of our research is that declining numbers of U.S...
...Schoenherr and Young don't come off this way, but they must have had their moments...
...As good demographers, Schoenherr and Young offer three projections culminating in the year 2005: (1) optimistic: relatively high ordination, but low resignation and retirement rates experienced during certain years between 1966 and 1985 will dominate...
...Will future events turn things around...
...New York and New England were not far behind...
...and where few Hispanics live...
...Now and for years to come, it will stand as the book that best explains what has been happening to the U.S...
...Catholic priests are virtually unavoidable, at least over the next decade or two...
...bishops and funded by the Lilly Endowment, the study was opposed early on by a powerful, vocal minority of bishops...
...No one seems sure...
...FULL PEWS AND EMPTY ALTARS Demographics of the Priest Shortage in United States Catholic Dioceses Richard A. Schoenherr and Lawrence A. Young The University ofWisconsin Press, $19.95, 437 pp...
...Though their efforts ultimately failed, a few bishops did succeed in having the authors' funds cut off, thereby delaying publication for several years...
...First, Vatican II set forth the notion of "sacramental marriage as an alternative path to true Christian holiness which is equal though different from vowed celibacy...
...Regionally, dioceses of the West and South generate the fewest local candidates for ordination and depend heavily on priests from elsewhere...
...Angry mavericks out to make their points...
...The Captain's Log notes the full Catholic churches detected on planet earth (U.S.A...
...If the text were set to music, only the Carmina Burana would do...
...When the study was finished in 1989, ordinations had yet to turn sharply upward...
...Thus, from 1968 through 1973, during the "mass exodus" of priests, three-quarters of all ordinations were needed just to fill vacancies created by resignation (this figure dropped to 38 percent during the late 1970s and early 1980s...
...More positive themes do appear: dioceses more successful in recruiting and ordaining priests are those in "newly established urban areas where the general population is relatively poor and uneducated...
...The major findings are set in contexts of historical events such as the issuance of Humanae vitae in 1968, and of several previous studies of the same topic: the works of Andrew Greeley, Dean Hoge, Raymond Potvin, Francis Scheets, Joseph Shields, and others are integrated into the discussion as is the earlier work of Schoenherr himself...
...Stark, relentless, inexorable...
...Second, the feminist movement has affected nuns and lay women in ways that erode "male hegemony over the church's ministry and established a growing sense of female equality...
...At stake is continuation of the eucharistic tradition...
...Catholic clergy, 1966 through 1984, within eightyfive dioceses...
...where a vibrant deacon program is operative...
...The cadence of Full Pews and Empty Altars begins with the authors' determination to hammer out an incontrovertible set of data...
...Age at ordination is increasing, lending hope for greater retention and fewer resignations...
...This registry made possible the elaborate statistical analysis facing the reader in table after table, figure after figure, in both text and seven technical appendices...
...The book went to press before the current sexual scandals had wreaked their damage on the image of the priesthood: will the more pessimistic projection finally hold sway...
...Approved by a solid majority of U.S...
...Aided by a small army of research consultants and computer-savvy assistants, Richard Schoenherr and Lawrence A. Young (sociologists at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and Brigham Young University, respectively), developed a census registry for the U.S...
...Looming larger, too, was my own sense of sadness as I closed the last page...
...Frameworks used in the demographic study of organizations illuminate the data throughout the book...
Vol. 121 • March 1994 • No. 5
