JPII and the alleged decline in the number of priests

Many in the MSM are adopting the group-think line that although JPII was swell guy, he left a Church that is a mess, if not on the verge of collapse. Part of the "evidence" for this, it is said, is the decline in the number of priests. Bill Clinton, ever the astute (and self-absorbed) observer of the religious landscape, opined recently about said decline. I'm glad to see that Colleen Carroll Campbell takes on this misleading, bigoted nonsense in this NRO article. No, it's not so much anti-Catholic nonsense as it is anti-Third World nonsense:

The true picture is much rosier than the one generally painted by American journalists. Though the number of priests in North America dropped from about 72,000 in 1961 to about 58,000 in 2001, and the number in Europe fell from about 251,000 to about 207,000 priests during that time, other parts of the world have seen a simultaneous explosion of priestly vocations. Between 1961 and 2001, the number of priests in Latin America rose from about 43,000 to about 63,000, the number in Africa climbed from about 17,000 to about 28,000, and in Asia, their ranks shot up from about 26,000 to about 45,000. Last year, the Vatican counted about 405,000 priests worldwide, up from 404,000 in 1961. ... Last year, the Vatican announced that there were nearly 50,000 more seminarians in 2001 than in 1978, and the attrition rate for seminarians had fallen during John Paul's pontificate from 9 percent in 1978 to 6.9 percent in 2004.

Campbell quotes Bill O'Reilly, who recently stated, "Priests are down . . . nuns are down . . . It's a catastrophe. People are walking away from the Catholic Church and things are going south fast. I think this pope was a saint, but I'd like to see a more practical pope." What a hoot. O'Reilly is so clueless about the Catholic Church I wonder if he might be liberal theologian in disguise. Sounds like the "No Spin Zone" is subscribing to the PC spin of the larger MSM, perhaps opting for the practical, rather than truthful, route...

Comments

[Susan]

Good grief. You try and you try to denigrate and destroy Christianity and Western civilization and just when you think you're almost done, they pop again in South America and Asia and Africa.

Darn the luck.

[David Deavel]

Carl,

It's not just the third world. As you know, many religious orders in the US are booming. Also in many dioceses priestly vocations are going up again. Mine, St. Paul-Minneapolis, is ordaining 15 priests this spring, the largest number since the ordination classes of the late fifties. The next two classes are 8 and 11. And just this afternoon I spoke to a very mature college freshman who told me he is entering the St. John Vianney college seminary here at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. It is the third-largest college seminary in the nation and still growing.

As good ol' Dan Rather used to say, "Courage."
Dave

[Nancy Brown]

All these Catholic doom and gloomers have an agenda, which doesn't allow for accuracy. The agenda says priests are down, so that the option for non-celibacy and women looks helpful. Doesn't matter what the truth is, truth, schmuth. Good for Colleen.

[Robert]

In discussing the so-called "vocations crisis", almost no one considers the rising affluence of the developed world and what is often termed the "Roe Effect". A certain percentage of those who entered the priesthood and religious life in previous generations did so, in part, as a means to an education and a work-life that poverty would normally have denied them. It is not surprising that the most fertile fields for vocations are now found in the relatively poorer developing world.

Even more significant may be the choice of families in the developed world to radically limit the size of their families. How often did we see families with 7-14 children raise up a health proportion of priests and religious? When families have, at best, one or two children, they are less likely to encourage vocations among their children.

From what I have seen lately, the vocations that have been encouraged by the teaching and example of Pope John Paul II have been solid, committed, and likely to bear fruit.

[Mik]

I hope I live long enough to see who the next scapegoat will be with the media.
Ironically, what I have witnessed about the American seminarians is that they are choosing the more austere route. May God bless each and every one of them. They will all be needed in a mighty way when the press wakes up and decides to go to confession.
I tip my hat to Colleen Campbell for speaking out and presenting the truth. You Go Girl!