A Vocations Crisis: It is real
Average age of priests in the U.S. is 70 years old.
Since 1970 there are 40 % less priests to offer mass.
Since 1970 the number of vocations has decreased by 54%.
34% of priests are considered inactive in their parish (retired or infirmed).
In 1970 there were about 1,290 parishioners for each diocesan priest today there are 2,750 parishioners per diocesan priest.
3,377 parishes in America do not have resident priests or 20% of the parishes.
Only 411 ordinations in all of the U.S. in 2020
In 1970 there were about 300 parishioners for each nun. Today there 1700 parishioners for each nun.
Since 1970 consecrated women have dropped from 160,931 to 39,452.
Please join us in helping raise awareness of this crisis. In 10 years there will be no Catholic Church as we know and love in America. We are biking across to raise awareness of this crisis. Please join us to find the missing vocations. Contact: info@bike4vocations.org or click here. Check out our route at: Biking 4 Vocations. (The page takes a little time to load). Scroll down to see the parishes we plan to bike through. Join us in prayer for persons struggling with vocations by clicking here.
There are about 16,000,000 Catholic men between the age of 18-40 in the U.S. Out of these we propose that 0.5% have vocations or about 80,000 men. We are looking for the missing 80,000 priests*.
We estimate at least 210,000 missing vocations among women using the same ratio as sisters to priests in 1970.
These data re taken from the Center for Applied Reseach in the Apostolate.
Note: Male/female ratios in census data across the world indicate that there are on average 0.5% more men than women in the 20-35 age group. This is a providential ratio that if properly tended represents a reserve of excess men that should be especially sensitive to the Holy Spirit calling and available for service in the Catholic Church.