Statistics on the Type of Men Becoming Priests Today


Please Watch Fishers of Men Video

  • Close to two in five (37 percent) have a relative who is a priest or religious.
  • Two thirds report regularly praying the rosary (67 percent) and participating in Eucharistic Adoration (65 percent) before entering seminary.
  • More than half of ordinands (55 percent) report having more than two siblings, while one-quarter (24 percent) report having five or more siblings. Two in five (38 percent) are the oldest child in their family.
  • Seven in 10 report their primary race or ethnicity as Caucasian/European American/white (70 percent). Compared to the adult Catholic population of the United States, ordinands were more likely to be Asian or Pacific Islander (10 percent of responding ordinands), but less likely to be Hispanic/Latino (13 percent). Compared to diocesan ordinands, religious ordinands are less likely to report their race or ethnicity as Caucasian/European American/white.
  • Nearly one-third (31 percent) of the ordination class of 2010 was born outside the United States, the largest numbers coming from Mexico, Colombia, the Philippines, Poland and Vietnam. Between 20 and 30 percent of ordinands to the diocesan priesthood for each of the last 10 years were born outside the United States.
  • Eight in 10 (85 percent) report they have seen the “Fishers of Men” DVD published by the USCCB.

Read the whole thing from the USCCB.

Comments Policy: I reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive or off-topic. If your comment contains a hyperlink to another site, your comment automatically goes into "Comments Purgatory" where it waits for release by way of moderation.