"U.S. Church: Candidates for Priesthood Reflect Increasing Diversity"


[The] number of ordinands has been stable for several years at 450


"The most underrepresented group was Hispanics."


Note: CARA = Center of Applied Research in the Apostolate.


The Jesuit magazine, America has some solid information in this article by an author described as one "Jerry Filteau, a freelance journalist, [who] retired in 2007 after 35 years with Catholic News Service."

These random snippets are more or less taken out of context or simply ripped - off from their May 11, 2009 issue.


"The total annual number of U.S. ordinands has been stable for several years at around 450.

"The new study shows Asian - Americans represent 11 percent of this year's ordinands -- the term for those about to be ordained -- even though Asian - Americans account for only 3 percent of the total U.S. population.

"About 3 percent of U.S. Catholics are black, and the same percentage of this year's ordination class is black.

"The most underrepresented group was Hispanics.

"U.S. Catholics of Hispanic or Latino heritage make up an estimated 34 percent of the nation's Catholic population.

"But only 12 percent of the ordinands answering the CARA survey described themselves as Hispanic.

"The average age of this year's ordinands is 36, consistent with the average over the past five years.

"[T]he number of active diocesan priests has dropped from nearly 24,000 in 1997 to a little over 19,000 in 2007..."

A good read!