Like many places, priestly ordinations are lagging in France

The Catholic Church in France, which consists of 99 dioceses, is to ordain only 122 new priests this year, the lowest number since 2016 when only 100 men received Holy Orders.

The French Bishops' Conference (CEF) published this year’s figures on Monday, noting that only 77 of these clerics will be diocesan priests. The rest are members of religious communities of various types and six are being ordained for groups that were established to celebrate the pre-Vatican II Mass.  

In the past 25 years, the ordained workforce in the country once celebrated as the Church’s “eldest daughter” has been cut in half. There were about 29,000 active priests in 1995, compared to less than 14,000 in 2021. 

Their numbers have decreased by about 600 each year. And now more than half of those in active ministry are over 75 years of age. 

According to CEF statistics, there was a peak of 140 ordinations in 2014, before dropping to 120, 100, 117, 125 and 126 over the next five years. The numbers shot back up slightly to 130 last year.

Paris and the post-Vatican II “new communities” lead the way

The Archdiocese of Paris, which ordains 10 men this year, leads all dioceses in France in the number of new priests. 

The Diocese of Vannes will ordain five new priests and the Archdiocese of Lyon will ordain four.

There are four other dioceses that get three new priests this year. None of the other 92 dioceses in France was to ordain more than two men to priestly service. 

The Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon should have welcomed four new priests this year, but the Holy See postponed the ordinations because of serious concerns over the candidates and new communities that its bishop, Dominique Rey, has been accepting. 

The Community of Saint Martin, a more traditional group of men who wear cassocks and celebrate the reformed Mass in Latin, once again lead all religious communities and societies of apostolic life in ordinations with 14 new priests. 

It is estimated that this group, which was founded in 1976 under the patronage of the conservative Italian Cardinal Giuseppe Siri, could represent between 20-40 percent of all active priests in France in 30 years.

The Community of Saint John, another more traditional group that was set up in 1975, ordained five new priests this year. And the Chemin-Neuf Community, a charismatic group founded in 1973 and now present in 30 countries, has ordained four new priests to serve in France.