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As a 35-year-old homeschooling dad of three in a diocese in the Bible Belt (2 percent Catholic population), with the closest Traditional Latin Mass being 3 hours away in Atlanta, it is difficult to imagine, aside from God's mysterious ways of working and his grace, how this particular father could become part of, and identify exclusively with the traditional movement. But after being awakened to my Faith by fundamentalists knocking at my door after moving southward from Chicago 7 years ago, then gorging myself on Scripture studies (albeit initially of the heretical variety) and apologetics before finally finding the Mass of All Ages and Tradition, I worked my way through all the conservative Novus Ordo publications of Ignatius Press, the Wanderer until firmly planting myself in reading old Catholic books, going on silent retreats, engaging in the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola, and now recently studying for my master's in theology. My wife says I'm obsessed, which of course I am due to adhering always to G.K. Chesterton's famous phrase, "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing badly!" So here I am, nothing but a layman who has read a lot, embarking to write an article on the underlying causes and possible solutions, or solution, to the current vocations crisis in the post-Conciliar Church.
The proposed causes and influencing factors of the vocations crisis are well-known in traditionalist circles, but a summary of the causes and underlying breakdowns associated with these causes might perhaps be educational in order to focus from a wide angle on the absolute and utter destruction of the post-Vatican II Church, and how nearly all breakdowns in the Faith have contributed to this crisis:
- Vatican II
- The "spirit" of Vatican II
- Change to the Novus Ordo and suppression of the Traditional Mass
- Loss of belief in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist
- Media's negative portrayal of the Priesthood
- Orthodox candidates rejected in dioceses by Modernist "vocations" evaluators
- False Ecumenism
- Increase in negative publicity due to the pedophile crisis and coverup
- Emphasis on the role of the laity
- Increase in sodomites admitted to seminaries
- Humanae Vitae rejected by U.S. Church
- Crisis in the family
- Collapse of Catholic grammar and high schools and colleges coinciding with abandonment of the Priesthood and women religious life
- Changes in society
- Opening up of the Church to the world - lack of distinction between the profane and the sacred
- Weak Pope Paul VI and Bishops
- Rise and power of feminism
- Apostasy
- Abandonment of authentic Priestly formation
- "Extraordinary" ministers of the Eucharist
- Communion in the hand
- Communion under both species
- Altar girls
Although there are numerous other factors that could be mentioned, most traditionalists and some conservatives would acknowledge that to one extent or the other, all of the previously-listed points are valid contributors to the vocations crisis. But before tackling just a few of these points, let's peruse some figures just to get a flavor of the magnitude of the crisis.
Statistics Confirm Crisis
Statistics from the 1998 Catholic Directory show the following highlights, or lowlights. The number of diocesan Priests in the U.S. has dropped from 35,925 in 1965 to 31,657 in 1998, a nearly 11 percent decline. More alarming, however, is that the number of active diocesan Priests has dropped to only 23,857, with the remainder being retired or inactive for other reasons. During this same period, the total number of Catholics has grown from nearly 47 million in 1965 to an alleged 62 million in 1998 who at least call themselves Catholic.
The decline in the numbers for religious order Priests and sisters is even more pronounced. Religious Priests in the U.S. have gone from 22,207 in 1965 to 15,925 in 1998. Sisters have experienced the sharpest falloff, most probably the result of desire of wanting to experience the world and become social workers rather than living as brides of Christ. The grim figures show most orders going on an extinction curve very soon-nearly 180,000 U.S.-based sisters in 1965 to a paltry 85,412 in 1998. My, how radical feminism has devastated this holy and sacred vocation!
What is really interesting is that the statistics show a steadily increasing rate for total numbers of Priests, seminarians and religious sisters for the 1920s, '30s, '40s and '50s into the early '60s, when of course, the bottom dropped out.
On a somewhat more positive note, however, according to the Catholic News Service, in 1978, there were 63,882 seminarians in the world. The 1998 statistics show 108,517 seminarians of all types worldwide, an increase of a whopping 70 percent. While the overall outlook for seminarians worldwide is quite positive, one must remember that the average age of Priests has increased dramatically in the past 20 years, with the number of those retiring and dying far exceeding the current capacity to replace them. However, it is good to note that the tide has appeared to turn, at least when considering worldwide vocations numbers.
Another example of the crisis since Vatican II is revealed by Atila Sinke Guimaraes, author of In the Murky Waters of Vatican II, who notes that since 1962, nearly 51,000 Priests have abandoned their vocation worldwide from Vatican II to the mid-'80s. He also estimates that in the U.S., from 1962 to the late 1980s, approximately 12,000 U.S. Priests have left their calling. And the most damning indictment of all regarding the alleged "fruits" of the "renewal" is the sobering fact that in 1962, there were 46,189 seminarians in the U.S. By early 1992, this number had plummeted to 6,247, and it is estimated that about 60 percent persevere to final vows. The number of graduate-level seminarians in the U.S. in 1998 was only 3,158, with 8,325 in the graduate level in 1965. The average age of diocesan Priests in the U.S. was 56 in the mid-1980s. It is expected the average age will be nearly 73 (past normal retirement age) as we cross into the 21st century.
And finally, perhaps the most depressing statistics of all from In the Murky Waters of Vatican II is that more than 100,000 ordained Priests have left the Priesthood to get married since the close of the Council. Tantamount to committing "adultery" against Jesus Christ Himself, these "married" Priests have formed national and international organizations to lobby the Vatican for the lifting of mandatory Priestly celibacy. Their argument of course is that this would dramatically alleviate the current crisis in the Church. What is not easily explained is how those men living in adultery against Jesus Christ Himself could possibly be in the state of grace since they obviously have no "firm purpose of amendment."
There are numerous other figures to highlight both the abandonment of the Priesthood and religious life throughout the 1960s and '70s particularly, but the scene has been set. Now, it is time to make a hypothesis as to the key contributing factors to this crisis. This article will touch upon but a few factors that appear to be the most influential in the devastation of the Roman Catholic Priesthood in the past four decades.
The Emperor Has No Clothes!
So-called conservative Catholics loathe to make the "infallible" Second Vatican Council the scapegoat for the vocations crisis, let alone the current apostasy, if indeed they recognize it, sweeping through the Church, especially in the Western World. Why their persistence in this denial is beyond logical explanation, but perhaps it is because once the average Catholic reads the actual documents of Vatican II, they sound so much more "orthodox" than anything he has experienced at his local parish church in 30 years, that they seem to him to be a prototype of traditional Catholic teaching. But when one begins to plow through Vatican I, the Council of Trent, Unam Sanctam and encyclicals by Popes Pius IX, X, XI and XII, Leo XIII and others, one becomes attached to authentic Catholicism in light of its perennial teachings, not simply the documents of the past 30 years written as they are written for the mythical "modern man." The fact of the matter is that "modern man" doesn't read much.
Conservatives are also wont to shift any blame from Vatican II on the alleged "spirit of Vatican II" and the "misinterpretation of the documents by the Liberals." This often appears at first glance to be a valid argument. However, when one really studies the documents themselves, it becomes more evident the unclear, murky nature of the language that veered completely away from precise, classical, theological language into the imprecise, confusing "pastoral" language that was used later to justify so many innovations. One can literally pinpoint paragraphs written by the innovators, couched between those of the traditional Catholic bent. No, unfortunately, while this "misinterpretation" of the Council by liberals has wreaked much havoc, this evil "spirit" of Vatican II is not the sole or even primary reason for the current apostasy. However, the time bombs, due to the imprecise language used, are manifest within the documents themselves.
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, in an address to the Bishops of Chile on July 13, 1988, admitted the Council's pastoral and non-dogmatic nature. While the primary purpose of his speech appears to be to condemn the illegal consecrations by Archbishop LeFebvre and explaining that Vatican II is valid and binding on the Church, the Prefect for the Sacred Congregation of the Faith admitted the following:
Certainly, there is a mentality of narrow views that isolate Vatican II and which has provoked this opposition. There are many accounts of it which give the impression that, from Vatican II onward, everything has changed, and that what preceded it has no value, or at best, has value only in light of Vatican II.
The Second Vatican Council has not been treated as a part of the living Tradition of the Church, but as an end to Tradition, a new start from zero. The truth is that this particular Council defined no dogma at all, and deliberately chose to remain on a modest level, as a merely pastoral Council; and yet many treat it as though it had made itself into a sort of superdogma which takes away the importance of all the rest.
The Church's protector of the Deposit of Faith, explained in this same letter the effect this aforementioned attitude, Vatican II as an end to Tradition, had on those who were scandalized by the destruction of the Roman rite. Cardinal Ratzinger said, "This idea is made stronger by things that are now happening. That which previously was considered most holy-the form in which the liturgy was handed down-suddenly appears as the most forbidden of things, the one thing that can safely be prohibited."
And finally, what is probably the most frustrating to traditional Catholics is the state-of-mind of those Catholics who refuse to attribute any of the destruction of the Church to anything to do with Vatican II. "It was the '60s turmoil," they say. "Society is what contributed to it, not Vatican II; the traditionalist arguments in this regard are too simplistic," is another rallying cry of the ostrich who is in denial with his head in the sand.
While the radical turbulence of the 1960s and all its associated vices certainly has contributed to the vocations crisis in the Church, previous to this "opening up to the world," the Church's doctrines, and especially for the average Catholic, its liturgy, served as a fortress, a defense mechanism against the ever-changing opinions of society and the world. This change in approach and attitude was a direct result of the apostasy that has occurred within the very bosom of the Church, and forecasted by Sister Lucy of Fatima, since Vatican II and its imprecise document formulations that allowed the "progressives" to foist their revolution upon the Church.
I find it quite interesting that those same people who have reiterated the word "renewal" for the past 35 years are nearly blind to the apostasy that has occurred throughout the Church. These same people, as well as many conservative Catholics, refuse to place ANY BLAME WHATSOEVER on Vatican II itself! Just imagine for a moment that this mythical "renewal" in the Church had actually taken place: would these same people credit "society" as the cause or Vatican II? In fact, there are still some who claim that a "renewal" has indeed occurred despite the overwhelming statistical evidence otherwise. In a way, they separate what should no longer be separated since the Council-the Church and the world. For when all Catholics understood the "Kingdom of God" to reside fully within the boundaries of the Catholic Church, there was no danger in opening the Church up to the heresies of the world.
Remember, it was Pope John XXIII himself who consciously declared this Council to be one of "opening up" and embracing the world. What a miserable time in history for the Church to open up to the world. In other words, since both come together as a package according to the Pope, then we can't blame society without the Council or its "spirit" sharing at least as much of the blame. However, since the Church was instituted by Jesus Christ to transform the world to Catholic morals and values, by opening up the Church to the world through Vatican II, the hierarchy of the Church destroyed its immune system, thus allowing the manifold viruses of the '60s and of Modernism into the very bosom of the Church, thus explaining Pope Paul VI's lament that "the Smoke of Satan has entered the Temple of God."
The Novus Ordo and Vatican II
In order to be clear at the outset about my argument that Vatican II and the Novus Ordo Mass are the primary parties responsible for the 30-plus year-old vocations and Priest crisis in the Church (including religious brothers and sisters), it is necessary to differentiate between the two. It is helpful to recall that the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council did not promulgate the Novus Ordo. In fact, in a vote that was taken in a synod shortly after the Council, the Council Fathers overwhelmingly rejected an almost exact replica of the current rite. This Mass is solely the invention of a committee of liturgical "experts," and was promulgated by Pope Paul VI, after much hand-wringing and consternation. In other words, despite popular opinion otherwise, the Novus Ordo was NOT promulgated nor approved by the Council Fathers. While I in no way doubt the validity of the Novus Ordo said according to the rubrics in Latin (see I Am with You Always, by Michael Davies), it is instructional to go back to the letter from Cardinals Ottaviani and Bacci to Pope Paul VI, known as the "Ottaviani Intervention." It is my conclusion that the suppression of the Mass of All Ages and the promulgation of a fabricated new rite without the usual organic development is the single most important reason for the vocations crisis in the Church.
Written by Cardinals Ottaviani and Bacci, and with potential signees of more than 200 other bishops, the following statements regarding the Novus Ordo, which if stated as being believed by Catholics today, is grounds for being called schismatic and heretical, as well as being denied the indult Traditional Latin Mass. The results they foretold have been the primary factor for the cause of the devastation of the Priesthood and vocations in the post-Conciliar Church. These words, remember, are from Cardinal Ottaviani, prefect of the Holy Office, now the Sacred Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, the protector and watchdog of Catholic doctrine and dogma:
"…the Novus Ordo represents a striking departure from the Catholic theology of the Mass as it was formulated in Session XXII of the Council of Trent."
"The pastoral reasons adduced to support such a grave break with tradition, even if such reasons could be regarded as holding good in the face of doctrinal considerations, do not seem to us sufficient. The innovations in the Novus Ordo and the fact that all that is of perennial value finds only a minor place, if it subsists at all, could well turn into a certainty the suspicions already prevalent, alas, in many circles, that truths which have always been believed by the Christian people, can be changed or ignored without infidelity to that sacred deposit of doctrine to which the Catholic faith is bound forever. Recent reforms have amply demonstrated that fresh changes in the liturgy could lead to nothing but complete bewilderment of the faithful who are already showing signs of restiveness and of an indubitable lessening of the faith."
Therefore, the return of the Traditional Latin Mass to all the altars of the world is the single most effective solution to having a vocations crisis like the FSSP (110 seminarians by 2000), SSPX (370 Priests, 300 seminarians), Society of St. John (100 applicants thus far within its first year) and the Institute of Christ the King-that is, too many applicants without enough space to put them. Now, I am in no way insinuating that Traditional orders are the only ones growing. Most well-informed Catholics recognize that certain orthodox (conservative Novus Ordo) dioceses are currently being flooded with vocations: Peoria, Illinois; Arlington, Virginia; Atlanta, Georgia, and Lincoln, Nebraska are a few of the better known ones. Also, the Legionaries of Christ have 400 Priests and nearly 2,500 seminarians worldwide. Those who are obedient to the magisterium will also prosper and show the fruits of their efforts. But aside from these few bright spots on the horizon, is there any other common denominator uniting young men to flock to the Priesthood? Yes, it is called Tradition and the Mass of All Ages.
However, the return of the Traditional Latin Mass to all the altars of the world will provide Catholics once again with true Catholic worship as "lex orandi, lex credendi," and will alleviate nearly all the abuses and concessions to Modernists that have become routine in the always-changing, always-updated Novus Ordo, even in the conservative dioceses in the Western world, especially the United States.
Remove the Ambiguity
First, we shall point out the particular customs that are tolerated worldwide in the current Novus Ordo that help to destroy belief in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist and minimalize the Priest's role in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Several of these were mentioned earlier, but the return of the Mass of All Ages to all the altars of the world will alleviate at least the following nine points of the original list of 26 causes of the current vocations crisis:
- Change to the Novus Ordo and suppression of the Traditional Mass
- Loss of belief in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist
- Ecumenism
- Apostasy
- Abandonment of authentic Priestly formation
- "Extraordinary" ministers of the Eucharist
- Communion in the hand
- Communion under both species
- Altar girls
The return of the Traditional Latin Mass will increase the belief of the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist and will end the confusion that the Novus Ordo presents in its ecumenical suppression of true Catholic doctrine to suit the preferences of the Lutherans and Anglicans. The return of the authentically developed Mass of All Ages will thus help bring an end to the apostasy of the past 34 years within the upper echelons of the Church hierarchy due to the spiritual benefits and graces derived from the Eucharistic devotion and piety that will manifest itself within the Church. We will address the specifics of the clarification of "as we worship, we believe" shortly.
It is evident that the return of the Mass of All Ages will end "extraordinary" ministers of the Eucharist, communion in the hand (which makes everyone their own Eucharistic minister anyway), communion under both species and altar girls. With these "indults" suppressed forever, boys will once again receive the Priestly formation they deserve by serving faithfully at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. My son, Nicholas, who has served daily Mass in the Novus Ordo for nearly 4 years, recognizes that the boys and young men who serve even low Mass in the old rite, have a much more difficult assignment, more responsibilities, and play a much more integral role in the Holy Sacrifice being offered appropriately. This is the true formation that is lacking in even the most high of the Novus Ordo Masses. This is where vocations are discerned-at the Holy Altar of God!
Also, with the elimination of these "indults," men and women alike will once again become more reverent in receiving Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist, and our Lord will no longer be outraged and saddened by his body, blood, soul and divinity being crushed under the feet of those who have just received Him. The Priest will once again regain his role as having the sole sacred authority to touch our Lord's body and blood, and the sacred vessels. The emasculated Priesthood will begin to regain its masculinity and its true leadership role in the Mystical Body of Christ within the parish.
The Crisis of Fatherhood
As even the secular psychologists and statistics verified the crisis of fatherhood in the families that has gained momentum due to the sexual revolution in society begun in the '60s, coupled with the wide availability of contraception and abortion (sex without responsibility), so we have seen a crisis of "Fatherhood" with our Priests since Vatican II and its Conciliar reforms streamed into our parishes unabated. Roles that were once reserved to the Priest alone are now regularly occupied by those famous supposed "extraordinary," become quite ordinary ministers of the Eucharist. Where once nobody but a Priest could handle the sacred vessels or even touch the tabernacle to open it, now these "extraordinary" ministers of all varieties bounce around the altar area and the tabernacle, and administer the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ, not even mentioning that Communion in the hand makes everyone his own "extraordinary" minister of the Eucharist. What is the impression given to our young men and few boys left who serve at the altar of God about the importance of the Priestly role nowadays, when Sister Suzie can just as easily perform her daily Communion service, yet appear to perform nearly all the other roles of the Priest? The same goes for those "extraordinary" ministers of the Eucharist in their mini-skirts and the high school girls in their cassocks serving Father in the holy of holies!
This very "demasculation of the Priesthood" is superbly explained in much greater detail in Father John McLucas's article in the Spring 1998 issue of Latin Mass. The article explains how for the first time even in an unbroken 1500 years, the Latin Church has opened up the ordained ministry to married men (the permanent diaconate) perhaps as a prelude to the eventual relaxing of the discipline of Priestly celibacy. There has even been hinting at such possibilities from certain Cardinals regarding possible married Priests and women deacons, when a new Pope is elected in the future. This would be a grave theological error, in Father McLucas's opinion, not to mention that pragmatically speaking, most Catholic parishes do not tithe enough for their sole Pastor's measly salary, let alone needing to pay for married "Father's" family of six children, each of whom of course would attend Notre Dame at $30,000 a pop! What a drain on parish finances that would be. Also, if we think the annulment fiasco is bad now (460 U.S. annulments in 1968; nearly 63,000 in 1999), how about divorce for married Priests? This would also open up the floodgates for the more than 100,000 Priests worldwide who have "left" the Priesthood to marry since Vatican II.
Father McLucas writes, "One aspect of the current crisis has escaped scrutiny: the present status of the celibate Priesthood following the expansive absorption of many sacred functions by the laity that were formerly reserved to the ordained." He sums up succinctly, "Endangering Priestly celibacy because it is inherently hostile to a healthy masculinity, this structural revolution evokes an image of a square peg into a round hole. The post-Conciliar Church is of a different shape from that which housed the traditional theology of the Priesthood."
As a Priest from the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, some may object of course that Father McLucas is biased because he celebrates only the pre-Vatican II rite and Sacraments. However, one of the progressive (re: Modernist) members of the Council, Cardinal Giovanni Benelli, when asked about the possible return of the Traditional Latin Mass after the Council, he opined that it was impossible because the Mass of all Ages "represented an ecclesiology at variance with the one articulated at Vatican II."
Finally, with perceptively clear traditional theological, psychological and sociological precision, Father McLucas lucidly and clearly articulates how "…the assumption of sacred functions by the laity, reserved to the ordained for at least 1500 years, is poisoning the Priesthood. The contention proceeds from a simple premise: if the Priesthood is reserved to men, as has been taught by the Church, then what does harm to the masculine nature of the ordained weakens the Priesthood."
This is not the forum to explain the manifestations of the emergence of feminism, contraception and abortion as they emerged as power mechanisms over men, nor the identity crisis that nearly all husbands and fathers have suffered through for the past 30 years of women's liberation, but suffice to say that what detracts from fatherhood in families also detracts from Fatherhood in the family of God, the Church.
The Cure to the Crisis-The Mass of All Ages
As this issue is quite exhaustive, 26 contributing factors have been outlined previously as the causes to the systematic destruction of the Priesthood and his role since Vatican II; however, only a few of these have been addressed in detail in this article. Each of these issues and others are interrelated. One such major issue that was only briefly mentioned was ecumenism and its central role in the philosophy behind the destruction of the Roman rite. It may perhaps be appropriate to reiterate that I propose that the single most effective solution to the current crisis in vocations and the Priesthood is the universal acceptance and promulgation of the Traditional Latin Mass in all dioceses and altars throughout the world! Altar boys will once again receive the authentic formation they deserve by serving faithfully at the Holy Altar of Sacrifice-the Mass of All Ages.
God has already laid the groundwork for this eventual happening as few Novus Ordo dioceses and orders are reproducing themselves (natural law perhaps?). Just as the feminist and unfaithful women's religious orders will die out, so eventually the Traditional Latin Mass and the Traditional Priestly orders will be all that remains from the heap of rubble from the "renewal" perhaps 40, 50 or 60 years from now (As an aside, has anyone ever noticed how the RENEW tree is barren and has no leaves, no fruit?).
And finally, the prophetic warning of Pope St. Pius X in his letter to the Sillon (France) seems so foreboding to us today. How could this saintly Pope have foreseen the coming crisis of the One World Church in the name of false ecumenism?
We must repeat this with the utmost energy in these times of social and intellectual anarchy, when everyone poses as a teacher and lawmaker-The City cannot be built otherwise than God has built it. Society cannot be set up unless the Church lays the foundations and supervises the work. No, civilization is not something yet to be found, nor is the New City to be built on hazy notions; it has been in existence and still is: it is the Christian civilization, it is the Catholic City…[modernist Catholic social orientations and praxis have] been harnessed by the modern enemies of the Church, and is no more than a miserable affluent of the great movement of apostasy being organized in every country for the establishment of a One-World Church which shall have neither dogmas, nor hierarchy, neither discipline for the mind, nor restraint for the passions.
Pope St. Pius V, Pope Pius IX, Pope St. Pius IX and soon-to-be canonized Jacinta and Francisco, and Our Lady of Fatima, ORA PRO NOBIS!
1. 1998 Official Catholic Directory, issued by the Holy See, 1998
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. NCCB/USCC Vocations Home Page (www.nccbuscc.org/vocations/statistics.htm); culled from "The CARRA Report," Summer 1998, Vol. 4, No. 1.
5. Catholic News Service
6. Ibid.
7. Zenit news service, "Vocations Decrease, Crisis Among Men and Women Religious Continues, but Seminarians Increase," June 4, 1999.
8. In the Murky Waters of Vatican II, by Atila Sinke Gumares, 1997, p. 312.
9. Ibid, p. 313.
10. What Has Happened to the Catholic Church?, by Fathers Francisco and Dominic Radecki.
11. Ibid.
12. NCCB/USCC Vocations Home Page…
13. In the Murky Waters… p. 313.
14. Ibid, p. 318.
15. Address to Bishops of Chile, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, July 13, 1988 in Santiago, Chile.
16. Ibid.
17. "Resistite fortes in fide," Pope Paul VI, June 29, 1972.
18. "The Ottaviani Intervention," signed by Cardinals Ottaviani and Bacci, with alleged support from more than 200 other Bishops and Cardinals, to His Holiness, Pope Paul VI, September 25, 1969.
19. "The Demasculation of the Priesthood," by Father John McLucas, FSSP, Latin Mass, Spring 1998.
20. What Has Happened to the Catholic Church?…
21. "The Demsaculation of the Priesthood,…"
22. Ibid.
23. Ibid.
23. Apostolic Letter to the Sillon, Pope St. Pius X, August 25, 1910.
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