The Dynamics of Vocations to the Priesthood in the Period of John Paul II’s Pontificate /1978-1986/

Abstract

The present paper attempts at answering the question on the way the dynamics of vocation to the priesthood was characterized in the period of 1978-1S86. In order to answer this question, I point at the rate of the growing number of vocations and their putting into practice. I also point at the number of priests in the period under scrutiny. The analysis· embraces both the diocesan and religious vocations to the priesthood. I am analyzing the problem in view of the up-to-date statistics of vocations and of the Roman-Catholic clergy in Poland, available at the Secretariat of the Polish Primate.

In order to show the rate of the growing number of vocations to the priesthood in Poland during the pontificate of John Paul II, I compare that rate with respective coefficients from the period before the pontificate. It comes from such a comparison that, among others, the dynamics of vocations during the pontificate is markedly greater than that in the 60s and 70s. The percentage of alumni increased by 74,6% in relation to their percentage from 1977: then the percentage of diocesan priests increased by 56,8% and religious by 118,9%· The increase in the number of religious vocations was then more dynamic in relation to priesthood vocations, which is more marked by the difference of 62,1%. The number of the candidates for the first years of seminaries increased. In the case of Diocesan Theological Seminaries there are 289 students /34,7%/ and in Religious Theological Seminaries 407 /122,2%/, in total it is 696 students /59,7%/. The increase in the number of vocations of both types varies in particular dioceses and orders. In the period under scrutiny the total number of priests and newly ordained priests increased considerably. The increase in the number of the latter expresses the number of 2955 people /77,3%/, including diocesan 1953 /74,3%/ and religious priests 1006 /109,1%/· At the same time, one has to notice that the death rate among priests increased; in total 1033 /54,1%/, diocesan 740 /41,2%/ and religious 293 /82,2%/. It does not concern ell dioceses and orders, though. In spite of that, the Church in Poland at that time gained 2019 new diocesan priests, among which group there were 264 newly ordained priests.

Such a large number of vocations, among alumni and priests, in Poland during the pontificate of John Paul II, remains without precedence in other Catholic countries, both in Eastern and Western Europe. Everywhere there was a fall in the number of vocations, especially in East Germany and Yugoslavia, yet in Poland there was an increase by 42,8% in total, among which percentage diocesan by 38,0% and religious by 56,7%. In relation to other European countries the increase in the number of vocations was greater in Poland: totally 13 times, diocesan 4 times and religious 9 times, the large number of vocations in Poland is strictly linked with the dynamics of religious faith among the majority of Catholic families, out of which the vocations come.