Decree on the ministry and life of priests Presbytorum Ordinis

The bishops discovered very late that the priests were essential for getting the teachings of the Council to the people and that the priests need a theological preparation for this transmission of the Council’s pastoral and teaching reforms (Grootaers, Jan. 1996. “Il concilio si gioca nell’intervallo. La seconda preparazione e i suoi avversari.” In La formazione della coscienza conciliare. Il primo period e la prima intersessione ottobre 1962 – settembre 1963. Vol. 2 of Storia del concilio Vaticano II, directed by Giuseppe Alberigo, 385–558. 524. Bologna: Società editrice il Mulino). Only late in January 1964, the coordinating commission asked for a short text on essential points of the priesthood (Vilanova, Evangelista. 1998. “L´intersessione (1963–1964).” In Il concilio adulto.settembre 1963 – settembre 1964. Vol. 3 of Storia del concilio Vaticano II, directed by Giuseppe Alberigo, 367–512. 414. Bologna: Società editrice il Mulino) and for a short scheme on the formation of priests (ibid. 415). The commission on the life of the priests also worked on the Catholic schools and universities (ibid. 418). The fathers received the texts in May 1964 and criticized them heavily, because they had not integrated the theology of Lumen Gentium and other documents of the Council. The commission worked over the critique and both schemes were discussed again in October 1964 in the aula, but there was only consensus on the scheme on the formation of priests in the discussions (Tanner, Norman. 1999. “La chiesa nella società: ecclesia ad extra.” In La chiesa come communione settember 1964 – settember 1965. Vol. 4 of Storia del concilio Vaticano II, directed by Giuseppe Alberigo, 293–416. 373. Bologna: Società editrice il Mulino).

The scheme on the life of the priests was worked over in the spring of 1965. To please some fathers, the reference to married apostles was canceled from the text, nevertheless, a negative valuation of sexuality in general was not in the text that was sent to the bishops on June 12, 1965 (Burigana, Riccardo, and Giovanni Turbanti. 1999. “L’intersessione prepare la conclusione del concilio.” In La chiesa come communione settember 1964 – settember 1965. Vol. 4 of Storia del concilio Vaticano II, directed by Giuseppe Alberigo, 483–648. 605. Bologna: Società editrice il Mulino). The texts on the ministry and life of the priests and on the priestly training finally passed at the end of October 1965, together with the text on the bishops (Velati, Mauro. 2001. “Il completamento dell’ agenda conciliare.” In Concilio di transizione settembre – dicembre 1965. Vol. 5 of Storia del concilio Vaticano II, directed by Giuseppe Alberigo, 197–284. 238. Bologna: Società editrice il Mulino).

Presbyterorum Ordinis is the product of old white celibate male bishops. Fifty years after the promulgation of the decree there are still old white celibate male bishops in control of the Catholic Church. The bishops of all colors govern their dioceses from a secure, usually comfortable building and are surrounded by at least a handful of priests, male celibates who help in the governing. For the bishops it is no problem to concelebrate the Eucharist and exchange about their life, concerns and experiences in common prayer and meditation every day. The bishops get a lot of attention when they are celebrating the Eucharist in their dioceses the Church is crowded, the local media pays attention to the bishop, and he is a figure of public life. The white celibate male bishops, who were meeting at Saint Peter’s for the Second Vatican Council in Rome, were not aware of the dramatic changes of the social conditions of the life of their priests.

The prestigious priest and professor at the University of Tubingen, Ottmar Fuchs writes the German theological commentary on Presbyterorum Ordinis (Fuchs, Ottmar. 2005a. “B. Kommentierung.” In “Theologischer Kommentar zum Dekret über den Dienst und das Leben der Presbyter Presbyterorum ordinis,” Ottmar Fuchs and Peter Hünermann, 337–580, in Herders Theologischer Kommentar zum Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzil, edited by Peter Hünermann and Bernd Jochen Hilberath, Vol. 4, 411–580. Freiburg: Herder). The bishops were busy with the Council, they were governing their dioceses, but they were not in touch with the life, concerns and working conditions of their priests. There were almost no priests contributing to the preparation of the Council writing about their experiences at home in the parishes and their pastoral or personal needs (ibid. 556). Presbyterorum ordinis is a theological text that does not pay attention to the social context of the priests that is not open to the changes that are under way in society and in the world, and that does not allow flexible control to adapt to changing environmental social conditions. In 2005 Fuchs analyses correctly, that when the crisis of the Church in Europe and North America becomes visible in the 1970s and accelerates with growing speed to our days, the priests got no help from this document to cope with their personal and professional crisis (ibid.).

The episcopal documents of episcopal conferences and the 1983 Code of Canon Law did not empower the priests either with coping abilities for the crisis in Europe, North America and Australia (ibid. 557). There is no word in the text and in the commentary of Ottmar Fuchs on the social, political and spiritual situation of the priests in South America, Africa and Asia. Nevertheless, the document celebrates the bishops all over the globe. The bishops are the proper sanctifiers, governors and teachers of the Church, not the priests who have to realize all the burdens of the pastoral work in their day-to-day routines (ibid. 556).

The document writes in a very theoretical and abstract manner about priests. The name “priest” serves as the translation of the Latin term presbyter. The name presbyter signifies the elders who lead a Christian community, when there was only one priest known to the Christians, that is the High Priest Jesus Christ. The Second Vatican Council had to define the priestly office as an office withing the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church. The whole Declaration takes only 22 numbers and most of them are not really speaking to the reality of modern parish life.

The Decree starts with the question “What is the priestly office about?”. Presbyterorum Ordinis 1 affirms: “Priests by sacred ordination and mission, which they receive from the bishops, are promoted to the service of Christ the Teacher, Priest and King. They share in his ministry, a ministry whereby the Church here on earth is unceasingly built up into the People of God, the Body of Christ and the Temple of the Holy Spirit.”

Presbyterorum Ordinis 2 also speaks of a participation of the priests in the mission of the bishops but does not describe the authentic mission or sacramental consecration of the priest and does not value and appreciated their work (ibid. 555). The bishops simply describe their expectations of the priests in the document, that is in the first-place submission and humble obedience to their orders (ibid.). A view articles later, Presbyterorum Ordinis 7 says that all priests, “in union with bishops, so share in one and the same priesthood and ministry of Christ” (ibid.). It is not clear if the priesthood is an independent sacrament of consecration or participation at the sacrament of the consecration of the bishop. Presbyterorum Ordinis 5, 3 illustrates the center of the crisis of the Church in Europe, North America and Australia claiming that “the Eucharistic Action, over which the priest presides, is the very heart of the congregation”. On Sundays the “houses of prayer in which the Most Holy Eucharist is celebrated” (Presbyterorum Ordinis 5, 5) are practically empty, ten to thirty elderly women and men are attending the Eucharist, there is not much of an enthusiast and joyful celebration and one can hardly call this group a “congregation”.

In 2019, the celebration of the Eucharist is not any more the heart of local Church. The sacrament of the Eucharist, the nucleus of the pastoral work of the priest, does not unite any more the Catholics on Sundays. Catholics in Europe, North America and Australia celebrate the baptism of their children, they celebrate their marriages, and they celebrate their funerals in the house of prayer, they attend Mass at Christmas and Easter but the rest of the time, they have no social contact with the priest. During formation, the few candidates for priesthood live together with their peers. Once they are responsible for a parish, there is only administrative distress, growing social isolation, and diminishing authority and prestige; the ongoing scandals of sexual abuse of children and youth by priests and its cover-up by the bishops generally destroyed trust in the priests and confidence in the Church (ibid. 553). With the priests reaching their forties peer relations are gone and the family of origin is no more an emotional resource and help. The administration of the bishop manages the goods of the dioceses but not the social needs of the priests. The managers are lay women and men paid by the bishop. They keep costs for the priests low and deal with them in a businesslike way. The material needs like housing are considered costs and not the necessary surrounding for a happy living, recreation, study and social life.

Presbyterorum Ordinis 9 claims that “priests have been placed in the midst of the laity to lead them to the unity of charity, ‘loving one another with fraternal love, eager to give one another precedence’ (Rom 12:10). It is their task, therefore, to reconcile differences of mentality in such a way that no one need feel himself a stranger in the community of the faithful.” Life and working rhythms of the faithful in Europe, North America and Asia in 2019, anonymity, mobility and flexible working hours, do not permit any more the parish life of a community described above in article 9. The social reality of the women, men and queer has changed completely and still is changing. In this situation, priests caring for their personal integrity and psychological health need connectedness and intimacy with at least one another person. Like many not married couples in the West, they share their lives with their partner, each in so-called single households. In the years following the Second Vatican Council, the priests in Europe heavily criticized Presbyterorum Ordinis (ibid. 553). The bishops did not take time to work out a document that would serve their needs; there is no encouraging pastoral or sacramental theology for a fruitful future and the hope of renewal of Church life (ibid.). Since the bishops were busy with other documents, they were happy that in 1964 Yves Congar joined the redaction of the text. It is not surprising that the Dominican theologian described the ministers of the sacraments as priest-monks (ibid. 554). A monk takes a social choice of living obedience, poverty and chaste celibacy and realizes his vocation usually in a convent or community of monks. The model of a priest-monk effectively does not correspond to the apostolate of a priest’s pastoral mission.

The sexual abuse scandal of Roman Catholic priests and its cover-up by local bishops and the popes in Rome since the 1950ies lead to a new assessment of the failures of the Decree on the ministry and life of priests. Ottmar Fuchs could have written about the sexual abuse of minors and young adults by priests in 2005. He did not, although the facts were available, the accusations of the victims were public, but the Church cover-up was also in action (See my Posting “Women and the Government of the Roman Catholic Church”).

It is true, only a minority of Catholic clergy and religious have sexually abused children. In Australia seven percent of the priests who ministered in the period 1950 to 2010 were alleged perpetrators (Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. 2017b. Final Report. Volume 16. Religious Institutions. Book 1. 84. Commonwealth of Australia). The 2018 report for the German Catholic Bishops` Conference speaks of 4.4% of priests who ministered in the period 1945 to 2014 as alleged perpetrators and produces a comparable percentage to the findings of the dioceses in the United States (Dreßing, Harald, Hans Joachim Salize, Dieter Dölling, Dieter Hermann, Andreas Kruse, Eric Schmitt und Britta Bannenberg, 2018. Sexueller Missbrauch an Minderjährigen durch katholische Priester, Diakone und männliche Ordensangehörige im Bereich der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz. 11. Mannheim). The 2018 German report states with clarity that the 4.4% of alleged perpetrators corresponds to the lowest estimation of the actual sexual abuse of minors and youths (ibid.).

In 2005 Ottmar Fuchs described the emerging social calamity of the life of priests in the second half of the 20th century in Europe. He already pointed at some indicators that a decade later scientists identified as “psychosocial predispositions and risk behavior among accused persons”, that is “a general overburdening with official duties or problems in the exercise of the ministry, - isolation, - substance abuse (alcohol, medicines, illegal drugs), - inadequate social skills (e.g. in dealing with members of the parish or with superiors), lack of maturity or psychological abnormalities, - particular stress, significant changes or specific difficulties related to their personal circumstances (financial problems, illness, caring for or death of relatives, etc.)” (“Sexual abuse of minors by catholic priests, deacons and male members of orders in the domain of the German Bishops’ Conference”. Summary. 4. MHG Studie (dbk.de)).

Ottmar Fuchs writes critical about the Decree on the ministry and life of priests, but as most German theologians, he stays at the personal level and does not analyze the structural problems of the Roman Catholic Church as a hierarchical-authoritarian institution. The independent research group (Dreßing et. al. 2018) of forensic experts, psychiatrists and medical doctors had investigated in the name of the German Bishops’ Conference and concluded: Sexual abuse is an excess of dominance exercised by clerical power abuse within a hierarchical-authoritarian clerical system. The authoritarian-clerical understanding of the office of the ordained priesthood may rather conceive sexual violence as a menace for the own clerical system than as a continuing danger for the abuse of further children and youths (ibid. 13). The sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clerics must not be perceived as solely the problem of a few problematic individuals but must be understood as a specific institutional problem of the Catholic Church (ibid. 16).

The German report insists on contextualizing sexual abuse within the specific structures and dynamics of the Roman Catholic Church (ibid.: 15). The Synodal Assembly, the voting body of the Synodal Way counting 230 persons (https://www.synodalerweg.de/struktur-und-organisation), started in December 2019 its synodal organization by drawing consequences from the Dreßing et. al. report on the junction of sexual abuse and authoritarian Church structures. The structure of the Synodal Assembly is a structure allowing checks and balances.  The bishops, priests, religious and deacons make up 46% of the Synodal Assembly which means that they do not have a majority. The majority is with the laywomen and laymen. The German bishops, religious, and clergy consented in the equal participation of laywomen and laymen at the Synodal Way and at future synodal councils. We understand, power sharing is possible, the hierarchy is not a monolithic bloc. The Vatican understood very quickly that there is a new power structure. The Roman Synod of the Bishops has 80% bishops and clergy, their power to control the synod’s decisions and texts is overwhelming. The Vatican letter to the German bishops from January 16, 2023, insists that the power dynamic of the German Synodal Way is unacceptable for the Vatican: Since these councils restrict and even replace the powers of the bishops, the pope asks to end this new governmental structure in the German Roman Catholic Church because the German Synodal Way has no authority to institute a synodal council, not at the national, not at the diocesan and not at the parochial level of the Church (https://www.dbk.de/fileadmin/redaktion/diverse_downloads/presse_2024/2024-02-16_Brief-aus-Rom_sds.pdf).

The Royal Commission also speaks of many contributing factors to the occurrence of abuse and identifies the same theological, governance and cultural factors that contributed to the occurrence of abuse also as those factors that contributed to the inadequate responses of Catholic institutions to that abuse (Royal Commission 2017, 41).

“It was the culture of clericalism that led bishops and religious superiors to attempt to avoid public scandal to protect the reputation of the Catholic Church and the status of the priesthood. We heard that the culture of clericalism continues in the Catholic Church and is on the rise in some seminaries in Australia and worldwide" (ibid.: 44). “The powers of governance held by individual diocesan bishops and provincials are not subject to adequate checks and balances. There is no separation of powers, and the executive, legislative and judicial aspects of governance are combined in the person of the pope and in diocesan bishops. Diocesan bishops have not been sufficiently accountable to any other body for decision-making in their handling of allegations of child sexual abuse or alleged perpetrators. There has been no requirement for their decisions to be made transparent or subject to due process” (ibid.). “The exclusion of lay people and women from leadership positions in the Roman Catholic Church may have contributed to inadequate responses to child sexual abuse … It appears that some candidates for leadership positions have been selected on the basis of their adherence to specific aspects of church doctrine and their commitment to the defense and promotion of the institutional Roman Catholic Church, rather than on their capacity for leadership. This meant that some bishops were ill equipped and unprepared for the challenges of dealing with child sexual abuse and responding to emerging claims” (ibid.).

Commenting on the numbers of the Decree on the ministry and life of priests we must remember the terrible consequences that a context-forgotten, personalized and irresponsibly idealized picture of the ministry and life of priests had permitted to develop.

Presbyterorum Ordinis 16 affirms that “Indeed, celibacy is not demanded by the very nature of the priesthood, as is apparent from the practice of the early Church (1 Timotheus 3,2-5; Titus 1,6) and from the traditions of the Eastern Churches”. The Council was not willed to adapt to the social conditions and needs of the priests to assure their personal and professional integrity. Presbyterorum Ordinis 2, 1 says that yes, in Christ “all the faithful are made a holy and royal priesthood” and “there is no member who does not have a part in the mission of the whole Body”. The fullness of this mission is given to the bishops, the priest participates in the hierarchical order of the Church but because of the lack of priests, lay women and men are taking over their mission of teaching, governing and sanctifying. To be true, officially, the lay people do not take over the mission of the priests, they are simply exercising the munera (the services or offices of teaching, administrating and worshipping) under the power of the priests. It is also true that the Second Vatican Council extensively treated the bishops and the laity but marginalized the priests (Fuchs 2005. 555).

Lay women, men and queer are realizing sacramental signs of salvation in their pastoral work in the parishes and the Church. Leading the Liturgy of the Word on Sundays, they are realizing the priestly functions of sanctifying and teaching and managing the services of the Church communities; they are leaders. The so-called pastoral lay theologians, pastoral assistants, and catechists celebrate all constitutive elements of the priestly ministry, but they are not ordained. In Africa, Latin America and Asia parishes would collapse or dissolve without the ministry and teaching, worshipping and administrative service of the lay faithful women, men and queer.

The priests are ordained but they do not join the life of a community any more with the celebrating of the sacraments. The priestly ministries are not any more part of the social life of the faithful. Because of the lack of priests, three to five parishes must share one priest. This priest is busy administering the sacraments; he does not have time any more to prepare the liturgical celebrations with the women, men and queer faithful of his parish. The faithful have lost social contact with the priest, they do not see him anymore, they do not meet him, they do not know who he is. The hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church does not want to heal this split. Therefore, the pastoral work of the lay does not get the proper authorized recognition, and the authorized recognition of the priests does not get officially withdrawn if they do not marry their partners. The community of the faithful slowly but effectively dissolves in the West because of the bishops’ passivity and lack of courage and faith in the Holy Spirit.

The European bishops import priests from Poland, India and Africa. In Germany, more than 15% of the priests are foreigners (Höfing, Gabriele. 2018. “Die Abwanderung von Geistlichen nach Europa. Afrikas Problem: Die Priester wollen nicht zurück.” Katholisch.de. October 1. https://www.katholisch.de/aktuelles/aktuelle-artikel/afrikas-problem-ihre-priester-wollen-nicht-zurück). In 2018 in France, 25% of the clergy comes from former French colonies, mainly from Africa (Dall’Osto, Antonio. 2018. “Preti africani che emigrano (o fuggono) in Europa.” Settimana News. October 9. http://www.settimananews.it/ministeri-carismi/preti-africani-emigrano-fuggono-europa/). For the local churches in Africa, this migration constitutes a serious problem, and they suffer from this loss of priests enormously. The African priests working in Germany are well paid and send the money back to their families in Africa. The social integration and pastoral cooperation with the priests from Poland constitute a problem, because the German and Austrian Catholics do not feel understood and reject authoritarian priests. The Indian bishops are sending priests to work in Austria or Germany in exchange for money from the bishops in these rich countries.

Although the presence of priests is weakening in Europe, the ratio of 1,595 Catholics per priest is the best in the whole world; the pastoral workload of priests in Asia is 2,185 Catholics per priest, in Africa it is around five thousand Catholics per priest.[i] This statistical picture is incomplete, if the average age of the priests is not included. The average age of Catholic priests in the United States has risen from thirty-five in 1970 to sixty-three in 2009 (Georgetown University. 2012. “Average Priest Age Now Nearly 20 Years Older Than 1970”. Georgetown University. June 1. https://www.georgetown.edu/news/average-priest-age-now-nearly-20-years-older.html). The average age of Catholic priests in Austria in 2019 is about sixty-five. It is hard to get the data, the bishops are not interested documenting the facts. I suppose that the average age of Catholic priests in Europe is above sixty years. Having in Europe still the best Catholics per priest ratio in the whole world has to be seen in relation to the age of the priests. I have no data about the average age of priests in Africa at my disposition. The average life expectancy of an African born in 2018 is sixty years; in Europe, it is eighty years for a European born in 2018[ii]. From this data I suggest estimating that the African clergy is much younger than the European and has lots of energy and resources to cope with the pastoral workload. This is not the case in Europe, the United States and Australia. There, the average age of priests is getting higher and higher, and their energy is getting lower and lower.

The number of Catholics and priests is growing in Africa and Asia. Empirical sociology will find multiple reasons to explain why the celibate Catholic priesthood is an attractive form of life for young African and Asian men. Coming from a poor family and becoming priest enables education, formation and academic training that result together with priestly ordination in social advancement, prestige and otherwise unattainable economic and cultural opportunities. Nevertheless, there are also considerable problems. The priests in Africa suffer from a lack of organized health care and social security. In case of invalidity or sickness there is no help from the state and the Church has not yet established a reliable structure of social security or a functioning system of Church pensions for the retired priests (Toure, Amany Jean-Rostand. 2015. Église-Famille de Dieu et protection sociale des prêtres en Côte d’Ivoire. Contribution à l’ecclésiologie africaine et perspectives pastorales. Doctoral thesis. 26. University of Strasbourg. https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01885504/document). The call for a social security for priests in Presbyterorum Ordinis 20 and 21 is an existential claim for African priests (ibid.). The number of married priests in Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, Nigeria and South Africa is growing. The official Catholic Church is banning the married priests, who often continue their pastoral work outside the official Catholic authorities. African Catholics are more and more convinced that the priestly vocation must not be tied to celibacy (Cissé, Ibrahima. 2015. “Kenya: 200 prêtres mariés ont demandé à rencontrer le pape”. Cath.ch. November 25. https://www.cath.ch/newsf/kenya-200-pretres-maries-ont-demande-a-rencontrer-le-pape/).

In 2018, out of a world population of 7,408 million, 1,313 million or 17.7% are baptized Catholics, distributed by continent: 48.5% in America (three fifth of them live in Latin America — especially Brazil - and the Caribbean and two fifth of them live in North America). 21.8% in Europe, 17.8% in Africa, 11.1% in Asia (twenty-two million in India and eighty-five million Catholics in the Philippines) and 0.8% in Oceania. From the comparison with the numerical situation of 2016, the number of priests has further decreased from 414,969 in 2016 to 414,582 in 2017.[iii] 

In 2019 there is no doubt. The demographic center of gravity of the Catholic Church is in South America, Africa and Asia and not any more in the dominant North (Lado, Ludovic, and Paul Samangassou. 2014. “Le catholicisme en Afrique à l’heure des réformes.” Études 2014 (4): 65–76. 65. https://www.cairn.info/revue-etudes-2014-4-page-65.htm#). For the moment, the Churches of Africa stay paralyzed by their inferiority complex regarding Europe. If the African Catholics do not study the defects and failures of the Roman Catholic Church in Europe, the Roman Catholic Church in Africa soon will suffer the same loss of faithful and priests and cultural significance as the Church in Europe, the United States and Australia (ibid. 66). Africa has a culture of religious pluralism and a very pragmatic approach to religion. Therefore, without a reform of the Catholic Church, African Catholics will turn to alternative religious communities (ibid.). Clericalism, that is the excessive exercise and monopolizing abuse of centralized power, puts the clergy at the center of Church life and forgets about the respectful and full cooperation with the lay women, men and queer faithful (ibid. 67). The call for institutional reform is important for the African Church, as it is important for the European Church (ibid.). In Europe, North America and Australia the white, celibate male bishops control the churches and the government of the Roman Catholic Church in the Vatican. For whatever reasons—economic dependency, ethnic solidarity or others—, in Africa, there is an apparent functioning coalition of bishops and priests, the priests are effectively helping to maintain the power structure of a clergy that dominates the lay. By leaving their dioceses for Europe or North America, they are perceptibly weakening the local Church. The emotional life of the priests is a taboo in Africa as elsewhere in the Roman Catholic Church (ibid.). Concerning the priests in India and Indonesia, I have the impression that the priests are critical of bishops who are saturated with their prestige and power but do not dare to speak openly about reform. The Catholic Church as a cultural and religious minority suffers the suppression of the dominant nationalist movements and therefore suppresses wishes for reform and tries to protect the family with unity and solidarity.

[i] “The Pontifical Yearbook 2017 and the ‘Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae’ 2015, 06.04.2017,” The Holy See, https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2017/04/06/170406e.html (accessed May 17, 2019).

[ii] “Durchschnittliche Lebenserwartung in Europa bei der Geburt im Jahr 2018 nach Geschlecht und Region (in Jahren),”statista, https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/199596/umfrage/lebenserwartung-in--europa-nach-geschlecht-und-region/ (accessed May 17, 2019).

[iii] “The Pontifical Yearbook 2017 and the ‘Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae’ 2015, 06.04.2017,” The Holy See, https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2017/04/06/170406e.html (accessed May 17, 2019).