How Serious is the Priest Shortage in the World’s Largest Catholic Country?

Last updated on: April 24, 2019 at 9:05 am by Deacon Greg Kandra

How Serious is the Priest Shortage in the World’s Largest Catholic Country? 2019-04-24T09:05:48-04:00 Deacon Greg Kandra

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Pixabay/Public Domain

Some interesting insight from Crux:

A declining proportion of Catholics and accelerated growth of Evangelical denominations in Brazil since the 1970s have frequently caused anxiety for the Catholic Church, which fears a vocations crisis from which it might not easily recover.

Although the country continues to have the biggest Catholic population in the world with 123 million adherents, a supposed lack of priests could speed up a downfall. But the insufficiency of the clergy in Brazil may not be so obvious.

The emphasis Pope Francis has been giving to the pastoral work in the Amazon in the past few years has made discussion about the number of priests in Brazil rather urgent.

The huge challenges involving the Church’s efforts in the Amazonian region, which spreads over 2.7 million square miles and 9 countries in South America, has led a part of the episcopate to consider the ordination of married men, something that will be discussed during the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region scheduled to happen in Rome in October.

“It’s common to talk about income inequality in Brazil, but we also have a bad distribution of the clergy. There is a clear concentration of priests in the south and southeast of the country. Part of them could be successfully sent to the Amazon,” said Father José Carlos Pereira, who holds a doctorate in sociology and is the author of several quantitative studies on the Brazilian clergy.

According to Pereira, insufficient coverage of the Amazon is related to the immense territories of some dioceses and the lack of infrastructure in the region. Father Valdeir Goulart, in charge of the census of the Brazilian Church and himself a former missionary in the Amazon, adds that work in the region is also expensive.

“Small trips inside a parish may take days in cars or boats. Sometimes a priest has to travel several kilometers alone, in the middle of the forest. It’s not only a matter of number of priests,” he said.

Goulart is currently working on a new system to collect and gather data on each one of the 277 dioceses in Brazil. The next church census will be published in August, but probably will not have significant numerical differences in relation to the last one, organized in 2014, when there were 27,400 priests in Brazil, with 18,200 secular priests and the others members of religious institutes or congregations.

By way of contrast, the United States, with only about half the Catholic population of Brazil, had more than 37,300 Catholic priests in 2018, meaning roughly 10,000 more.

Considering the total population in Brazil, there is roughly one priest to attend to each group of 7,500 people.

Previous Post

April 23, 2019

'Everything Was Trashed': Hawaii Church Vandalized After Easter

Next Post

April 24, 2019 A Decision on Women Deacons Next Month?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category "Mad Men" 9/11 advent All Things New Amazing video amazing videos amazon america Anglicans Anti-Catholicism art ascension thursday ash wednesday Atheists baltimore Bible Bishops Blogging bonnie engstrom Books bridgeport Brooklyn Chaplains children christian art christmas Church Churches CNEWA Converts criticism Deacons Death Penalty easter eastern christian Eastern Christians Ecumenism education Education Eucharist Europe euthanasia Evangelization Exorcism Family Feasts Gay rights Good Friday Great links Great Moments in Journalism Hanging with the saints heather renshaw Hispanic Catholics Hispanics History homelies Homilies Humor Hymn of the Week Immigration indianapolis Inspiration Interfaith news ireland Jesus Jews Journalism Judaism lent Liturgy logos Marriage Mary Media Medical news Mental health Middle East Monks Movies Music Muslims My world and welcome to it New Evangelization new york News Nuns Parenting Parish life peoria Persecution politics Politics Pope pope francis pope john paul Prayer Preaching Priests Pro-life Quote of the day radio rebecca frech ripp Ripped from the headlines rippred from the headlines Sacraments saints Scripture sex abuse Sex abuse crisis SEX ABUSE CRISIS TAGGED WITH: SEX ABUSE CRISIS The people in the pews the visitation project theatre This & that Thomas Merton Trappists TV Uncategorized uncategorized Vatican VATICAN vocation Vocations Voices & Views Women Worth a thousand words Writing Year of Faith year of mercy young people

Select a Month December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which book tells the story of the Israelites' escape from Egypt?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Genesis Leviticus Exodus Numbers

Books by This Author Books by Deacon Greg Kandra

See All Titles »