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Why the serious drop in priestly vocations

in Europe’s largest diocese?
The Archbishop of Milan, Mario Delpini, made international news with his announcement of a major re-
structuring of the archdiocesan priestly formation program. But will it help?

 May 5, 2023  Peter M.J. Stravinskas  Analysis, Features  67  Print

Duomo Cathedral Square in Milan, Italy. (Image: imen/Unsplash.com)

On the Solemnity of the Annunciation, the Archbishop of Milan, Mario Delpini, made international news
with his own “annunciation” that the priestly formation program in the Archdiocese was to undergo a
major re-structuring.

Before getting into the specifics of that “reform,” let’s set the stage. Milan is the largest diocese in
Europe (roughly 5 million Catholics)1 and has more priests than any other diocese in the world (more
than 2,000 in total, half of whom are diocesan clergy). The Milan Archdiocese also has it own liturgical
rite–the “Ambrosian,” named for its most famous bishop, the fourth-century Father and Doctor of the
Church, St. Ambrose. The Duomo (or Cathedral) of Milan is a Gothic marvel, seating 40,000, and
deemed the most beautiful church in the world by none other than St. John Henry Cardinal Newman.

The Church in Italy is sadly moribund, so much so that Italians visiting the States express amazement at
the vitality of the Church in this country. The one major exception to the sickly state of Italian
Catholicism has been Milan. Many attribute the liveliness of Milanese Catholicism to the presence of
the Communion and Liberation Movement (CL), founded in that city by Monsignor Luigi Giussani, highly
regarded by both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI; Ratzinger was the personal delegate of John
Paul to preside over the funeral of Giussani. The Cielini (the nickname for members of CL) are young
Catholics committed to the work of evangelizing the culture, even as they go about the task of personal
sanctification.
The current Archbishop, a protégé of his immediate predecessor, Angelo Cardinal Scola (a truly
eminent scholar, a once-papabile, and staunch supporter of CL), reaches the “peripheries” through his
three-minute, after-dinner ferverini, especially during Advent and Lent; his homilies give evidence of
serious thought and orthodoxy (interestingly, the faithful are given copies of the homily before Mass
begins!).

So, with all that going for Milan, what’s the crisis? A serious drop in priestly vocations.

Last spring, the Archdiocese welcomed 22 new priests, however, the well is drying up.2 From 2017 to
2022, new priesthood candidates have fallen from 24 to six. In 2013, there were 150 seminarians,
dwindling to 78 in the current year. The “why” for this dramatic development will be considered shortly
but, for the moment, let’s take a look at the “re-configuration” plan for Milan.

According to the seven-page document outlining the changes, there were 150 seminarians in the year
2013-14, 139 in 2017-18, and 78 in 2022-23. Further to the point: There were 24 new admissions in
2017, 19 in 2018, 18 in 2019, 16 in 2020, 11 in 2021, and 6 in 2022.

Delpini announced the “reconfiguration” of seminary training at the Chrism Mass on April 6 and told
the clergy: “I would like to inform this particular assembly that I have approved, on a trial basis for a
three-year period, a reconfiguration of the seminary path, according to what has been prepared by the
seminary formators and discussed with the Milanese episcopal council.” He indicated that seminarians
will spend their third year living in small groups in parishes, while attending daily classes at the
seminary, connected with families, which will offer them support. He stressed that “the main
motivation guiding any choice referring to the seminary is and will remain to foster, accompany, and
instruct some young people in the archdiocese in discernment and docility to the Spirit.”

Formation at the archdiocesan seminary consists of a two-year period focused on spirituality and a
four-year period dedicated to theology. Under the new plan, which will be introduced in September
2023, seminarians will study at a single location, rather than at separate sites for the two-year and four-
year periods. Seminarians have previously worn clerical dress from the start of their theological
studies, which will now be deferred to their diaconal year; the justification for this change, according to
the document, is that this will bring the archdiocese into line with other Italian dioceses.

What is one to make of all this?

First, making major changes in a time of crisis is usually not a good idea. Panic causes lapses in
judgment. The Forbes Coaches Council cites eleven elements of an organization that should rarely
change under crisis conditions; the first three are: strategy and culture; organizational structure; core
values.3 I would submit that many of the changes to be enacted for the priestly formation program of
Milan fly in the advice of the Forbes advice.

Now, having seminarians live in parishes for a year is, in my opinion, a step in the right direction. In
fact, way back in 1973, as a seminarian, I wrote an article for Priest magazine in which I called for all
seminarians to live in parishes throughout their formation years; a month later, I was dismissed from
the seminary (you can’t tackle sacred cows and survive!). The seminary experience prepares young men
for an unreal priestly life: praying, living and recreating with a hundred or more peers for six to eight
years is a beautiful experience, which the new priest will never have again as he lands in a rectory with
one or two other priests, with whom he will probably never pray or even dine because most rectories
today are, unfortunately, little more than glorified hotels with a cross on top. That disconnect is a major
cause of morale problems.

But dropping clerical attire is a very foolish move. For the Archdiocese of Milan to be “in sync” with
other Italian dioceses should not be seen as desirable in any way, for the reasons I rehearsed above.
However, let’s consider the matter of attire for a bit.

When a young man enters the military, he is immediately “vested” in the uniform, which begins to
provide him with his new identity and aids in establishing esprit de corps. Very early on, Pope John Paul
addressed this issue for the Diocese of Rome. Coming from his Polish experience, he was shocked and
saddened to discover that most seminarians (and priests!) studying in Rome from all over the world
were indistinguishable from lay students.

Thus, in 1982, he directed the Vicar for Rome, Cardinal Ugo Polletti,4 to issue a document calling for a
return to proper attire for all priests and seminarians resident in the Eternal City. Taking on the claim
that men who would not be clerics until diaconal ordination, John Paul referred to the garb as
“ecclesiastical,” rather than “clerical.” As a matter of fact, though, for centuries, seminarians not yet
clerics did indeed wear “clerical” garb. Not only has this practice assisted in the formation of priesthood
candidates, it has offered an image of Rome as young, faithful and alive. I should note that the vast
majority of seminaries in the United States have required ecclesiastical attire for their students for
decades now, at least by the beginning of their theological studies, reversing the failed experiment of
lay clothes from the silly 1960s and 1970s.

All that aside, we must observe that everyone is ignoring the huge elephant in the middle of the
ecclesiastical living room. Notice that the decline in Milan’s seminary population began in 2013. That
cut-off year is not unique to Milan as even the Vatican office for statistics has acknowledged that “the
number of seminarians has been declining each year since 2013.”5

What happened in 2013? A certain Jorge Mario Bergoglio became Pope. As Cardinal-Archbishop of
Buenos Aires, he inherited a nearly full seminary; by the time of his move to Rome, the seminary was
nearly empty. What can account for his reverse “Midas touch” with vocations? It seems evident that he
doesn’t like priests and seminarians (or women Religious, for that matter, either). He has referred to
seminarians as “little monsters.” In conversation with some priesthood candidates, he asked how their
diocese was doing for vocations and was told their seminary was pretty full. “Your bishop must be
lacking in discernment,” came the cheeky reply.

Or how can anyone forget that most disturbing episode when the Pope taunted an altar boy from the
Vatican’s high school seminary by asking him if his hands were glued together and then tried to pry
them open?6 And, how many times have we heard him suggest that young priests and seminarians of
an orthodox stripe are probably in need of psychological assistance!
Ask any bishop or vocation director, off record, about the situation in their dioceses, you will get the
same answer across the board: The “Francis effect”! I can personally attest to the terrible
demoralization experienced by my younger brethren as I spend an immense amount of time trying to
convince them to wait out the storm, rather than abandon ship.

And that would be my advice to Archbishop Delpini: Don’t embark on an experiment from which there
may not be a safe return. Wait out the storm.

Endnotes:

1
For comparison sake: Los Angeles, the largest diocese in the United States, has a bit more than 3
million Catholics.

2Sad to say, the Diocese of Rome had no ordinations last year, like the Archdiocese of New York (for the
first time in its history) and countless other dioceses in America and elsewhere.

3
“11 Core Things That Business Leaders Should Not Change During A Crisis” (Nov 20, 2020).

4
Given the clerical penchant for humor, Cardinal Polletti got the nickname Cardinal “Colletti” (“collars”)
for his role as “enforcer” of the papal policy!

5See: “Vatican Statistics Show Decline in Clergy, Religious Women,” Catholic News Service, March 7,
2023.

6
Many observers have noted two things about that incident: First, if that boy ever had a priestly
vocation, it was lost that day. Secondly, if any parish priest had humiliated a server like that, he would
have been sent off for counseling the next day.

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About Peter M.J. Stravinskas  280 Articles

Reverend Peter M.J. Stravinskas founded The Catholic Answer in 1987 and The Catholic Response in
2004, as well as the Priestly Society of Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman, a clerical association of
the faithful, committed to Catholic education, liturgical renewal and the new evangelization. Father
Stravinskas is also the President of the Catholic Education Foundation, an organization, which serves as
a resource for heightening the Catholic identity of Catholic schools.
© Catholic World Report