It's a centenary, but where are the priests?

By Hilary Bainemigisha

The Catholic centenary of priesthood is perhaps the best time to reflect on the issue of the scarcity of priests worldwide, but most especially in Uganda. One hundred years later.

We only have about 1,600 diocesan priests, we still need missionaries and some people still fail to access sacraments! While updated statistics are not readily available, the official figures, albeit old, can still illustrate the problem.

The official Catholic website in Uganda, www.uecon.org, has priest populations, but the data freshness depends on the different dioceses. For instance, data for Kampala and Jinja dioceses is for 2011, while for Lira and Fort Portal, their most recent data is that of 2006.

Going by this data nevertheless, there is, on average, one priest per 6,658 Catholics in Uganda. Dioceses like Lira, Soroti, Arua and Fort Portal have a priest serving a five-digit population of Catholics. Kenya and Tanzania have a better ratio of 1:4,148 Catholics and 1:5,031 Catholics respectively.

But because the theological tenet decrees that a priest is for all people, regardless of their faith, we need to compare priests to all people of God. Thus Uganda has one Catholic priest for every 15,724 people. In Lira, the ratio is one priest to 40,852 people!

It gets worse when you update figures to 2013. Every year, the number of people who get baptised as Catholics is so many times the number of people who become priests in the same year. This year, the church has got about 60 new priests, but how many got baptised as new Catholics? According to the Vatican yearbook, between 1975 and 2010, the world’s Catholics increased by 59%, from 709.6 million to 1.96 billion, but the number of priests increased only by 1.8%.

The ideal ratio of doctors-per-patient, according to the UN, is 1:500. The UN also recommends a minimum police strength of 222 per 100,000 people (1:450). That is way out of range for priests who are the overseers of spiritual health. Is it any wonder then that our morals are fading out fast?

Yet the few priests available are not all devoted to dispensing sacraments, which is their cardinal duty. Many get busy in personnel, project and financial administration, running schools and other social services, jobs that should have been left for the laity.


Consequences

Many priests I talked to do not want to be quoted on their scarcity, some do not see any cause for worry while others, still refer it to God’s mystery of Faith, which says: Many are called, few are chosen. It is God who chooses his own priest and therefore, they say, the scarcity cannot be discussed outside the faith premise.

But the God who chooses also bemoans the scarcity of harvesters in the bountiful harvest. The priests shortage leads to a sacramental and pastoral deficiency for Christians. The distances that the faithful must travel for mass or a baptism, the many who die wishing for, but failing to get the last sacrament, the many rural churches without priests, are a testimony of the scarcity.

The problem

Is the scarcity due to people shunning priesthood or priesthood shunning people? A quick survey highlighted such hindrances to priesthood as celibacy, long and difficult seminary training, seeming solitude and lack of apparent power among priests.

Others mentioned high moral standards, the growing materialistic world, cultural reverence of begetting children, fear of commitment, and, at times, poverty among priests.

Or is it the strict life that modern youth are scared of? Pope Francis has said the clergy who were ‘careerists’ or ‘social climbers’ were doing serious damage to the Catholic Church.

There is also a sociological problem born of modernity and the changing family structures. The cost of living and exposure has led to smaller families. Fewer children often mean fewer potential priests because parents are less likely to encourage the vocation if they have just two children.

Many of my agemates will remember how a priest was revered in olden times. They were the smartest, drove cars and fed well. Today, many people can afford even more, while the number of priests is overwhelming the resources to maintain them. Priests in poor communities will not afford the desired luxury.

Any solution?

Should the Vatican reconsider celibacy? It allowed married Anglican priests who join the Catholic Church to become ordained as priests! Should it consider the ordination of married men to priesthood? What about the ordination of women? What can be done to encourage more youth to join and stay in priesthood? That should be a debate of another time. For now, we can celebrate 100 years of priesthood in peace.