1. The Role of the Family in Nurturing Priestly Vocations
September 17, 2015
Mary L. Gautier, Ph.D.
Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA)

2. Description of the Study
Contacted 191 Diocesan Vocation Directors for names of those who had entered diocesan formation since 2000 and stayed. Received names from 92 percent of DVDs.
Surveyed 4,140 priests and seminarians who were accepted into formation for priesthood in dioceses since Received 1,352 responses (715 priests and seminarians), for a response rate of approximately 33 percent.
These men provided contact information for 748 family members. Received survey responses from family members (55 percent).
Conducted two focus groups with 15 family members, in Washington, DC, and Chicago
CARA is grateful to the National Religious Vocation Conference for commissioning the study and thanks the Hilton Foundation for funding for the project. This is one part of a much larger study that also included men and women religious. This presentation focuses in on the key findings from the study of diocesan priests and seminarians.

3. Major Findings from Diocesan Priests and Seminarians
Typically from a Catholic family who actively practiced their faith while growing up. Two in three say the family attended Mass weekly and one in ten attended more than weekly. Hispanic/Latino respondents least likely to say family attended Mass weekly or more often.
A third had a relative who is a priest or a religious and seven in ten knew one growing up. Asian respondents are most likely to have known a priest, a brother, or a religious sister growing up.
Four in ten admit that starting a discussion with family about vocation was not easy. A similar proportion said that no member of their family had ever spoken with them about a vocation.
When first considering a vocation, six in ten or more received at least “some” encouragement from parents, siblings, grandparents, and aunts and uncles. Mothers and grandparents were most likely to offer “very much” encouragement. Those who were discouraged by a family member were most likely discouraged by sibling(s), aunts/uncles, or father. Currently, nearly all say their immediate family is encouraging of their vocation.

4. Characteristics of Diocesan Priests and Seminarians
Age of Respondents
Seminarians
Priests
Overall
Average 28 40 35
Median (Midpoint) 26 37 32
Minimum 19
Maximum 73 77
The average age of respondents overall is 35, with seminarians an average of 12 years younger than priests. Half of respondents overall age 32 or younger, with seminarians an average of 11 years younger than priests. The youngest respondent overall is 19 and the oldest is 77.
85% of seminarians are Millennial Generation (born 1982 or later). A third of responding priests are Millennial Generation and another 56 percent are Post-Vatican II (born ).

5. Characteristics of Diocesan Priests and Seminarians
Primary Ethnicity/Cultural Background
Seminarians
Priests
Caucasian/European American/White
74%
83%
Hispanic/Latino(a) 15 8
Native American/ Alaska Native/ Other 6 5
Asian/Pacific Islander/Native Hawaiian 3 2
African/African American/Black
Four in five responding priests and seminarians identify their primary ethnicity or cultural background as Caucasian/European American/white. One in ten identifies as Hispanic/Latino and about one in 20 identifies as Asian/Pacific Islander/Native Hawaiian.
Eight in ten responding priests and seminarians were born in the United States but a majority among Hispanic/Latino(a) respondents (66 percent) and Asian respondents (78 percent) were not born in the United States. On average, those born outside the United States first moved to the United States in 2001.

6. Characteristics of Diocesan Priests and Seminarians
Two in three attended Catholic schools for some or all of their education. They are more likely than other Catholics nationally to have attended a Catholic high school and six times more likely to have attended a Catholic college or university.
Nearly half of responding seminarians (46 percent) earned an undergraduate degree before entering the seminary.
The average age when respondents report first considering a vocation is 16 for responding seminarians and 17 for responding priests. The average age when current seminarians first entered a seminary is 23, compared to an average of 27 for current diocesan priests. The average of ordination to the priesthood is 35.
In addition, 14 percent of responding seminarians report being home-schooled for at least some of their education.

7. Family Characteristics of Diocesan Priests and Seminarians
Most seminarians and priests were raised in a traditional two-parent family (90 percent), with parents who were in their 40s (61 percent) or 50s (23 percent) when they were teenagers. Some 10 percent, however, were raised by a single parent, a grandparent or in some other nontraditional family situation. Several of these describe how divorce affected their family while they were growing up.
In fact, a substantial number of them have experienced family trauma while they were growing up:
16 percent experienced the serious illness or death of a sibling or other close relative, 12 percent experienced the serious illness or death of a parent, 13 percent experienced their parents’ divorce

8. Family Characteristics of Diocesan Priests and Seminarians
Parents Religion and Respondents’ Religious Rearing
Respondent Raised Catholic
Not Raised Catholic
Both parents Catholic
99% 1%
Only one parent Catholic 90 10
Neither parent Catholic 27 73
Four in five responding priests and seminarians grew up in a family in which both parents were Catholic. Virtually all of those with two Catholic parents were raised Catholic. When neither parent was Catholic, about a quarter of respondents were still raised Catholic.
Nine in ten report that their mother was Catholic when they were growing up, and 72 percent of them say that religion was very important to her. Asian priests and seminarians (81 percent) are more likely than European Americans (68 percent) and Hispanics/Latinos (64 percent) to report that religion was “very” important to their mother.
Eight in ten say that their father was Catholic when they were growing up, and 57 percent of them say that religion was very important to him. Again, Asian priests and seminarians (61 percent) are more likely than European Americans (51 percent) and Hispanics/Latinos (40 percent) to report that religion was “very” important to their fathers.

9. Family Characteristics of Diocesan Priests and Seminarians
Seven in ten priests and seminarians report that they got to know a priest or a religious brother or sister/nun while they were growing up. There are differences by nativity, however, with 81 percent of those born outside of the United States saying they knew a priest or a religious while growing up compared to 66 percent of those born in the United States. Asians are more likely than other ethnic groups to say they had a family member who was a priest or a religious while growing up.

10. Religious Characteristics of the Family
Two in three attended Mass weekly with the family while growing up and 19 percent attended more than weekly.
One in five report that the family typically prayed together daily (apart from meal blessings). However, 44 percent of European Americans and 31 percent of Hispanic/Latinos say the family seldom/never prayed at home together.
One in four were more religious than other family members growing up and one in 20 were less religious than others growing up.

11. Important Religious Activities/Customs
Family Members
Religious
Diocesan
Mass
Grace
Religious art
Active participation in parish
Sacramentals
To learn more about important family religious customs or practices that might have had an influence on consideration of a priestly vocation, respondents were asked to look at a list of 20 religious practices or customs and identify which of them were important in their family when they were growing up. Respondents could select all that apply. We asked the same question on all three surveys and found that five activities/ customs were selected as most important by all three groups.

12. Important Religious Practices/Customs
Notice there are some important differences among ethnicities. For example, while more than two-thirds overall said that grace at meals was important growing up, Asians and Europeans were more likely than Hispanics to indicate this. Asians are also more likely than the other groups to indicate that home altars and Eucharistic adoration were important family practices growing up.
Hispanics and Asians are more likely than European Americans to say that the rosary/novenas, processions, Marian devotions, and celebrations of particular saints were important family practices growing up.

13. Family Members’ Support of Vocations
A more serious commitment to family prayer would have been helpful
A Catholic culture that included more than Sunday Mass
Although we read Bible stories and prayed before meals, we didn't often talk about our faith
Actively asking if I thought I had a calling to be a priest, making it understood that it was an option and that it was normal
Discussion about how to properly discern; discussion about how they discerned big decisions in their lives
More than four in ten admit that starting a discussion with their family about their religious vocation was not easy for them. 45% say that no member of their family ever spoke to them about a vocation. When a family member had ever broached the subject in the past, however, about two in three say that starting that discussion with their family was easy.
In response to the question “What more from your family would have been helpful to you as you discerned your vocation” most responses cited praying as a family, engaging more in the faith as a family, talking about the faith more, and talking about vocations as a option or exposure to religious vocations. Here are a few examples of comments

14. Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate
For further information:
Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate
cara.georgetown.edu
Nineteensixty-four.blogspot.com
@caracatholic