The Changing Face of the French Clergy

According to the blog Eponymous Flower, 23% of the secular clergy in France who were ordained to the priesthood in 2015 chose to be ordained in the Extraordinary Form.  The actual figures for the past six years are as follows:


YEAR          OF        EF        TOTAL      %EF


2010              96        16             112          16
2011            109        18             127          14
2012              97        20             117          17
2013              92        12             104          12
2014              88        18             106          17
2015              68        20               88          23


TOTAL       550       104            654          16


These figures are for the ordinations to the diocesan priesthood only, and do not include those who have been ordained in the traditional orders such as the FSSP, the ICKSP and the IBP.  Neither do they include the very considerable number of priestly ordinations in the monastic communities that use the older rite, such as Le Barroux, Fontgomoult and Lagrasse.  If these were taken into consideration, the percentage of EF ordinations over the past six years would in the region of 25%.


Although these figures may seem very encouraging for advocates of the usus antiquior, the overall decline in the number of priests in France is pretty spectacular.  In the 1960s, the average number of diocesan priests ordained each year was in the region of 500.