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CV NEWS FEED // A survey of the majority of the 2025 ordination candidates for the priesthood found that this year’s average candidate is a 34-year-old cradle Catholic who regularly prayed the Rosary and went to Eucharistic adoration before entering seminary.
According to Catholic Culture, the survey asked 309 of the 405 candidates, who are also known as ordinands, several questions about their backgrounds and habits to understand trends among men with vocations to the priesthood.
The survey revealed that 80% of the respondents are preparing for diocesan priesthood, rather than religious priesthood. High percentages of them attended Catholic schools at some point in their lives, with 46% going to a Catholic elementary school, 36% attending a Catholic high school, and 36% attending a Catholic college.
“In addition, a disproportionately high percentage were home schooled: 15% were home schooled, typically for nine years, at a time when 3% of US children were educated at home,” Catholic Culture noted. “If one assumes that all of the homeschooled seminarians came from the United States, then 20% of US-born ordinands were home schooled.”
Eight percent of the ordination candidates are converts, generally entering the Church around age 22, the survey found. It also revealed that one-quarter of them are foreign-born, on average coming to the U.S. 15 years ago at 21 years old. Foreign ordinands were most likely to be from Mexico, Vietnam, and the Philippines.
Almost always, (89%) candidates were raised by a married couple — either biological parents or their grandparents. Three percent grew up in families with separated or divorced parents, and another 3% are from families with a widowed parent. Eight-five percent said their parents were both Catholic when they were a child.
Ordination candidates said, on average, that they began to consider the priesthood at 16 years old.
Almost 90% were encouraged by someone to consider the priesthood, with 66% reporting that a parish priest supported them. Roughly 50% said a friend encouraged them, 42% said the same of a parishioner, 38% were supported by their mother, and 29% by their father. However, 43% reported that they were discouraged by someone from considering the priesthood. Typically, it was a family member (but not their parents) or a friend who spoke against the choice.
The full survey is available here.
