Why do some priests leave ministry? New study aims to find out
The Catholic University of America has launched a study to determine whether more priests are leaving ministry early and what factors may contribute. Funded by the Knights of Columbus, the research will examine U.S. diocesan priests ordained from 2006 to 2025 using quantitative and qualitative methods. CARA is compiling anonymized data on roughly 9,000 priests, tracking their current status through open-source research and diocesan records. Researchers expect to release the study’s findings in fall 2027; identifying and contacting priests who left ministry presents privacy-related challenges.
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The Catholic University of America has begun a study to determine whether more U.S. priests are leaving ministry in their early years and to understand their experiences. Researchers plan to combine a review of priestly status records with interviews, with results expected in fall 2027.
Funded by the Knights of Columbus, the project focuses on diocesan priests ordained in the United States from 2006 through 2025. The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) is compiling an anonymized data set covering roughly 9,000 men.
CARA researchers are checking individual names against online information, diocesan clergy lists and The Official Catholic Directory to determine priests’ current status, accounting for factors such as death, medical leave and temporary assignments. Researchers say identifying and contacting priests who have left can be difficult because dioceses must protect individuals’ privacy.
The qualitative part of the project will interview men ordained after 2000 who left public ministry within 10 years of ordination, with the knowledge of their bishop or religious superior. Formal laicization is not required, but the study excludes men removed through a canonical process and those who left without their superior’s knowledge.
The planned 60-to-90-minute interviews will cover participants’ backgrounds and sense of calling, formation and ordination, time in ministry, the development of doubts and their decision to leave, and life afterward. Researchers said 61 people responded to the call for participants within its first week.
CARA executive director Father Thomas P. Gaunt described former priests’ reasons for leaving as varied. He cited men who concluded priesthood was not their calling, others who felt embittered by their experience with a bishop, and some for whom revisiting their time in ministry was too painful.
Researchers say the study is intended to establish whether early departures have increased, identify factors that may contribute, and convey former priests’ experiences in their own words. They also hope its findings will help church leaders recognize warning signs and identify ways to support priests.
Theological and pastoral foundations of priestly perseverance in ministry
Priestly perseverance is more than remaining in a position or continuing to perform ministerial duties. It is a continuing response to Christ’s call: a life of fidelity, conversion, prayer, and service, sustained by grace and freely renewed through changing circumstances. Its foundations are theological, because priestly ministry is rooted in Christ and the gift of Holy Orders; and pastoral, because a priest’s fidelity is strengthened not only by personal discipline but also by fraternity, formation, and the Church’s care for her priests.
Ordination begins a lasting relationship of call and response. Pastores Dabo Vobis describes Holy Orders as God’s call and mission, to which the priest responds in faith. That first “yes” is not a one-time act that makes later fidelity automatic: it is to be expressed anew throughout the priest’s life. The priest’s vocation therefore develops as he encounters new situations and responsibilities, discerning how to follow Christ in them.
“The gift of the Spirit does not take away the freedom of the priest. It calls on the priest to make use of his freedom in order to cooperate responsibly and accept permanent formation as a task entrusted to him.”
This passage holds together grace and human responsibility. Perseverance is not self-reliance, as if holiness depended on sheer willpower; nor is it passive, as if the sacrament removed the need for effort, discernment, or conversion. The Spirit sustains the priest, while the priest is called to cooperate with that grace through the choices and practices of daily life. In this sense, perseverance is a “continual conversion,” not a claim to have arrived at spiritual maturity once and for all.
The theological centre of priestly perseverance is Christ himself. A priest serves in Christ’s mission and must continually return to him as the source and model of that service. A Holy See text stresses that knowing the Shepherd through a deep personal relationship with Christ—and especially through prayer—is essential to perseverance. It connects this relationship with the capacity to serve people freely and chastely, including in the commitment to celibacy.
Prayer is not simply one useful activity among many; it helps the priest receive his ministry as a gift rather than carry it as a burden of personal achievement. John Paul II likewise points to personal prayer, reflection on God’s word, and devotion to Christ in the Blessed Sacrament as means of keeping alive the priest’s sense of God and his mission. He presents the Eucharist as the centre of priestly life and ministry, and names the Liturgy of the Hours and the sacrament of Reconciliation among the practices through which priests live what they celebrate and preach.
These practices also join ministry to holiness. The priest does not merely direct others toward a life with God: he must seek that life himself. The sources emphasize ongoing study and prayer, sacramental life, and personal pursuit of holiness as concrete ways of renewing the gift of priesthood.
Perseverance does not mean that a priest will never experience weariness, failure, loneliness, or discouragement. The sources acknowledge that the demands of ministry can press heavily on time and energy, and that a priest becomes increasingly aware of his human limitations. Their answer is not to deny weakness, but to see it in relation to God’s grace and mercy. John Paul II teaches that awareness of human weakness should lead the priest to seek Christ’s mercy, including in the sacrament of Penance, rather than conclude that weakness has made faithful ministry impossible.
Pope Francis similarly urges priests facing trials not to become absorbed in their troubles, but to recall the Lord’s presence, mercy, and past faithfulness. Gratitude can renew perspective and hope. His encouragement is not a demand to conceal pain or pretend that ministry is easy; it is an invitation to bring hardship before God and continue in trust.
A related distinction is between perseverance and mere endurance. Christian endurance remains oriented toward love and mission. Pastores Dabo Vobis presents fidelity as necessary even amid fatigue and difficulty, while also describing the qualities that give that fidelity its shape: endurance, purity, kindness, genuine love, and truthfulness. Perseverance is therefore not simply staying busy or tolerating hardship; it is continuing to serve in a way that remains rooted in Christ and directed toward the good of the people entrusted to the priest.
Priestly perseverance is personal, but it is not meant to be solitary. The Church’s teaching cited here treats priestly fraternity as a real support: priests are encouraged to pray together, share experiences, strengthen one another, and maintain bonds with their bishop and fellow priests. Pope Francis highlights practical forms of this care, such as supporting sick priests, seeking out those who withdraw, and sharing life’s difficulties and joys.
That support matters especially where loneliness accompanies ministry. A Holy See text recommends common life where feasible, frequent fraternal exchange, and associations that foster priestly holiness. These are not alternatives to prayer or personal responsibility; they are ways the Church’s communion can help a priest live them. The same text asks that prayer for perseverance be joined to genuine encouragement and support.
Ongoing formation also belongs to this pastoral care. It is not only academic updating or professional training. Pastores Dabo Vobis describes it as a means of discerning God’s continuing call, refocusing on the meaning of ministry, and helping the priest remain faithful. John Paul II adds that the presbyterate—the community of priests serving with their bishop—has a role in helping each priest grow in holiness and fidelity. Formation therefore responds both to the priest’s own need for renewal and to the Church’s responsibility to support those who serve her.
Taken together, these sources present perseverance as a vocation lived over time: sustained by the Spirit, nourished by intimacy with Christ, expressed in sacramental and pastoral life, and strengthened by fraternity and formation. They do not portray fidelity as flawless performance. Instead, they point to the priest who returns to Christ in weakness, receives mercy, allows his calling to be renewed, and continues to serve the people with patience and charity.
That account also has a pastoral implication for the Church: support for priests is not a concession made in place of expecting fidelity. It helps make fidelity possible. The sources pair their call to perseverance with appeals for prayer, companionship, formation, and concrete care for priests. So a sound pastoral approach holds together both truths: priests are called to lasting and generous service, and they need a community that helps them remain faithful in that service.