A total of 126 Catholic priests will be ordained this year in France, announced Monday the Conference of Bishops (CEF), a number that stagnates compared to 2018. Ordinations are traditionally frequent around June 29, feast of St. Peter and St. Paul, apostles considered as the two pillars of the Church.
Two seminars will close
In 2019, and especially the next weekend for part of them, 126 priests will be ordained, against 125 last year. Among them, the CEF has 76 "diocesan" priests, who will serve one way or another in a diocese. In addition, there are 20 new priests from a community such as the Saint-Martin community (9) or the Emmanuel community (3) who will be active in parishes. Finally, there will also be 30 religious priests, that is, religious congregations and institutes, including five from the Jesuit Society, or four brothers from St. John.
In 2017, the CEF had recorded 117 ordinations, a hundred in 2016, 120 in 2015, but about 140 in 2014. Moreover, in recent weeks, the seminar (place of training of priests) of Bordeaux and the seminar of Lille announced that they closed, because of too small manpower. In Lille, it is at this stage a temporary closure.