What is the Priest and Pastor Situation in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati?
Hello, friends. Along with the parish demographic situation that we ran in this space two weeks ago, the other very significant piece of information to understand the current demographics of how many priests we have, how old they are, and how many are able to be pastors. Anecdotal evidence shows that priests (like myself) are pushed into being pastors very quickly. Here is the hard evidence to back that up.   Fr. McC

Scope and Definitions

•  The information shared here is about active archdiocesan priests.  It does not include retired priests or religious order priests.
•  Archdiocesan priests can be assigned as Pastors,  Parochial Vicars (also known as Assistant Pastors or Associate Pastors), offices in the Archdiocesan      Pastoral Center, professors at the Seminary (or studying to be a professor) or as a chaplain.
• Parochial Vicars (PV) – all newly ordained priests are assigned as a PV for at least 2 years but hopefully 4 years.  Older priests may  request to be PV’s if they are not able to continue to be a pastor – generally due to health issues but are not old enough or don’t want to retire.
• The retirement age in the Archdiocese is 70 year

Pastor Situation Now and Future
Situation Today                                                                        

Forecast of Archdiocesan Pastors


Active Archdiocesan Priest Situation
Currently there are 143 active diocesan priests in the Archdiocese.  There are 212 parishes in the Archdiocese with 176 currently pastored by Archdiocesan priests.  The remaining parishes are pastored by religious order priests. As of 2021, 19% of all active Archdiocesan priests are eligible to retire.  In the next 5 years, 39% will be eligible to retire.


Ordinations and Impact
While it is true that ordinations have been better in the last 10 years, they have not kept up with the retirements, particularly retirements in the next 5 years. The current ordination projection is an average of 5 men per year over the next 5 years.
58 priests eligible to retire vs 25 new priests ordained – a gap of 33 priests.