Tim Keenan | The Michigan Catholic

DETROIT — The priest shortage being felt by Catholic dioceses across the United States and Europe also is being experienced by religious orders, but the good news is that people joining religious orders are younger and more educated than in the past.

In 1965, there were 35,925 diocesan priests in the U.S., according to research by Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA). In 2005, that number had dropped to 28,702. This year, there are 26,661 U.S. diocesan priests. By contrast, the same study showed 22,707 religious priests in the U.S. in 1965, 14,137 in 2005 and 12,303 this year. The numbers of religious brothers and sisters also have seen a steady decline.

Worldwide membership in the Order of St. Augustine, for instance, peaked just prior to the French Revolution with 20,000 friars, also known as Augustinians. The order served at St. Clair of Montefalco Parish in Grosse Pointe Park for 86 years before leaving earlier this year because of a shortage. Augustinians also ran the all-boys Austin Catholic Prep on Detroit’s east side for many years before closing in 1978, but the order staffs a new co-ed high school, Austin Catholic Academy in Ray Township, which opened last year.

Currently, there are approximately 2,800 Augustinians working in 42 countries, according to Fr. Michael DiGregorio, OSA, the Rome-based vicar general of the order. A native of Staten Island, N.Y., Fr. DiGregorio joined the Augustinians in 1965.

“In the U.S. we are experiencing an upswing,” Fr. DiGregorio said. “We presently have 32 men in various levels of formation: pre-novices, novices and professed friars still in formation.”

That news is encouraging, as is another CARA study commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that shows people entering religious orders today are younger and more educated than new members of the recent past.

The average age among men professing perpetual vows in 2011 was 42. The average age among women joining orders last year was 39, four years younger than the previous year. Among brothers, half were younger than 44.

Sixteen percent of the religious responding to the survey earned a graduate degree before entering their religious institute, including 26 percent for brothers. Fifty-seven percent entered religious life with at least a bachelor’s degree (56 percent for women and 76 percent for men).

“We are encouraged by the report’s findings,” said Mercy Sr. Mary Joanna Ruhland, associate director of the USCCB’s Secretariat of Clergy.

Fr. DiGregorio said the Augustinians are making a concerted effort to do a better job making young American Catholic men more aware of their order.

“In the U.S., I think we’re very conscious of the need for friars to work full-time in the ministry of promotion,” he said. “I think it is paying off.”

He said a November vocations campaign in U.S. parishes and schools that included CDs, posters and information about current members of the order has been promising.

“We asked that the homily for Sunday, Nov. 11, be devoted to the theme of vocation,” Fr. DiGregorio said. “It’s the first time we’ve done this simultaneously throughout the country.”

He noted that the Augustinians are using blogs and YouTube to promote the order as well as pleas from the pulpit.

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Tim Keenan is a freelance writer from Farmington Hills.