At the end of December In Poland we had 24,000 998 clergy performing pastoral duties – GUS said as part of information about the number of working in Poland. This means that for the first time in history we went below 25,000. Threshold 26 thousand He fell in September 2023, so the changes progress quite quickly.
During the year, the number of working clergy fell by 945 people, i.e. by 3.6 percent. It is not about the Catholic clergy themselves, as as much as 4.7 percent. yard (by 194 people) among women-human, and 3.4 percent RDR among men (by 751 people).
As a result, at the end of last year we had 21.1 thousand in Poland. clergy-lames and 3.9 thousand – Women.
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Decline in vocations in the Catholic Church
In the case of the Catholic Church, the downward trend is confirmed by the data on the number of alumni. In the 2024/2025 academic year, 1594 men were preparing for the priesthood in Polish seminars, it was 1690 a year earlier
Although the Polish church does not provide official statistics, partial data published on diocesan pages show that The number of new diocesan priests in 2025 may not exceed 130 people, “DEON wrote recently. “From information published on diocesan pages, it can be concluded that there is not a single deacon in at least four dioceses, so there will probably be no priestly ordination this year,” we read. At the same time, about 40 percent He is over 50 years old.
He interestingly commented on these numbers in DEON, Fr. Wojciech Wawrzyniak, referring to the election of Cardinal Provost as the Pope: “Diocese of Chiclayo (Peru) – 1.15 million baptized, over 15.6 thousand km2, 50 parishes, 107 diocesan and religious priests. Archdiocese of Krakow diocesan and religious.
Demographic issues and people from faith are also indicated.
Author: Jacek Frączyk, Business Insider Polska editor
