Report
Ordination Class of 2014 CARA Report
The Class of 2014: Survey of Ordinands to the Priesthood, A Report to the Secretariat of Clergy, Consecrated Life &Vocations, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops by Mary L. Gautier, Ph.D. and Carolyne Saunders, M.S., April 2014
This report presents findings from a national survey of ordinands to the priesthood in 2014. To obtain the names and contact information for these ordinands, the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) contacted all theologates and houses of formation in fall 2013 to request names and contact information for every seminarian who was scheduled to be ordained to the priesthood in 2014. CARA also notified the vocation director at all dioceses and archdioceses in the United States about the project and asked for their support in encouraging their potential ordinands to complete the survey.
After repeated follow-up, a total of 365 ordinands responded to the survey by March 31, 2014 (five others were being ordained for a diocese outside of the United States and were removed from the sample). This represents a response rate of approximately 77 percent of the 477 potential ordinands reported to CARA by theologates, houses of formation, arch/dioceses, and religious institutes. These 365 ordinands include 266 ordinands to the diocesan priesthood, from 112 different dioceses and archdioceses, and 96 ordinands to the religious priesthood. Three ordinands did not supply information about where they were to be ordained.