INCREASING THE QUANTITY AND QUALITY OF PRIESTS

Learning from military recruitment by broadening the pool of candidates

A recently released McGrath Institute report, “Do You Know Them to be Worthy,” was written to help Church leaders better assess the suitability of men for Holy Orders. The report, which called bishops to focus on the quality of seminarians, rather than the quantity of men in formation, offered six proposals aimed at “a more effective use of psychological services in the formation process;” three proposals to deal more effectively “with candidates with special needs” (e.g., autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), etc.); and three proposals aimed at “supporting chastity and celibacy formation.”

The report cited a 2025 Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) study, which found that 85% of bishops, 84% of rectors, and 72% of vocation directors are “very confident” or “confident” that seminaries adequately form seminarians for sexual maturity. In contrast, only 14% of mental health professionals responded that they were “very confident” with the current sexual formation of seminarians.

One area of concern addressed in the report involved “the admission to Orders of candidates who experience same-sex attraction (SSA).” It appears that the way bishops, rectors, and vocation directors define “transitory same-sex attraction” (T-SSA) and “deep-seated same-sex attraction” (DS-SSA) has resulted in the ordination of homosexual candidates that should never have been accepted. This should not be surprising, seeing that most closeted bishops appoint rectors and vocation directors who share their homosexual orientation. The ongoing lawsuit filed in the Supreme Court of the State of New York by former New York seminarian, Anthony Gorgia, is a perfect example of how homosexual bishops and seminary officials like Fathers Adam Park and Peter Harman, fearful of being outed and reported for sexual predation and homosexual misconduct, are dismissing devout, talented, heterosexual candidates.

While the report contained excellent proposals and recommendations, one can only wonder if it will meet the same fate as the 1985 co-authored report by Dominican Father Thomas Doyle, “The Problem of Sexual Molestation by Roman Catholic Clergy,” and the 2018 report by Father Paul Sullins, “Is Catholic Clergy Sex Abuse Related to Homosexual Priests?” Neither of these superb reports curbed the ordination of homosexual candidates like Buffalo Father Jeffrey Nowak. As reported in “More Sex Scandals and Cover-ups,” Nowak, ordained in 2012, went on to prey on seminarians, only to be arrested recently on child pornography charges.

In light of the perceived homosexual orientation of most bishops, rectors, and vocation directors (like Archdiocese of New York, Vocations Director, Father George Sears), I have little confidence that the proposals and recommendations contained in the recent McGrath report will be heeded any more than the reports submitted to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) by Fathers Thomas Doyle and Paul Sullins.

Concerned for both the quality and quantity of priestly candidates, I would like to share lessons I learned as a military chaplain recruiter that could help reverse the ongoing decline in vocations, particularly involving the diocesan priesthood.

From 1986 to 1989, I was in charge of recruiting Catholic seminarians and priests into the U.S. Navy Chaplain Corps. During those three years, when U.S. dioceses experienced a 3 percent decline in priests, I was able to increase the number of active-duty Catholic chaplains serving in the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard by 5 percent. If I succeeded in recruiting 158 seminarians and priests who later made up one-third of all active-duty Catholic Navy chaplains, raising the number of Catholic active-duty Navy chaplains in 1989 to 271 (unlike 40-50 today), it was because I was able to broaden the pool of potential chaplains.

Many people who enter the military are attracted to its 20-30-year retirement plan, which involves receiving 50-75 percent of one’s base pay for life. Because a person must retire at 62, the cut-off recruiting age is 42. Recognizing that the vast majority of priests I was tasked to recruit were over 42, I came up with a plan to increase both the number and quality of Catholic chaplains. Unlike most of the Protestant chaplains at that time who were married with children and who were looking to serve at least twenty years to qualify for retirement, the priests were not married and already were enrolled in retirement programs provided by their dioceses and religious orders. Knowing that serving at least 20 years to retire was not a recruiting incentive for many Catholic priests, I recognized that there might be priests over the age of 42 who might be interested in serving for just three years, or until they reached 62. Consequently, I was able to get the Secretary of the Navy to approve the recruitment of priests over 42, provided they could serve at least three years on active duty.

The plan proved phenomenally successful. More than half of the priests I recruited were over 42, who would never have been recruited before, and who brought with them a wealth of pastoral experience, which made them more qualified than many of the younger Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish chaplains in their Chaplain School classes. Many of the older chaplains remained on active duty until they turned 62.

Had I not broadened the pool of potential chaplain candidates by convincing military leaders to authorize the recruitment of priests over 42, the Navy Chaplain Corps would have experienced the same 3 percent decline in priests as most dioceses, rather than a 5 percent increase during that same time period.

If Catholics continue to ignore “The Real Causes for the U.S. Catholic Priest Shortage” which have little to do with the Second Vatican Council or the replacement of the Traditional Latin Mass with the Novus Ordo, and unless the Catholic Church broadens its pool of candidates for the priesthood and stops ordaining and promoting homosexuals, it can expect the number of vocations to continue to decline. According to CARA, the number of ordinations between 1970 and 2025 decreased in the U.S. by 47% from 805 to 426. The number of priests actively engaged in ministry declined during that same period by 59% from 53,273 to 21,750.

The decline in priests is the main reason countless churches are closing today. In 2021, the Archdiocese of Milwaukee “closed and merged” 135 parishes; the Archdiocese of St. Louis listed 116 parishes as “closed parishes” on its website; and the New York Archdiocese closed 82 parishes at that time. In 2024, the Archdiocese of Baltimore reduced the number of city and suburban parishes from 61 to 23, and the Diocese of Buffalo downsized from 160 parishes to 79. In July 2026, the Diocese of Dubuque consolidated 160 parishes into 24 pastorates. In 1990, there were 19,620 parishes in the United States compared to 16,125 in 2025.

There are Catholics who believe there are sufficient numbers of straight men who are willing and able to forego having a wife and children to serve as celibate priests. These naive Catholics do not want to acknowledge certain truths: 1) Most American-born bishops and priests today are homosexuals (psychologically incapable of marriage), many of whom are involved with other gay clerics, sexually and/or emotionally; 2) At any given moment in time, no more than half of all priests in the world are practicing celibate chastity; and 3) Only about 2% of Roman Catholic priests can say that they never broke their promises/vows of celibacy/chastity following ordination. Cardinal Jose Sanchez, a former Prefect of the Dicastery for the Clergy, when asked about the celibacy statistics quoted above, said, “I have no reason to doubt the accuracy of those figures.”

In my opinion, the Roman Catholic Church will not attract more straight candidates while reducing the number of homosexual clergy if it keeps conducting “business as usual.” Allowing diocesan priests to marry, as was the norm during the first twelve centuries of the Church when most order priests were celibate and most diocesan priests were married, will broaden the pool of candidates and can result in an increase in both the quantity and quality of diocesan priests. This process of broadening the pool of candidates is exactly what happened when priests over 42 were allowed to be recruited and serve a minimum of three years in the Chaplain Corps.

Optional celibacy, which has always been practiced in the Eastern Rite Catholic Churches, may introduce new challenges, just like treating cancer with chemotherapy comes with the risk of later contracting leukemia. However, are the benefits of having both married and truly celibate diocesan clergy greater than the current arrangement, which, as the numbers show, clearly is not working?

Greek Catholics, with a majority of married clergy who have not had to pay out billions of dollars in sex abuse court settlements involving teenage boys, believe that the benefits of optional celibacy outweigh the problems that the Roman Catholic Church has experienced by requiring celibacy, which is often not practiced. Catholics opposed to allowing priests to marry cannot complain about facing a potential bill of $25 billion for sex abuse settlements if all states were to lift their statute of limitations for sexual abuse.

Just as a cancer patient may have to choose in most cases between chemotherapy and dying of cancer, so too does the Roman Catholic Church realistically have to choose between being served by both straight celibate and married priests, or mainly by gay priests and bishops, as is currently the case outside of Africa, India, and a few other countries. Anyone who disagrees with the conclusion that making celibacy optional can increase both the quantity and quality of priests is invited to click on and refute “The Real Causes for the U.S. Catholic Priest Shortage.”

After reading this article, instead of supporting dioceses and seminaries that discriminate against straight seminarians, please consider donating to the “Save Our Seminarians” Fund that will support an ongoing landmark case in the Supreme Court of the State of New York.

Gene Thomas Gomulka is a sexual abuse victims’ advocate, investigative reporter, author, and screenwriter. A former Navy (O6) Captain/Chaplain, seminary instructor, and diocesan Respect Life Director, Gomulka was ordained a priest for the Altoona-Johnstown diocese and later made a Prelate of Honor (Monsignor) by St. John Paul II. Email him at msgr.investigations@gmail.com and visit his website at www.gomulka.net.