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Article: WHERE HAVE ALL THE FATHERS GONE? CELIBACY KEY ISSUE ON CATHOLIC CHURCH'S TROUBLE ATTRACTING AND KEEPING PRIESTS.(Lifestyle)
- Article from:
- Seattle Post-Intelligencer
- Article date:
- February 27, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 Seattle Post-Intelligencer. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of the Dialog Corporation by Gale Group. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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It wasn't long ago that a young man's intention to enter the seminary and become a Roman Catholic priest was a source of great pride to his family.
Today that decision often meets with resistance from parents who question their sons' prospects for happiness and fulfillment in a vocation that thousands of priests have abandoned.
The change speaks volumes about the challenges faced by the Catholic Church in this country as it struggles to cope with a critical shortage of priests, fueled largely by the Vatican's insistence on a celibate male clergy.
More than 20,000 men in this country have left the priesthood over the past 30 years, many of them ...