For the 27 German dioceses, there were a total of 29 new priests.
It is a figure described as "historically low," but previous years could have received the same description.
The DBK website provides a table of ordinations in Germany over a period of 63 years. In 1962, the year the Second Vatican Council opened, the German Church ordained 557 priests. Most dioceses had double-digit numbers, with the Archdiocese of Paderborn alone producing 53 new priests. By 1965, the year the Council ended, the number had fallen to 500.
In 1969, the number of ordinations was only 356, a drop of one-third compared to 1962. And in 1974, the number had fallen below 200 (196), a drop of about one-third again. A stabilization followed, with the number rising above 200 and approaching 300 in 1989 (297) and 1990 (295). However, since 1971, in most dioceses, the number of ordinations has been in the single digits.
After 1990, the number of ordinations began to decline again, falling below 200 in 1995 (186), then below 100 in 2008 (93), where it remained. Since 2012, no diocese has had double-digit ordinations. In 2022, there were only 33 ordinations, and 29 in 2024; 11 dioceses had no ordinations at all. The Diocese of Trier leads the way with four ordained priests.
The situation is dire in the five East German dioceses. In 2024, only two ordinations took place, with both men being over the age of 45. The dioceses of Magdeburg, Dresden-Meissen, and Görlitz were unable to present a single candidate. Secularization in the former GDR can undoubtedly explain this. In 2012, 59% of East Germans declared themselves atheists.
The DBK (German Bishops' Conference) also published figures on the admission of candidates to the priesthood. The same decline can be observed. The first figures begin in 1972 (348), then rise to 628 in 1985. They then decline quite rapidly, stabilizing at around 200 until 2007, when the decline resumes, and falls below 100 after 2016.
In 2024, the number, for all dioceses, will be 47. But as is well known and understandable, there will not be as many ordinations at the end of the candidates' formation period.
The Diocese of Münster, once a bastion of the Catholic Faith, is an example of the dramatic decline in priestly vocations in Germany. In the 1950s, dozens of priests were ordained each year in this diocese. The number plummeted beginning in the 1970s.
This catastrophic decline coincided with the Conciliar and post-Conciliar years, with the liturgical reform, and then with the disastrous Synodal Path. All of this demonstrates the extent to which progressives have been living in a complete illusion since 1962.