Last week’s prima messa – first solemn Mass – of Joseph Hili in Xagħra is on course to be the only one in Gozo this year, a stark reminder of an aging and diminishing body of priests in Malta.

“There were around 40 of us in the seminary when I studied in 1986,” Carmelo Refalo, the archpriest of Xagħra, told The Sunday Times of Malta. Right now, the number of seminarians in Gozo stands at 10. 

“We had larger families back then,” Mgr Refalo said, talking about the diminishing seminarians. “Moreover, the Church was more dominant in society. Families were like mini-seminaries: we were raised robustly in morals and human values like respect and generosity.”

Xagħra remains one of the main founts of the priesthood – Mgr Refalo estimates that a third of priests in Gozo in the past 20 years hailed from there. One contemporary family in Xagħra has uniquely contributed three sons to the priesthood: the two parish priests Joseph and Michael Curmi, and their brother Mario Curmi, ordained two years ago.

Everywhere in Gozo the ordination of a new priest is a coalescent community event, generating community pride and belonging, and the reception is usually held in the town square prior to the feast. Fr Hili’s event was expectantly sumptuous and grand. The church was packed for Mass; the square bristled with around 2,000 attendees for the wedding-style reception afterwards that dragged on until the early hours of the morning.

Yet although Gozo still produces more priests per capita – extrapolating the current number of seminarians shows that Gozo supplies 35 per cent of the national number of priests despite having seven per cent of the national population – the drop in the number of seminarians has been steepest on that island. A generation ago there were around 40 seminarians in both Gozo and Malta and these have now dwindled to 10 in Gozo and 18 in Malta – a 75 per cent drop in Gozo as opposed to a fall of little more than half in Malta. (These extrapolations are only generically indicative; a more scientific comparison would have to include priests or monks joining other Catholic societies or orders, such as the Salesians, which are mentioned in this article below – see figures in the table.)

Albert Buhagiar, rector of Malta’s Archbishop’s Seminary (the seminaries in Gozo and Malta are run separately), talked about the dwindling seminarians in comparative terms.

“You have to keep in mind that the size of families has shrunk in the last generation. And while the number of candidates for priesthood has shrunk by about half, the number of offspring in families has shrunk by more than half. So the number of priests as a percentage of offspring doesn’t seem to have changed that much,” he said

Fr Buhagiar does not think that there is a shortage of priests currently, much less a crisis in the priesthood. “Things may change in 10 or 20 years because of the preponderance of older priests.” (The real crisis may actually be in nunneries: cloistered nuns particularly are expected to die out within a decade or so.)

Religiosity in families has weakened and becoming a priest is not as valued as it was a generation ago

In the larger picture these trends are congruent with shrinking congregations at Mass. The latest statistics, drawn from a survey conducted at the end of last year, shows that 38 per cent attend Mass every Sunday while 74 per cent do so once monthly. Attendance is more prevalent in Gozo but Gozo’s last survey in 2005 is too old to be reliable. 

“Religiosity in families has weakened and becoming a priest is not as valued as it was a generation ago,” Fr Buhagair continued. “The attitude in the West in our times is that God is superfluous, and the culture of individualism and self-gratification is not conducive to the priesthood. Joining the priesthood is more of a challenge nowadays, a choice that requires much thought and discernment.”

The Salesians of Don Bosco, a society within the Church, deal with the issue of ‘discernment’ by encouraging initiation into the trials and pathways of profane study before getting onto the path of priesthood.

“When someone tells me that he wants to be a priest,” said Louis Grech, vice provincial of the Salesians, “I tell him to take a university course in a subject of his preference. That provides the novice with another career option and, if he were still to be interested in the priesthood afterwards, he would then have to begin studies in theology and philosophy, first at the University of Malta and then at the University of Turin.”

As an organisation, the Salesians are mostly involved with young people. They run schools, oratories and homes for youth, as well as perform Catholic services, including Mass, in a handful of chapels or side-churches. The society consists of 35 priests.

Salesians can be priests or brothers. The two are equal in standing but ‘brothers’ do not perform priestly religious rites and dedicate themselves more fully to mentoring young people. For the ‘brothers’, study of theology is desirable but not compulsory.

“At present there are 10 candidates undergoing formation,” said Fr Grech. “These 10 are defined as ‘brothers’ at present. Seven of them intend to become priests, while three shall remain brothers.” 

Despite the longer stretch of study – Salesian priests have to study for 11 or 12 years while diocesan priests study for seven – the number of pupils or novices for priesthood or brotherhood is relatively larger among Salesians in comparison to the size of the organisation. 

“It may be a truism that finding youths who want to become priests is a challenge nowadays,” said Fr Grech. “But the paradox is that although society is individualistic the young crave community. Young people do seek spirituality; do want to get involved in voluntary work.

“So I think that if you offer a space where young people can feel a sense of belonging, and where they can interact with adult Salesians, then the outcome is more youths choosing priesthood.”

Back at the Archbishop’s Seminary, there has been a different kind of change that augurs well for the priesthood: the number of elder or mature seminarians has swelled. Though this is only the case in Malta; in Gozo all seminarians were school-leavers at the point of enrolment.

“Nine or 10 of the candidates in the seminary are mature students, and that’s a much greater proportion than before,” said Fr Buhagiar, the rector.

“These are candidates who would have gotten on good career paths and then chosen to become priests in their thirties. This is a positive trend because mature candidates tend to be more experienced in life and more motivated in their vocation.”

Total number of priests and religious ordained in Malta in the last five years