By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS Staff Journalist A critical shortage of priests in Baltimore, the first Catholic diocese to be established in America, is forcing parishes to reduce daily and Sunday Mass schedules. The Baltimore Sun is reporting that the shortage of priests in the Archdiocese is reaching critical proportions. At the present time, nearly half of the archdiocese's 153 active priests will reach retirement age within the next 15 years. If the trend continues, there may be fewer than 100 priests by 2025. As a result, many priests are running several parishes at one time and handling all the Masses on weekdays and Sundays. This has prompted church leaders to ask the priests in its parishes to consider cutting back on the number of Masses being offered to the faithful, particularly if similar services are offered in parishes nearby. "If three parishes in the same area ... all have 5 p.m. Mass on Saturday that are one-third full, why not schedule one Mass?" said Sean Caine, spokesman for the archdiocese, which includes more than 500,000 Catholics. According to Caine, annual priestly ordinations have averaged only three per year for the last three decades. This year, only one man was ordained, and he is in his 60's. Another 33 seminarians are currently enrolled in the diocesan seminary. "The overarching issue is that we have to take a hard look at our priest numbers and what is coming down the pike as far as retirements," Caine said. "Our resources are not inexhaustible." The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, which conducts research for the Church, has found that the number of Catholics in America has remained fairly stable at about 22 percent of the population, but the number of priests has been declining steadily. "When the number of priests comes close to the number of parishes, the problem is approaching critical," Mark Gray, senior research associate, told the Sun. "Unless there is a significant increase in ordinations, the shortage will only get worse." © All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly®/Women of Grace®  http://www.womenofgrace.com