Newark, USA - The Archdiocese of Newark will ordain more Roman Catholic priests this year than any other diocese, according to a survey by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The Newark archdiocese is scheduled to ordain 17 priests Saturday. The Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., has the next largest class, with 12 ordinands. The Archdiocese of Denver came in third with 11.
In the last 10 years, the Newark Archdiocese has been a leader in priest ordinations along with the Archdiocese of Chicago. The Archdiocese of Newark is the ninth-largest diocese in the United States, serving about 1.3 million Catholics.
"We've certainly had a very active recruiting program in which we go into Catholic high schools and colleges and speak about vocations," Monsignor Tom Nydegger, vice rector of Immaculate Conception, one of two seminaries in the Archdiocese of Newark.
Nationally, the average age of the 2006 class is 37, with 22 percent under 30 and 4 percent over 60. Nearly one-third of the men were born outside the United States.
The total number of priests in the United States has been declining for decades, from 58,632 in 1965 to 42,839 in 2005, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.