Are ordinations in England really higher now than in the 1950s? Let's take a closer look...

RORATE C�LI: An argument over numbers: how does the 1950s compare with today?JOSEPHSHAW: Below is a graph of ordination statistics in England and Wales with a longer range of data (still with a few gaps): click to enlarge. The old Catholic Directories published the names of all those ordained in the previous year, by diocese and religious order. By counting these names my sources have been able to come up with a statistics for secular ordinations, religious ordinations, and a total number of ordinations each year. This source of data dried up in the 1980s, so I have added, as an extra line, the figures for ordinations to the secular priesthood given by the Vocations Office for each year from 1982, which, though the differ slightly from the data in the Directories, look reasonably reliable. There was a rush of vocations after the Papal Visit of 1982; following the decision by the Church of England to ordain women 1992, the English bishops ordained some 200 former Anglicans after an accelerated process of formation. Apart from those two blips, the post-Vatican II decline continued until just five years ago, when things slowly began to improve, from a very low base.