Catholic priests are often called into action through tough times. Whether they work in a local parish or as a missionary, the main duties of a priest is to administer the church’s seven sacraments — which include baptism, confession and holy communion — while also visiting the sick, overseeing religious education programs and providing pastoral care to parishioners. Many nuns fill social-service roles, as well.

How does all that work during the COVID-19 pandemic? In Italy, where the coronavirus has led to the infection of some 35,000 residents and the deaths of nearly 3,000 people, priests have been among the group hardest hit during this epidemic. Ten priests have already died after contracting COVID-19, more than half of time in the city of Bergamo, just outside Milan. In Bergamo alone, more than 20 priests have been hospitalized, with six of them dead as a result of falling ill. They ranged in age from 59 to 70.  

That members of the clergy are suffering in such high numbers isn’t a surprise given the advanced age of so many priests.

This is, after all, an emerging story that is linked to a much older, familiar news story that has been making headlines for several decades — the declining number of young priests in America and many other lands. With fewer young priests, the church depends heavily on the service and skills of aging priests, bishops and nuns.

Here in the United States — where fears about the deadly bug’s spread has grown over the past week — the average age of a priest is 63. The number puts priests in the high-risk bracket for people who can die from contracting COVID-19.

Priestly vocations has been trending downward for years, especially in Europe and the United States — where birthrates have been falling sharply among Catholics. These two places, where the need for clergy to comfort the sick is at its highest while officials call for social distancing, find themselves with no pastoral care. Instead, priests are relegated to streaming services via the Internet as part of social distancing in an effort to stem the outbreak’s growth.  

How can priests around the world give pastoral care and comfort to the sick and panic-stricken without putting themselves at risk? Clergy in China, where the virus began last year, and France, where it has grown in recent weeks, have been hospitalized. It’s especially tough when priests are themselves forced into quarantine and dealing with the grief of losing family members.

Poignant messages such as this one are sure to increase:

This afternoon, I anointed a patient dying from COVID-19.

Brother priests — be not afraid! 

The team in the ICU fully geared me up before I went in the patient’s room & took care of everything when I stepped out. 

Christ’s Mercy must always be there to accompany the dying.

— Fr. Peter Stamm (@FatherStamm) March 18, 2020

Father Dwight Longenecker, an Anglican-turned-Catholic priest, wrote on his blog Tuesday that he’s “working from home” (he is married, with children) like millions of Americans.  

“As a Catholic priest I celebrate the sacraments and ‘do my job.’ I am often frustrated and sometimes angry with what seems to me incompetence and indifference around me. I’m even more frustrated with my own failures and sins,” he said. “At times this feeling infects my enthusiasm for my vocation and I feel that I am just going through the motions or even putting on an act which has little depth or substance. I celebrate Mass as faithfully as I can, but often I don’t feel anything — don’t feel close to Jesus and Mary and don’t have what I have learned Catholics call consolations.’ But one continues on. Faith is stronger than all that.”

Longenecker, who is based in Greenville, South Carolina, added, “But [Monday], at the prospect of not being able to say Mass for my parish I became quite emotional. Tears welled up more than once that afternoon, and I guess I was learning that it did matter to me after all. It mattered quite a lot. So I resolved to do the best I can in the midst of the lockdown so many of us are experiencing and use the extra time to encourage the flock. This Lockdown Diary will reach not only my own folks in the parish of Our Lady of the Rosary in Greenville, South Carolina, but the thousands who read this blog worldwide.”

In Italy, priests have been unable to do their jobs for a myriad of reasons.

“A priest who lost his dad called me. He’s in quarantine, his mother is in quarantine alone in another house. His brothers are in quarantine,” said Francesco Beschi, who serves as the bishop of Bergamo. “There is no funeral. He will be taken to the cemetery and buried, without anyone being able to participate in this moment of human and Christian piety, which is now so important because it is missing.”

The death toll is so high in Bergamo’s diocese alone that bodies are being stored in churches, which are closed to the public as part of a national lockdown on everything with the exception of supermarkets and pharmacies. As a result, gatherings that include weddings, baptisms and funerals are also banned.

In nearby Cremona, the town’s bishop, Antonio Napolioni, 62, was hospitalized for the 10 days with respiratory problems after contracting COVID-19. He is now recovering at home and under quarantine.

Continue reading “Aging Catholic Priesthood Risk Health To Comfort The Faithful During Pandemic” by Clemente Lisi at Religion Unplugged.