Midlife quest leads to priesthood

Brooks Beaulaurier had served as a police officer, census worker, Air Force security officer and sergeant, and longtime insurance investigator.

But something was "missing," he says, until this year -- at age 54 -- when he added another title to that list: Catholic priest.

Beaulaurier was ordained May 23 at Yakima's St. Paul Cathedral. And he doesn't plan on changing jobs again.

"My commitment is to the Diocese of Yakima for the rest of my life," says Beaulaurier, now 55 and serving as the associate pastor at both Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Moses Lake and Queen of All Saints Parish in Warden.

Like the majority of men becoming priests these days, Beaulaurier entered the seminary later in life -- at 49 in 2003 -- after college, a career, military and life experience. And he's not alone.

Statistics show that as the number of Roman Catholic priests declines in the United States, the age at which men are being ordained is going up.

According to a recent report from the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., or CARA, the average age of ordinands for the class of 2008 is 37.

Priests joining religious orders are slightly older. Their average age is 39, while the average age for diocesan priests is 36. About 39 percent of all new priests are in their 30s. But the oldest is 76.

"We're definitely a middle-age or older bunch," says the Rev. Robert M. Siler, chief of staff at the Diocese of Yakima. Like Beaulaurier, he, too, was ordained later in life.

Siler, now 48, was 35 when he entered the seminary after graduate school and a career as a newspaper reporter and editor. He was ordained in 2001, just shy of his 41st birthday.

"You have a better sense of who you are," Siler says of entering the priesthood later in life.

In addition to being older, those seeking the priesthood in the class of 2008 are also highly educated. More than six in 10 completed college before entering the seminary, according to the CARA report. And more than one in five has a graduate degree. And about two-thirds worked full-time before entering the seminary.

Both Siler and Beaulaurier agree life experience is an asset to the priesthood. They list advanced interpersonal skills and a better ability to relate to the people they serve as benefits.

"It gave me time to mature, to grow into the priesthood," says Beaulaurier, who graduated May 9 from Oregon's Mount Angel Seminary and was ordained two weeks later. "I feel blessed to be here, to be a priest. ... It's hard to put into words, but for me, it feels absolutely right for the first time in decades."

Priesthood, he says, "is the absolute pinnacle of my life."

Rewind to 2002. One day, "I kind of woke up and realized I was not working in a career I enjoyed," Beaulaurier says of his nearly 20 years in the insurance business. "You might liken it to some kind of midlife crisis."

"After you've been on a treadmill for awhile and been out in the business world for awhile -- in some cases are beat up by it -- you look around and tell yourself, 'Certainly, there must be something greater than this.'"

Beaulaurier called Monsignor John A. Ecker, pastor at St. Paul Cathedral, vicar general of the Diocese of Yakima and a priest for 50 years.

Beaulaurier had grown up in Yakima, serving -- like 75 percent of new priests -- as an altar boy and attending -- like half of new priests -- Catholic school. As an altar server, he helped Ecker at Mass at St. Paul, where he also went to school and would eventually be ordained.

That call led to more calls, prayers, several visits to Yakima, and some serious soul-searching. By fall, Beaulaurier had enrolled in a philosophy class at Seattle University. By Christmas, he had quit his job. In mid-January, he was living and studying at the seminary.

Siler has a similar story. He says when he "finally got up enough courage and called Father Ecker, he said, 'What took you so long?'"

Beaulaurier surmises: "I think men are going into the priesthood later in life because they're seeking -- like a lot of people -- more fulfillment.

"They're seeking something that gives them a greater sense of satisfaction," he says. "Perhaps they come to understand more fully what scripture says: It's better to give than to receive, and in giving we receive."

The average age of new priests is up slightly from a decade ago, when it was nearly 35, according to a report from the Catholic University of America Life Cycle Institute.

But before that, according to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the average age of priests at ordination had stayed the same for nearly 100 years. From 1880 to 1979, it was 28.

Statistics also show the number of Catholic priests in the United States began falling in the 1970s, around the time Beaulaurier was graduating from Yakima's Eisenhower High School -- he was part of the class of 1971 -- and heading off to Washington State University.

When he graduated from college in 1975, there were approximately 36,000 diocesan priests in the U.S., according to CARA. Within 20 years, that number had sunk to 32,300. By 2005, the tally had shrunk even more, to 28,700. The most recent count last year puts the total just under 28,000.

Overall, the total number of Catholic priests in the U.S. -- including members of religious orders -- has decreased from nearly 59,000 in 1975 to about 41,500 in 2007.

The Diocese of Yakima is faring better than some. It was recently listed among the top 20 dioceses with the highest ratio of seminarians to Catholics by The World Catholic Report.

Released in December
2007, the report listed 16 seminarians for the diocese's 77,149 Catholics, or one seminarian per 4,822 Catholics, for the year 2006. Those numbers earned it a ranking of 19.

Still, that's a decrease. In 2004, the Diocese of Yakima ranked second.

And its population of current priests is aging. Of the approximately 60 priests in the Diocese of Yakima, about half are 70 or older, Siler said. And about half of them are still working full-time.

"The church is always going to need priests," says Siler, pointing toward today's smaller family size as one reason for the shortage. Fewer children means fewer potential priests.

Changing social values and the practice of celibacy, compounded by recent sexual abuse scandals, might be other factors.

"Certainly, the church has changed a lot over the past 50 years, too," says Siler, referring to the sweeping changes of the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, or Vatican II.

And, more recently, "The priesthood has taken a beating," he says. "Maybe it's not as easy to hear that vocational calling."

Local numbers seem to follow the national trend. In the Diocese of Yakima, the average age at ordination of those who became priests before 1966, the end of Vatican II, was 27.

For those in the diocese ordained between 1966 and 1990, the average age at ordination was 30. And for those ordained from 1991 to today, the average age at ordination is 38.

"That's a pretty clear indication of a trend ... to discern their vocation to priesthood later in life, and to bring a variety of work and life experiences with them," says Siler, who remains hopeful.

"Everybody has a vocation in life," he says. "If you have a religious vocation, if that's what God has in mind for you, he's going to keep calling you."

Beaulaurier says he feels blessed to have answered the call.

"The church offers a greater sense of fulfillment, a greater sense of satisfaction," he says. "It's hard to explain, but there's a very, very clear -- almost palpable -- feeling of people not only accepting but seeking you out for help, and you're able to make a difference, spiritually, emotionally."

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