Holy work in hollow ranks
25 April 2025
Despite Europe being one of the most secular regions in the world, many people in countries like Denmark, Belgium, and the UK choose to attend church services on major holidays like Easter and Christmas, making these the busiest times of the year for the clergy. But for priests, the hustle and bustle neither starts nor ends with the holiday celebrations.
In Denmark, as in the rest of Europe, the difficulty of attracting enough new students makes it impossible to ensure a stable turnover within the pastoral profession. Overworked priests, layman-run services, and even delayed funerals are the consequences local communities in Denmark feel as the number of ordained priests declines. Almost 10% of priestly job vacancies are re-advertised.
One temporary fix for the shortage is to bring back retired priests, but as Ireland has shown, this solution has a high risk of burnout. Working more isn't sustainable either – in Lithuania, the decline in numbers comes on top of inadequate pay, which forces priests to cover multiple parishes. A 2020 study of French priests found that depression and burnout are often the consequences, and are particularly common among rural priests who juggle multiple parishes.
 | Daniela Lange Andersen In Denmark, two out of three Danes still identify as Christian, although few practice their religion regularly. However, with the increase in geopolitical tensions in the past months, relating to Denmark's security, stemming from both east and west, the Danish prime minister sees potential in embracing the national church as a means of spiritual rearmament. But the stagnated, if not negative, growth of Christianity in Europe, where only Catholicism is increasing ever so slightly, is a fact that might force one of our oldest institutions to rethink its own path. Especially if the bleak future prospects come at the expense of its today's clergy. |
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