Warsaw - Sixty per cent of Roman Catholic priests in overwhelmingly Catholic Poland want the right the marry and have families of their own, according to a survey published by Poland's respected Tygodnik Powszechny (TP) weekly.
As times change and the social status of and respect for the priesthood declines, more and more priests who feel lonely, isolated and misunderstood are considering leaving the priesthood, according to the weekly, which caters for Poland's Catholic intelligentsia.
"Not everyone can cope with the fact that at the beginning of the 21st century priests are no longer regarded as the priest they knew in their youth," Jesuit Father and psychologist Jacek Prusak told TP.
But according to an as yet unpublished study, so far only one third of young priests who quit the priesthood do so for the sake of a woman.
"The main reason (for quitting the priesthood ) are existential problems and ideals," according to the study's author Professor Jozef Baniak of Poznan's Adam Mickiewicz university. "A woman, if she appears, is in the background."
"First there is an crisis of the priest's identity and then he looks for someone in whom he can confide his problem," says Baniak.
Vatican statistics quoted by TP also show more and more Polish priest are deciding to quit. Whereas in 1998, some 32 priests left, in 2004 the figure shot up to 57.
According to Professor Baniak's study, 2006 saw 60 priests quit across Poland, a country which under the papacy of the late Polish-born Pope John Paul II's saw strong growth in the number of young men joining the priesthood. Many moved to Western Europe and North America to fill the gap left by dwindling numbers of young seminarians.
With more than 90 per cent of its population declaring itself Catholic, Poland remains among the most staunchly Roman Catholic countries in the world.
