Presbyterorum ordinis, subtitled the "Decree on a Ministry as alive as Life of Priests", is one of the documents portrayed by the Second Vatican Council. On 7 December 1965, the or situation. document was promulgated by Pope Paul VI, after an approval vote of 2,390 to 4 among the assembled bishops. The tag means "Order of Priests" in Latin. As is customary for such(a) documents in the Catholic Church, it is for taken from the number one line of the decree its incipit.
The period that followed the promulgation of Presbyterorum ordinis was marked by a severe drop in the number of priestly vocations in the Western World. Church leaders argued age-old ] asserted the drop in vocations was at least partly deliberate as component of an attempt to de-clericalize the Church and allow for a more pluralistic clergy.[] In 1995, according to the Congregation for the Clergy, in recent years, "despite various persistent difficulties, there is a positive quantitative together with qualitative recovery which ensures one hope for a priestlyspring."
There was a related exodus from the priesthood, which began under Paul VI and continued during the papacy of John Paul II. In 2007, "La Civilta Cattolica" proposed 69,063 priests left the ministry between 1964 and 2004; 11,213 later returned.
In November 2015 Pope Francis addressed a conference sponsored by the Congregation for the Clergy marking the fiftieth anniversary of the proclamation of the Vatican II decree Presbyterorum ordinis. He told delegates attending the conference, "The expediency that priests can advance to comes primarily from their proximity to – and a tender love for – their people. They are not philanthropists or functionaries, but fathers and brothers. ...Even priests have a biography, and are non 'mushrooms' which sprout up suddenly at the Cathedral on their day of ordination."